[podcast flashvars=”titles: ‘lia huber gets it wrong'”]http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/wp-content/uploads/llvlcep86.mp3[/podcast]
Greetings and welcome to Episode 86 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore!” We’re proud for this podcast to be here as a part of the growing Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb family, including a blog, forum, and even a new video show on YouTube!
Today, our host Jimmy takes a closer look at Health.com columnist Lia Huber and her claim that carb-restriction as a good way to lose weight is a myth! Riiiiiiightt! What is she thinking? Has she never heard of Jimmy Moore? Well, she has now!
Tune in to today’s show to hear Jimmy tear apart her flawed article based on a poor understanding of the proven facts behind a healthy low-carb lifestyle!
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 86
– “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog
– “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Discussion” forum
– Lia Huber’s Health.com column on diet myths
– Long-term low-carb heart health study from Harvard researchers
Did you miss anything Jimmy said? Don’t fret… just click the following link for a complete transcript of today’s episode!
Transcript of Episode 86:
This is Episode 86 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” This is a podcast show that keeps you informed of all the latest developments about the healthy low-carb lifestyle through the eyes of my personal perspective losing nearly 200 pounds on this way of eating. I appreciate having you here as a listener and invite you to get interactive through the official web site for this podcast at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com, at my popular low-carb blog at LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com which is set to break two million views in less than 2 ½ years sometime in the next few days, and in my brand new low-carb forum which has garnered nearly a quarter million visits in only six weeks of existence can be accessed at LowCarbDiscussion.com. Livin’ la vida low-carb in 2007 is indeed stronger than ever and I am grateful to have YOU be a part of it!
There’s a web site on the Internet called Health.com and you would expect there to be solid and reliable information regarding healthy living principles on there, right? Well, don’t count on it! There was story from a lady by the name of Lia Huber that shows yet again that even some well-meaning experts don’t always understand what livin’ la vida low-carb is all about. You can access a link to Ms. Huber’s column entitled “5 Diet Myths Debunked” in the show notes section of Episode 86 at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com.
Outlining 5 of what she describes as common diet myths in her article, Huber tells her readers that she will help them “outwit them” with her advice. So, take a wild guess at what myth #1 was on her list? Yep, that’s right! Here’s what it is: “Cutting carbohydrates helps you lose weight.” This is a myth according to Ms. Huber. Before we get into what Huber actually had to say in response to this, first let me offer my response to this alleged “myth.” Cutting carbohydrates in and of itself does NOT help you lose weight. You heard me right and let me explain! If I was eating 750g carbs in a day and suddenly started eating “only” 500g, then I technically have “cut” my carbs by one-third, right? But will it really make a difference in my weight and health? Not hardly.
But the way a controlled-carbohydrate approach works is it gets your body to start burning stored fat for fuel when you enter into a state of ketosis through consciously being aware of the amount of carbohydrates you are putting in your body. If you simply restrict your daily intake of carbs to between 0-50 carbs per day, depending on your carb tolerance level and which phase of the low-carb plan you have chosen to follow, then most people WILL lose weight eating this way. That’s exactly how I was able to shed 180 pounds off of my body in 2004 and subsequently kept it off ever since!
So, the lesson here is that simply cutting carbs is not enough. Yes, it’s a step in the right direction, but there are written plans for a reason. Read Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Protein Power by The Eades, Dr. Jonny Bowden’s Living The Low-Carb Life (which has an overview of all the major low-carb plans in one book), and any other material you can get your hands on about making this lifestyle change work for you. Don’t just wing it, do it right. You must get on an organized low-carb plan and follow it exactly as prescribed by the author. Don’t just sorta, kinda do low-carb and expect it to work! In order for the plan to work, you must work the plan. Got it? Good!
Okay, now let’s see what Huber says is the “truth” about the “myth” that cutting carbs will help you lose weight. She writes: “Doing it the wrong way can also make you feel rotten and unhealthy.” Now wait a minute! If you do ANYTHING the “wrong way,” especially a weight loss plan, then you are susceptible to these things anyway. So why put this stigma on the low-carb lifestyle exclusively? The answer to this objection put forth by Ms. Huber is to start livin’ la vida low-carb the RIGHT way by following an organized low-carb program that you feel you can do today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. If you can’t do that with your chosen plan, then you need another plan.
Ms. Huber continues with her pro-carbohydrate spiel: “Carbs are to this decade what fats were to the last: food demons. Truth is, though, you need them for energy.” Well, Ms. Huber, contrary to popular belief, those of us on the low-carb lifestyle are not as afraid of the big bad carbohydrates as you think we are. In fact, I tell people all the time that I eat lots of carbs every single day. YEP! You do, they often ask? Of course, I tell them! While I don’t mindlessly put sugary and starchy foods as well as other such wasted carbs in my mouth anymore, it is almost impossible to completely avoid eating all carbs. Nor would you want to do that! There are plenty of delicious and healthy carbohydrate sources, including non-starchy vegetables like spinach leaves, cauliflower, squash, cucumbers, and broccoli as well as low-glycemic fruits such as blueberries, strawberries, and melons. Is anyone gonna argue that these carbohydrates aren’t healthy? Didn’t think so!
While I agree with Ms. Huber when she says that “fat” was the forbidden fruit of the 1990s, I would argue that it is STILL just as embraced as nutritional truth in 2007 as it was then based on the advice we hear from the so-called health “experts” telling us how bad fat, especially saturated fat, is for us to consume. That’s why they hate (yes, I said hate) the Atkins diet and other such low-carb programs so much. They despise the fact that a DIET plan that contains lots of fat is actually helping people lose lots of weight and improving their blood sugars, diabetes, and so many other areas of their health. This kind of makes these “experts” look rather foolish for exclaiming the “sky is falling” because people are eating fat and they’re not happy about it! I guess I wouldn’t be either if I had been spreading the low-fat lie for so long. But the truth is coming out now, so they had better get used to it!
You don’t need to eat a lot of carbs to have energy. I went a long time at the beginning of my low-carb lifestyle eating between 20-30 net carbs per day and had more energy than I could handle. While the first two weeks of the Atkins diet were indeed the most difficult, I quickly overcame that temporary phase when it was tough and eventually grew stronger and more vibrant because of it. Today I am as healthy and energetic as I have ever been and I “only” eat about 40-50g carbs per day. I enjoy playing volleyball weekly and the occasional pickup basketball game as well as any other sport every chance I can get. So much for that old adage that your body needs carbs for energy, huh?
Ms. Huber does address that there are certain carbs your body needs when she writes: “And, like with fats, some are better than others.” To that I say absolutely. Some carbs and even some fats are better than others. That’s why people shouldn’t unnecessarily waste their time or carb allowance on foods with sugar, starch, or white flour in them. You just don’t need those kinds of carbs in your body. Eating delicious whole foods rich in fat, fiber, and protein will help you get the right kind of energy your body needs to make the low-carb lifestyle work for you. It’s not as hard as you might think as long as you let go of some commonly-held preconceived dietary axioms you have always been led to believe is the gospel truth. Take, for example, this one promoted by Ms. Huber in her column: “Experts suggest a minimum of 130 grams of carbs a day—a far cry from low-carb diets that start with 20 grams or less.” Oh, don’t even get me started on the “experts” who came up with this one. Who exactly is seriously recommending that many carbs as part of a healthy lifestyle? Are these the same people who came up with the flim-flam government Food Pyramid that we’ve been forced to put up with for the past quarter century? Gee, now that’s really worked, hasn’t it? I would argue that most people eat A WHOLE LOT MORE than 130 grams of carbs per day because they are eating way too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup from soft drinks as well as excessive sugar and starch from junk food snacks such as potato chips and snack cakes. Most people consume more carbohydrates in a single can of Coke or a candy bar than a typical low-carber eats in an entire day! THAT is why we still have an obesity problem that just keeps getting worse and worse. But where is the outrage over these unnecessary garbage carbs, Ms. Huber? Hello?
Instead, she only seeks to talk about the alleged dangers of livin’ la vida low-carb when she writes the “Short-term effects of such [low-carb] diets include fatigue, constipation and irritability; long term, you could be putting yourself at risk for heart disease and colon cancer.” Oh please, Ms. Huber! Get over yourself already. Like I said, if you can allow your body to get through the temporary two-week Induction phase of doing low-carb, then you will be fine afterwards. It’s a small price to pay for long-term, permanent weight loss success. As for the alleged “long-term…risk for heart disease and colon cancer,” there is not one single shred of scientific evidence supporting this thesis of yours. Actually, there was a National Institutes of Health-funded study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2006 by researchers from Harvard that looked at the heart health impact of the Atkins diet over a 20-year period. Guess what they found—of the documented cases of heart disease among the nearly 83,000 study participants, the key contributor among them was with those who ate a low-fat diet and consumed refined sugar and excessive carbohydrates. Those who ate the high-fat, low-carb diet were more protected against heart disease than the low-fat, high-carb diet. What do you think about that, Ms. Huber? The fact that she would state so boldly these kinds of baseless claim about livin’ la vida low-carb in her article proves she has an agenda meant to discourage people away from low-carb for whatever her reasons. Why do these health “experts” and the media continue to lie about Atkins and low-carb so much when the evidence proving them wrong is so crystal clear?
Finally, at the end of her diatribe against low-carb, Ms. Huber does restore some sense of sanity when she writes: “Fad diets aside, what may matter most is how refined the carbohydrates are. The best idea is to cut back on refined carbs such as soda and foods made with white flour, while loading up on healthier carbs like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.” I certainly agree people could stand to cut back entirely on soda and white flour (and ANYTHING else with corn or sugar in it!) while eating healthy portions of berries, fresh green vegetables and low-carb multi-grain breads. That’s about the only thing I think we’ll both agree with here. While she completely blasts low-carb throughout much of her article, at least Ms. Huber ends on a positive note that, whether she meant to do it or not, actually endorses livin’ la vida low-carb if you stop and think about it. The undeniably healthy benefits of the low-carb lifestyle simply cannot be ignored, even by the media.
Unfortunately, nutrition education in this country is sorely lacking which is why people are seeking out alternative sources of information about what is right for them and their health. When something like a high-carb, low-fat diet has been shown to miserably fail as a dietary approach for as long as it has, then something’s gotta give. We can choose to remain stuck in the rut we find ourselves in banging our head against the proverbial wall over and over again. Or, like so many are doing, we discover there are better ways out there to lose weight, get healthy and stay healthy for the rest of our lives. Which way will you choose? The choice is entirely yours.
That’s it for Episode 86 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” What do you think of Lia Huber’s assessment of the low-carb way of life? Does she make some good points or is she simply regurgitating all the same old, same old from those who oppose the healthy low-carb nutritional approach? Talk about it in the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com. THANK YOU as always for your support of this podcast show and I’d like to personally invite you to visit my LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com blog as well as my LowCarbDiscussion.com forum to access everything you’d ever want to know about low-carb living. Come back on Monday when we’ll be here yet again for another thrill-packed episode. So until next time, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb.