Eliminators

For

convenience, let’s throw all the eliminators into one group. Some eliminate all sugar, others all white foods or carbohydrates ( the aforementioned Atkins dieters), still others all fats. If you eliminate an entire form of food energy from your diet, you may well grow thinner living on what is left. I don’t really believe that sugar is poison, although many people hold that opinion and write me condescending emails questioning my intelligence with startling frequency. I often wonder what makes them so cranky. Humans quite happily ate sugar for several centuries without becoming obese. Clearly, what has happened to increasingly tubby North Americans in the past few decades is more complex than simple sugar consumption. The super- sizing of all food springs to mind as an alternative theory. Low- fat diets became the rage in the 1960s and 1970s, based on some pretty shoddy advice seized on by governments that hoped to keep us all fi t and trim, all while we became increasingly sedentary. As low- fat cookbooks and low- fat prepared foods fi lled store shelves, we got fatter and fatter and fatter. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to fi gure out that the low- fat message has failed us, despite thousands of low- fat food products available in any grocery store. Carbohydrate eliminators are probably the easiest tribe to accommodate at a dinner party. They won’t turn their noses up at the meat or the vegetables, and they leave more dessert for the other guests. Whether they are doing themselves any good is unclear. Low- carb dieters do experience quick weight loss, but they are especially prone to regaining the weight they lose. There is an ongoing debate about the relative benefi ts of low- carb versus low- fat as the best way to lose weight. Both miss the point entirely. Most people are overweight because they consume too many calories and don’t exercise enough, McCormack noted, echoing the sentiments of dozens of academics and nutritionists.