I was at a wedding last weekend and I was sitting next to a friend of the bride’s that I remembered a few years back was on the chubby side. Now he was REALLY SKINNY. I could just tell by looking at him that he had made dramatic changes to his eating… but not necessarily healthy ones.
When the bread came around he passed it by and I commented, “you look like you haven’t had bread in a long time”. I was right. H
e is on the Paleo Diet. I know this is the new fad thing and EVERYONE must try it and you lose all kinds of weight, but the problem is, it’s not particularly healthy. Our bodies need a certain amount of carbs and calcium, and though dairy is not necessary for calcium, one has to be very careful when one cuts out an ENTIRE food group.
The funny thing is in most cultures food graphs (they take on different shapes) grains is always very high on the list, and carbs is one of the main macro nutrients that people need. So why is it that low carb diets such as the Paleo, gluten free and Atkins are so popular and seem to work… It depends on the carbs that you eat.
In Japan where carbs are the main staple, people live longer, have less cardio vascular problems and in general are healthier. The thing is the carbs they eat aren’t processed concoctions with barely a nutrient to be recognized. They eat whole grain, mostly rice.. and veggies. Italy is another country that loves it’s carbs. Pasta, pizza, and all the other goodies get eaten in huge portions, but again, they don’t chemically treat all the grains before eating them, they don’t load them down with hydrogenated…. anything.
The problem with the new diets are that people start cutting things like pizza and chips, which is great, but they lose out on the good carbs, like whole grain rices, pastas, and yes, bread. Which is the main macro nutrient needed to give us energy. No wonder coffee and naps are so popular.
