I just heard that they are going to have a segment on "The New Diet Revolution" on 20/20 tonight, and that experts have now decided that the medical community and the government have admitted that they have been wrong all these years and that the food pyramid is way outdated. They are now saying that all the people who were advocating Low Carb for all these years, really knew what they were talking about!

Isn't this great news? I can't tell you how many times when I had tried LC previously in my life, my co-workers told me that I was going to make myself sick by not eating a low carb diet......that it wasn't good for my body, etc.....my immediate boss (charge nurse in the operating room), included! I just started on TSP four days ago, I vowed not to tell her......she's also very nosy, so I'm sure she will eventually find out. Since I have been out on medical leave from work for the past week, and do not know when I will be well enough to return to work, surely, she will notice a small difference in my size....I hope by the time that is, my loss will be significant enough for her to notice anyway! She has been on Weight Watchers intermittently over the past two years and thinks that is the ONLY way to go! I wonder if she is going to be watching 20/20 tonight?

Linda

I sat down and watched the program after I read your note.

I do have to give my opinion on it as a once tried and failed Atkins and now a happy Schwarzbein person... I'd say the Zone one too... but I didn't understand what I was reading, so I didn't even try that one.

The show - I was a little amused that for their opening scene they showed, french fries, hamburgers and most stuff that even low carbers can't eat.

They made good points about if a low protein, high carb diet was so wonderful then why were the majority of Americans overweight? They focused on Atkins, however, I think they should have shown more than that one and devoted more time in showing people who were living that way of life.

Dateline, (I think it was Dateline) showed one last week about this (which is why I started looking into it again). And it was a reporter for the show that had tried it. He had done Atkins for a year then stayed with low carb afterward and said he was happier for it.

He strongly admitted all of this, while 20/20 just said at the end of theirs that maybe it was something to check into in the future.

I did record tonight's program so I can show it to my sister. She has taken all fats out of her diet and is living on dry toast and cornflakes to keep her weight down. I warned her early on that giving up fats was only going to make her ill. She didn't and still doesn't believe me and now she has gone through getting her gallbladder removed and she's extremely depressed.

If that's not proof right there, I don't know what is. Convincing her is another story though.

I hope the people you work with watched. My mom watched it and I asked her if she was going to do it too (she just finished reading tSP) and she said sure, it looked smart.

Anyway, thanks again for the heads up on it. I would have missed it otherwise.

I also am a tried and failed Atkins person....not only that, I tried it twice, and failed just as miserably the second time. Schwarzbein definitely seems to be more of what I need to be happy in a weight loss program, too!

Leave it to the media to feature all those hamburger and French Fries on the show. I am constantly amazed how they can miss the point entirely sometimes and I was disappointed that the show seemed to give all the recognition to Atkins. It would have had a chance of being more credible if they had interviewed more people who already were successfully living the LC life.

I missed the Dateline show last week. I wish I had known about it. There was also a short segment on CBS last night before 20/20 that I stumbled upon mid way through the show. I wished I would have known about it so that I could have seen it from the beginning,

I hope you are able to convince your sister to try tSP. I noticed that you started your "road to becoming healthy" the day after I did this past week and are also happy with it so far. Atkins was just too restrictive for me, at least with tSP I can have some of the fruit I love so much. My own sister lives in Phoenix and has been a on-again-off again Atkins person, too. I have not discussed tSP with her yet, but plan to.

Thanks for your reply.
Linda

I suggest that you (and all low-carbers) read this NY Times article that was printed on 7/7/02.... here's the link . It's very well written and you should keep copies handy to give out to all the nay-sayers!!

Enjoy & good luck on your LC path!! Let us know how we can help!!

For all those that missed the Date line show or don't live in the USA here is the URL.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/780727.asp?cp1=1

Enjoy .Glyn

The comment (it came up at the end on one of their "charts") about whole milk products being bad fat --isn't this contrary to SP?

Frozen non-dairy whipped cream--good or bad?

This has got to be the coolest forum I've ever been in! Links to stuff I'd never thought I'd see again and a welcome! Sweet... I will check them out.

Family is always the hardest to convince about dietary change and I think I'm going to have to wait and let it work on me for a while before I bring it up to my sister.

I remember one thing that impressed me about the show last night that I didn't mention before was their mention that people who were heavy then ate carbs made them all the more hungry then all the more fatter and so on. That is one of the things that frustrated me the most! I'd tried Slim for Life (American Heart Assoc. diet plan) and I about killed myself trying not to cheat! I have not been hungry or craving in the three days I've been Schwarzbein.

Though I am in Diet Pepsi and sugar withdrawal.

Whole milk is still milk. It has lactose in it. Even heavy cream has lactose in it. It's whipping cream that doesn't because it's a total fat. You're drinking liquid butter basically.

I'm not sure about non-dairy whipped topping since most of the sugar and carbs are not high. BUT if I remember correctly it is usually made with hydrogenated oil. I think I'd stick with whipping cream and sweetner instead of the oils.

Bry

The show on CBS was 48 hours, which was just a general overview of the state of weight loss in the country. Very little about low-carb stuff, except that a few Atkins folks they profiled were doing well. The show was spotty, without any consistent analysis -- just taking the market on weight-loss products (supplements and ephedra, etc) to task, and doing a blurb on a rogue acupuncturist who's using ear accupressure points and starvation to get his clients slim. I was more disturbed by their lack of analysis about more middle-of-the-road approaches: one group of friends was on opti-fast which I thought had been completely discredited by the medical establishment. Remember Oprah and her wheel barrow of lard?

There wasn't much helpful info -- the 20/20 show was more comprehensive.

Regarding their emphasis that we lower animal fat intake -- I think it will be a long time before an increase in consumption of animal fats is accepted by the arbiters of diet, at least in America. It's one thing to say, "oh, it's OK to slather those veggies in olive oil," but quite another to say "heavy cream? sure! Lots of it!"

In my cynical PMS state this morning (forgive me...it will pass), while I don't think the animal fats are so bad if we are making sure that we eat lots of fresh foods, veggies and "good" oils, I can imagine most Americans will take permission to eat lots of animal fats to mean that they can go back to McDonalds every day and ignore all the other stuff about fiber, important nutrients and balanced eating. That WILL do someone in I suspect.

Just my thoughts -- but can't you a lot of people just missing the point entirely? What do folks in other countries on this board think?

And now I'm gonna get a refill on my decaf coffee with cream and fix myself an omlette...

Abby

I agree that the Dateline show was pretty good. I think the reporter's name is Rob or Judd Maekowitz (spelling I KNOW is wrong). But that's the name that I seem to remember.

He started out on Atkins, and has now moved to The Zone, or something somewhere in between. Like most of us, he has tailored it to his own body's needs.

The piece was well done and I was happy to see a report that was positive toward low carb.

I saw the rerun of the 48 Hours show. I recall it aired earlier in the year. Although they did update several of the people's progress. I felt terrible for that teenage girl who had done the stomach stapling and lost all that weight, and now was stalled--most likely b/c of the crap she was eating. Did anyone else catch that what they showed her eating? A huge hot fudge dessert and some other garbagy foods, and quite a bit of them. Really sad.

To go through such drastic surgery, then revert to old way of eating. I have known several people (women) who have stapled and lost, then gained it all back plus more. Sad, and I could've been one of them!

Someone needs to get hold of that young woman and tell her about the SP.

Anyway, the 20/20 segment was interesting, but as I mentioned in my journal entry today, the best part was Barbara Walters' cynical commentary after the segment. Well, I won't repeat my comments, if you wish, go to my journal and read for yourself.

Sorry to ramble, but wanted to chime in and say YES I watched them, all of them and was happy that our WOL is finally getting some better press these days.

--Betty