When life takes you in a different direction than the one you originally chose. You can fight against life, and keep trying to go toward what s no longer available to you,

Or you can pause to observe your new direction, Take a good long look; take it all in; Look for the positives in that new path, and learn to accept and enjoy the process of traveling.

With dieting, it can all be about just enjoying the process. If you can find a way to make that process enjoyable, so that it isn’t just one big exercise of self-denial and self-depravation, you can make dieting a lifestyle that works for you.I’m doing that with DietHobby.

In an earlier post I told you about a video my son made of meinforming people about the DietHobby Book Discussion on  Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes here on BOOKTALK

Today it went up on YouTube, and here it is.

                                                         

Recently I posted about the advantages of Online Friends. Online friends is the term I use for people online with whom I actually communicate via the net. I know who they are, and they know who I am.

There are also people online, rather famous people. People I know, but who don’t have any idea who I am. I call these people “my imaginary friends”.

Here I mention three of them, who I find are imaginary friends worth having.

One of my imaginary friends is Gary Taubes, the science reporter who has university degrees from Harvard, from Stanford, and from Columbia….and not just easy degrees, but in Physics, Aerospace Engineering, and Journalism.

I’ve read his two books, Good Calories Bad Calories (2007) , and Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It (2011), plus I’ve watched his university lectures on YouTube.  As a result of this, I’m convinced Taubes is an intellectual Genius.

Another of my imaginary friends is Tom Naughton, the comedian and writer who produced the movie “Fathead”. I got it from Amazon and watched it several times; watched his YouTube lecture; and have read his blog. As a result of this, I know that Naughton is both intelligent and amusing.

A third imaginary friend is Brad Pilon, a bodybuilder who wrote the e-book, Eat Stop Eat, about the subject of Intermittent Fasting. I bought that book, and read it.  I’ve also watched all of his YouTube videos, and read his blog. As a result of this, I think Pilon is articulate with muscles.

So, recently I saw an online connection between these three people. Tom Naughton did an excellent interview of Gary Taubes. For those interested, it can be found at:

Tom Naughton’s Interview With Gary Taubes

Then, imagine my surprise when Tom Naughton wrote a blog about Intermittent Fasting and mentioned that he had Brad Pilon’s YouTube video.

I suddenly realized….My Imaginary Friends are playing together.

Note: I've put a SUMMARY here - not the complete diet

The Appendix contains a 7 page example
of a TYPICAL carbohydrate-restricted diet,
which is specifically a printout of the
Guidelines of the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic,
Duke University Medical Center.

Some of the particulars are as follows:

No Sugar No Starch Diet;
Carbohydrate grams to be fewer than 20 grams per day.
Diet to be exclusively food and beverages from the handout.

When Hungry eat a choice of :
meat, poultry, fish, eggs.

Foods that must be eaten every day are:
2 cups of salad greens – specific list
1 cup of vegetables – specific list
2 cups of Bouillon

Foods allowed in limited quantities are:
Up to 4 oz of hard cheese per day
Up to 4 Tb of cream per day
Up to 4 Tb of Mayonnaise per day
Up to 6 black or green olives per day
Up to ½ a fruit per day
Up to 4 tsp of lemon/lime juice per day
Up to 4 Tb. of soy sauce per day
Up to 2 servings of dill or sugar-free pickles per day

Snacks: Pork rinds/skins; pepperoni slices; ham, beef
turkey, and other meat roll-ups; deviled eggs

Primary Restriction: Carbohydrates
No sugars (simple carbohydrates) and no starches (complex carbohydrates).
Eat only the nutritionally dense, fiber-rich vegetables listed

All fats, oil and butter are allowed.
Avoid margarine and other hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats.
Do not attempt to follow a low-fat diet.

Artificial sweetener’s are allowed.
Avoid foods with sugar alcohols now…
but they may be permitted in limited quantities in the future.

Water is the best beverage.
Those who can handle caffeine may have
up to 3 cups of coffee, tea or diet soda per day.

No Alcohol.

Quantities
Eat when you are hungry; stop with you are full
“A low-carbohydrate diet has a natural appetite-reduction
effect to ease you into the consumption of smaller
and smaller quantities comfortably.”

Tips and Reminders

“The following items are NOT on the diet:
sugar, bread, cereal, flour-containing items, fruits,
juices, honey, whole or skimmed milk, yogurt,
canned soups, dairy...

Taubes starts out

“This is not a diet book, because it’s not a diet we’re discussing.

Once you accept the fact that carbohydrates –not overeating
or a sedentary life – will make you fat,
then the idea of “going on a diet” to lose weight,..
no longer holds any real meaning.

Now the only subjects worth discussing are
how to best avoid the carbohydrates responsible
--the refined grains, the starches, and the sugars –
and what else we might do to maximize
the benefits to our health.”

He says that there have been many low-carbohydrate diet books
published, and that

“these books are worth reading for the guidance they offer.
But the diets themselves, no matter how they vary in the details
or the author’s understanding of the underlying science,
fundamentally work because they restrict fattening carbohydrates.”

Taubes tells us that he put a “pared-down” version of a
low-carbohydrate diet in the Appendix, and then provides
some details about that particular University hospital clinic
and the doctor in charge.
He says the guidelines in his Appendix are 

“more detailed but otherwise little different
from the guidance offered by hospitals to their
overweight and obese patients in the 1940s and 1950s:
Eat as much as you like of meat, fish, fowl, eggs, and leafy green vegetables.
Avoid starches, grains, and sugars, and anything made from them
(including bread, sweets, juices, sodas), and learn for yourself
whether and how much fruit and non-starchy vegetables
(such as peas, artichokes, and cucumbers) your body can tolerate.”

For those familiar with the concepts, and who don’t need details,
Taubes recommends that they use the simple diet from the
1951 endoc...

Taubes addresses the three primary arguments
which have been made against carbohydrate-restricted
diets, which have been repeatedly made since the 1960s.

“1. That they’re scams----
because they promise weight loss without having to eat less
and/or exercise, thus violating the laws of thermodynamics
and the primacy of calories-in/calories out.

2. That they’re unbalanced –
because they restrict an entire nutrient category
--carbohydrates—and the first law of healthy eating
is to eat a balanced diet from all the major food groups.

3. That they’re high-fat diets –
and particularly high in saturated fat,
and will cause heart disease
by raising or cholesterol.”

He discusses them one at a time

The Con Job Argument

Taubes refutes this argument by calling attention
to the fact that he has already explained, in the previous chapters,
what happens in the body when we restrict carbohydrates,
and why this leads to fat loss independent of protein and fat calories,
and why the laws of physics have nothing to do with it.

The Unbalanced Diet Argument

Taubes says the unbalanced diet argument makes little sense
if refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars do make us fat,
because then the only rational argument would be to avoid them
to fix the problem.

He says it’s the same thing as when we’re told to stop smoking
because cigarettes cause lung cancer. Doctors don’t care
if we find life less fulfilling without them, they want us to be healthy.
Taubes says the same logic holds here.