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That Ketogenic/Glycemic/Atkins/Paleolithic Diet
- Roger Mason
It has become an increasing fad for pseudo-natural doctors such as Atkins, Mercola,
Challem, Douglass, Whittaker, and others to promote a diet where one absolutely abstains from eating healthful whole grains such as brown rice, oatmeal, barley, corn, buckwheat and others. Not only grains, but wholesome beans such as pinto, black, navy, northern and the rest. That this kind of asininity can become not merely popular but rather epidemic is fascinating. These authors are completely right that we should stop eating simple carbohydrates and sugars such as white sugar, brown, sugar, maple syrup, honey (yes, honey) and even concentrated sugars such as dried fruit and fruit juice. All sugars are, in fact, ”natural”, but eating honey or dried fruit is no different than eating white sugar really. Sugar is sugar is sugar.
These men are completely right that we should stop eating refined grains where all the nutrition has been milled out like white bread ("wonder" if it's bread?), white pasta, white flour, white rice, degermed cornmeal, and other grains that the nutrition has been removed.
The problem is these people magically lump all carbohydrates into one group and call them "carbs" or "starches" and class refined grains the same way they do whole grains.
They claim eating too much "starch" or "carbohydrate" forces the body to overproduce insulin which speeds the storage of fat and gives us diabetes and other blood sugar balance problems. If you believe that please go to Asia and go to the countryside where poor people still eat a carbohydrate based diet (even though white rice is still popular in areas). You'll find obesity, heart disease, various cancers, and diabetes are far, far less than we see in America. The Okinawans are athe healthiest and longest lived people in the world. Their staple is whole
grains, beans, and whole complex carbohydrates.
Where did this "glycemic index" come from? This index rates foods on how bad they are and how fast they supposedly raise your blood sugar. 0 is best and 100 is worst. White sugar is rated at 65 somehow instead of the benchmark 100. Strangely enough oats, rye, couscous, Muesli cereal, cornmeal, millet, carrots, shredded wheat, potatoes, popcorn, corn chips, pumpkin, Grapenuts cereal, broad beans, rice cakes, corn flakes and brown rice pasta (a 92!) are all rated as worse than white sugar. Believe it or not their standard of reference is white bread! Life Savers candy is literally healthier for you than millet, carrots, pumpkin, Grapenuts, brown rice cakes or brown rice pasta. Does any of this sound rational or logical to you? I rest my case folks.
Whole grains are the staff of life for civilization and have been for thousands of years now. People on whole grain based diets have literally cured cancer and other "incurable" diseases. Go buy some brown rice instead of white. Find a 100% whole grain bread with no preservatives. Look for whole grain cereals without sugar. Eat hot oatmeal and other whole grain hot cereals for breakfast. Learn to make soup with barley. Make your own cornbread. Find whole wheat and brown rice pastas in a variety of shapes. Keep whole wheat flour in your refrigerator (it needs refrigeration because it's full of vitamins and nutrients). Experiment with buckwheat and millet. You'll live longer and feel better- and enjoy your meals more. More and more you will base your meals on grains along with beans, most vegetables, soups, salads, seafood, and local fruit. Whole grains are literally the staff of life for civilization and have been since people left caves.