I caught Dateline last night on NBC, and they had a brief low carb story. Some of it focused on the Glycemic index, and the rest was coverage of the bread summit and interviews with breadmakers and lobbyists.

They are working intensely to make sure bread and grains stay at the bottom of the food pyramid. The lobbyist -- who seemed more than a bit pudgy to me -- was more or less lashing out at low carb dieters. His line was that instead of "blaming the bread," dieters should blame themselves for their obesity. NBC did acknowledge the diets as effective, but did the usual by interviewing "experts" who trashed low carb without offering a counter point, or much of one. It wasn't the worst example I've seen, but it was certainly not balanced.

I saw that. I agree the guy was pudgey. If the bread industry is suffering they need to break into LC and healthy whole grain bread!

I even agree with the lobbyist that fat people have only themselves to blame. That doesn't mean I'm going to buy his products, tho.

Oh, I agree. I blame myself for just eatting too much darn junk and not moving enough.

To kyrasdad(and anyone else who feels as he does)-


Do you really believe that fat people "have only themselves to blame"? While i am sure in some instances that may be true, the incidents of health problems and actually (low-fat) dieting to higher weights are quite numerous. Though I am certain there have been food choices I have made at different times in my life that were not in my best interest(usually spurred on by extremely high insulin levels), I hardly believe that I've only myself to blame when inundanted by lies and misconceptions by everyone around me as i was growing up and into my adult years, both locally and by the "experts" that we were always told we should trust.

I mean I have been "morbidly obese" since before I was a year old. While I take responsibility for learning all that I can about the treatment of my known conditions-now that they have been named, I just don't think I am fully to blame.

Odyssey - I don't believe that. Actually kyrasdad doesn't either (he said the man on the show said it)

But I do think we have to take responsibility for our choices, just like you said. Some of us have genetic hurdles (like you) and some of us have emotional hurdles (like me) to jump before we get there!

Hugs!

Odyssey, I think we all need to acess that question ourselves. For me personally I am 100% responsible. I was underweight but very active until I had my first child. I kept putting junk in my mouth. I wasn't very active. My Mom is heavy, my brother was always heavy. My Dad was a stick. I was very thin until 23-24 so I can only blame myself. I just really didn't care at the time if I was fit and healthy. No genetics for me. For mybrother who was heavy from a few months old I'd say yes!

You have done a fabulous job .

Thank you Cori for Your kind words, but actually kyrasdad did say in his second post that he agrees with the lobbyist(he just won't buy his products).

Oh Odyssey. I missed that. Thanks. Hmmm.... Don't agree with that assessment at all!

Thank you rodmick. I do understand how you feel on the issue. It is just my feeling to paint us all(or even a majority) with such a broad brush and say we have only ourselves to blame is misleading and can foster further discrimination as well as taking eyes off the main focuses of why so many have become overweight in the last 30 years.

Did I get bad dieting advice in school? - Yes, they shoved food groups, then the food pyramid, down my throat.

Did I get bad dieting advice from the media? - Yes, they shoved low-fat food down my throat.

Did I get bad dieting tips from corporations? - Yes, they shoved fast-food and low-fat food down my throat.

Did I swallow it all? Yup, 100%

So who is responsible? I am, 100%

You can't fix your weight, your diet, or your life, unless you are willing to take full responsibility for it.

Don't affix the blame - fix the problem.

I think we agree that why we are over weight has many many reasons that we all have one or more apply to ourselves. I know for me it was genetics, emotional, and bad food at school and college. Once I learned how to eat for me and taking care of my anxiety then it became my fault if I gained... for example the numerous times I fell off the band wagon or stop seeing a counsilor (Which unfortunately usually happens at the same time )

Odyssey, I don't think we can lump people into a group period. There are just too many different causes etc. I do think our food pyramid is really a disaster!!!!! Especially since they don't stress whole grains and whole unprocessed foods!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!! Just for me personally it is not genetic but bad habits. I wasn't raised with them. Kinda funny when I think about the way I ate as akid at home. Lots of meat, veggies, potaotos and grains. I hate potatos! So I really ate a very moderate carb diet. Interesting!!!!!!

Absolutely not! I don't think people give credit to their bodies abilities to control their minds and habits. When I was eating high carb I had terrible promptings to eat frequently and eat high carb food. The more refined, the better. It took amazing amounts of will power to overrule the promptings of my body.

Now that I'm doing LC, I have none of this. I could sit down and eat a pint of LC ice cream. Why don't I do this while on LC? Why was it that I could rarely stop at a single serving on high carb? This is not a matter of lack of will power this is my body responding very differently to two different ways of eating.



This is I think the mistake most people make. They assume that the reason they put junk in their mouth was that they were weak willed. I no longer think that. I think it is because your insulin response and glucose surges and drops made you WANT to put junk in your mouth so you could feel better. Because being low blood sugar feels like crap. There was a physical response going on in your body. People assume they have total control over their bodies and eating but I think our bodies guide us in subtle ways that are hard to overrule.

There may also be a connection with eating carbs and certain very soothing brain chemicals being released. It's like a drug addiction, but on such a subtle level that few people recognize it as such.

Anyway, it is interesting to me how I no longer have these urges or cravings for high carb stuff.

I don't think we can lump people into a group either, and that is what I was saying.
And because i take responsibility for what happens in my life health and foodwise from here on out doesn't mean i have to take all of the blame for what happened leading up to it. i could take all the blame for it, goodness knows i have done that with most things in my life for whatever insane, inane, or peace-keeping reasons i had at the time, but it wouldn't be true, accurate or fair of me to do so.