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Here's what she just got sent (I CC'd it to the principal as well):
I understand your time in valuable, so please, bear with me through this lengthy e-mail. Aaron has explained to me that he has an upcoming assignment that requires him to prepare 3 meals according to the new food pyramid put out by the USDA.
It is my experience and belief that the USDA Food Pyramid and its low-fat mantra have directly contributed to, if not caused, the overwhelming obesity/diabetic epidemic in this country. In the last 35 years the waist lines of the American people have done nothing but expand, and remarkably, that's just about how old the food pyramid and low-fat bit have been thrown at us. Sugar consumption has grown exponentially - and people will choose to eat over-processed low-fat foods instead of real, whole food as a direct result of what the USDA has been telling us for years. We do not follow the Food Pyramid in my home, and we're not going to start now.
Aaron told me that he informed you that I am an Atkins devotee. He said your response to him was "I'm sorry to hear that....there are long term health effects from that." and when he asked you where you got the information telling you that, your response was non-specific and was something to the effect of "well, from what I've read.."
You're right. There are long term health effects. Let me share mine
I've been an Atkins devotee for 3 1/2 years now. In that time, I lost 82lbs, went from a size 22 to a current size 8, lost over 68 inches from my body, and dropped my cholesterol by 110 points and my triglycerides by 162 points. I run an average of 9 miles a week and spend an average of 4-5 hours a week doing aerobics/weight training. The health "consequences" have been dramatic for me, for sure.
I run a weight loss support site on the internet, as well as participate in several others and spend hours a week educating people on what eating low-carb is and what it isn't. Unfortunately, the majority of the media "information" out there has the Atkins followers painted as the Weight Watchers equivalent of those who spend their allotted points in Skinny Cow Ice-cream and Fat Free Potato Chips. Technically, you *could* eat these things and remain within the confines of the program, but it's a blatant abuse of the structure of the program and the mass misinformation saying that Atkins eaters can eat all the meat/cheese/fat they want is the same type of thing.
There are hundreds of studies that validate low-carb eating, and the truth is that it's saved the health of thousands of people; know a diabetic? For every article or study you can produce espousing the health "consequences" of reducing carbohydrate intake, I can produce one that shows the exact opposite. For added interest, I'd challenge you to dig and see who does the funding on the anti-lowcarb studies. Shockingly/surprisingly - the sugar and grain industries do a lot of funding, as do organizations like PETA. A side note- a lot of the studies that are done that demonstrate the health dangers of eating high fat were not done on people that were also eating low-carb. There's a right way and a wrong way to do most everything, Mrs. L, and lumping us all together with assumptions based on hearsay is many things, but fair is not one of them.
The fact is that the human body does not distinguish a piece of cake from a piece of fruit or a vegetable. Carbs are carbs are carbs in this regard. It is turned into glucose, produces an insulin spike and is either used for immediate energy needs or is stored in fat cells. The nutritional value not withstanding (micronutrients - the benefits of fruit vs. cake are obvious), the body doesn't distinguish how they get processed. This is fact. Sugar/flour/starch are carbs and the body doesn't care where it came from, it just turns it into glucose.
Fat does not make people fat any more than eating grains is likely to make grass grow out of your ears. People must pick their "poison". If you eat low-fat, you have to eat high-carb. If you eat high-fat, you have to eat low-carb.
Some of the things that low-carb isn't:
-It's not a way of eating that *eliminates* carbohydrates. Low-carb eating plans do not eliminate carbohydrates, with the exception of Stallman’s. They do dramatically reduce carbohydrate intake for a limited period of time. The first phase of these eating plans is *NOT* the entire eating plan, and that's a fact that everyone seems all too eager to over-look. It's just not sensationalistic enough to get people to tune in.
-The average low-carb eater eats considerably more vegetables than the average food-pyramid follower, and I don't know about you but I'd be hard pressed to find many people that actually follow the pyramid. Low-carbers, by and large, eat more whole natural foods than the average American.
-Real low-carbers (we call ourselves "WOLers" - it's not a diet, it's a Way of Life - we all know that diets do *not* work) don't buy into all the sugar-free products, garbage foods, convenience foods. We stick to whole, natural foods and eat wonderfully and extremely healthy.
Some of the things low-carb is:
-It's a manner in which to relearn to use food appropriately. There are several different paths one can choose to follow, and not all of them work for everyone. Weight Watchers, for example, has a 95% failure rate in a period of 5 years. So do all other weight loss plans. Interestingly enough, ALL of these plans (low-carb/low-fat alike) bring us to essentially the same place for pre-maintenance and maintenance: eating whole, natural foods in moderate amounts and eating a more balanced diet.
-Low-carbing is about removing the processed junk from our diets. It's about removing sugar, flour and starch. None of these things nutritional benefit for anyone.
Frankly, I could bore you to death with hours and hours of reading on this subject. For the last 3 1/2 years nutrition has been a major focus in my life. I have read about every nutritional approach I could get my hands on to learn as much as I could about *all* of them. I am extremely proactive in this regard and have studied until the cows come home. It's not my job to convince you, no more than it's your job to convince me, but I would ask you to be careful what you say to our children about these things, particularly if you choose to not bury your nose in the books that teach the programs you're so quick to bash. My blood work and health are stellar, and I won't have anyone telling my child anything contrary. Remaining fat was far more damaging to my health than eliminating bogus carbohydrates ever was. If you're interested, you can see my weight loss picture diary at http://www.brookjay.net/melting.html . http://www.brookjay.net/random.html might be another page of interest for you.
Menu examples from my home:
Breakfast:
2 eggs, scrambled with water
2 oz of turkey
1oz tomato
1oz mushroom
1oz provolone cheese
1/2 cup full fat yogurt w/ 1/4 cup strawberries
Lunch:
3-4oz of salad greens (romaine, baby spinach, cabbage, carrot slices)
1-2oz of cucumber
1oz of sunflower seeds
1oz full fat ranch dressing (no high fructose corn syrup, no starch)
4-5oz of seasoned diced chicken breast
Dinner:
1 cup broccoli steamed with chicken broth topped with 1oz real cheddar jack cheese
1 cup mashed cauliflower made with sour cream, garlic, and a bit of parmesan cheese
4-6 ounces broiled seasoned pork chop
Dessert:
1 cup jicama with cinnamon almond cream cheese dip
Breakfast:
1-2 cups mock cinnamon apples (jicama) with 1-2 tbsp of heavy cream
Snack:
2 hard boiled eggs
Lunch:
2 large romaine lettuce leaves spread lightly with a mix of real mayo/brown mustard, filled with turkey, sprouts, tomato, swiss cheese and rolled up tortilla style
1/8 slice of cantaloupe
Dinner:
3-4 oz salad greens
10 black olives
3 tbsp of fresh salsa
1-2 tbsp yellow onion
4-5oz taco meat (homemade taco seasoning)
2oz sour cream
Dessert:
Sugar free Jell-O
These are the types of eating habits instilled in my home. We eat whole, natural foods and we do not eat grains more than 2-3 times a week.
Aaron being punished for not being allowed to cook things for our family that I do not believe to be healthy is not acceptable. I'm completely agreeable to Aaron preparing healthy meals for our family to satisfy the homework requirement, but if it's all the same to you, *I* will define what's healthy for my family.
Thank you very much for your time.
Brook W
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Hello Mrs. L,
I understand your time in valuable, so please, bear with me through this lengthy e-mail. Aaron has explained to me that he has an upcoming assignment that requires him to prepare 3 meals according to the new food pyramid put out by the USDA.
It is my experience and belief that the USDA Food Pyramid and its low-fat mantra have directly contributed to, if not caused, the overwhelming obesity/diabetic epidemic in this country. In the last 35 years the waist lines of the American people have done nothing but expand, and remarkably, that's just about how old the food pyramid and low-fat bit have been thrown at us. Sugar consumption has grown exponentially - and people will choose to eat over-processed low-fat foods instead of real, whole food as a direct result of what the USDA has been telling us for years. We do not follow the Food Pyramid in my home, and we're not going to start now.
Aaron told me that he informed you that I am an Atkins devotee. He said your response to him was "I'm sorry to hear that....there are long term health effects from that." and when he asked you where you got the information telling you that, your response was non-specific and was something to the effect of "well, from what I've read.."
You're right. There are long term health effects. Let me share mine
I've been an Atkins devotee for 3 1/2 years now. In that time, I lost 82lbs, went from a size 22 to a current size 8, lost over 68 inches from my body, and dropped my cholesterol by 110 points and my triglycerides by 162 points. I run an average of 9 miles a week and spend an average of 4-5 hours a week doing aerobics/weight training. The health "consequences" have been dramatic for me, for sure.
I run a weight loss support site on the internet, as well as participate in several others and spend hours a week educating people on what eating low-carb is and what it isn't. Unfortunately, the majority of the media "information" out there has the Atkins followers painted as the Weight Watchers equivalent of those who spend their allotted points in Skinny Cow Ice-cream and Fat Free Potato Chips. Technically, you *could* eat these things and remain within the confines of the program, but it's a blatant abuse of the structure of the program and the mass misinformation saying that Atkins eaters can eat all the meat/cheese/fat they want is the same type of thing.
There are hundreds of studies that validate low-carb eating, and the truth is that it's saved the health of thousands of people; know a diabetic? For every article or study you can produce espousing the health "consequences" of reducing carbohydrate intake, I can produce one that shows the exact opposite. For added interest, I'd challenge you to dig and see who does the funding on the anti-lowcarb studies. Shockingly/surprisingly - the sugar and grain industries do a lot of funding, as do organizations like PETA. A side note- a lot of the studies that are done that demonstrate the health dangers of eating high fat were not done on people that were also eating low-carb. There's a right way and a wrong way to do most everything, Mrs. L, and lumping us all together with assumptions based on hearsay is many things, but fair is not one of them.
The fact is that the human body does not distinguish a piece of cake from a piece of fruit or a vegetable. Carbs are carbs are carbs in this regard. It is turned into glucose, produces an insulin spike and is either used for immediate energy needs or is stored in fat cells. The nutritional value not withstanding (micronutrients - the benefits of fruit vs. cake are obvious), the body doesn't distinguish how they get processed. This is fact. Sugar/flour/starch are carbs and the body doesn't care where it came from, it just turns it into glucose.
Fat does not make people fat any more than eating grains is likely to make grass grow out of your ears. People must pick their "poison". If you eat low-fat, you have to eat high-carb. If you eat high-fat, you have to eat low-carb.
Some of the things that low-carb isn't:
-It's not a way of eating that *eliminates* carbohydrates. Low-carb eating plans do not eliminate carbohydrates, with the exception of Stallman’s. They do dramatically reduce carbohydrate intake for a limited period of time. The first phase of these eating plans is *NOT* the entire eating plan, and that's a fact that everyone seems all too eager to over-look. It's just not sensationalistic enough to get people to tune in.
-The average low-carb eater eats considerably more vegetables than the average food-pyramid follower, and I don't know about you but I'd be hard pressed to find many people that actually follow the pyramid. Low-carbers, by and large, eat more whole natural foods than the average American.
-Real low-carbers (we call ourselves "WOLers" - it's not a diet, it's a Way of Life - we all know that diets do *not* work) don't buy into all the sugar-free products, garbage foods, convenience foods. We stick to whole, natural foods and eat wonderfully and extremely healthy.
Some of the things low-carb is:
-It's a manner in which to relearn to use food appropriately. There are several different paths one can choose to follow, and not all of them work for everyone. Weight Watchers, for example, has a 95% failure rate in a period of 5 years. So do all other weight loss plans. Interestingly enough, ALL of these plans (low-carb/low-fat alike) bring us to essentially the same place for pre-maintenance and maintenance: eating whole, natural foods in moderate amounts and eating a more balanced diet.
-Low-carbing is about removing the processed junk from our diets. It's about removing sugar, flour and starch. None of these things nutritional benefit for anyone.
Frankly, I could bore you to death with hours and hours of reading on this subject. For the last 3 1/2 years nutrition has been a major focus in my life. I have read about every nutritional approach I could get my hands on to learn as much as I could about *all* of them. I am extremely proactive in this regard and have studied until the cows come home. It's not my job to convince you, no more than it's your job to convince me, but I would ask you to be careful what you say to our children about these things, particularly if you choose to not bury your nose in the books that teach the programs you're so quick to bash. My blood work and health are stellar, and I won't have anyone telling my child anything contrary. Remaining fat was far more damaging to my health than eliminating bogus carbohydrates ever was. If you're interested, you can see my weight loss picture diary at http://www.brookjay.net/melting.html . http://www.brookjay.net/random.html might be another page of interest for you.
Menu examples from my home:
Breakfast:
2 eggs, scrambled with water
2 oz of turkey
1oz tomato
1oz mushroom
1oz provolone cheese
1/2 cup full fat yogurt w/ 1/4 cup strawberries
Lunch:
3-4oz of salad greens (romaine, baby spinach, cabbage, carrot slices)
1-2oz of cucumber
1oz of sunflower seeds
1oz full fat ranch dressing (no high fructose corn syrup, no starch)
4-5oz of seasoned diced chicken breast
Dinner:
1 cup broccoli steamed with chicken broth topped with 1oz real cheddar jack cheese
1 cup mashed cauliflower made with sour cream, garlic, and a bit of parmesan cheese
4-6 ounces broiled seasoned pork chop
Dessert:
1 cup jicama with cinnamon almond cream cheese dip
Breakfast:
1-2 cups mock cinnamon apples (jicama) with 1-2 tbsp of heavy cream
Snack:
2 hard boiled eggs
Lunch:
2 large romaine lettuce leaves spread lightly with a mix of real mayo/brown mustard, filled with turkey, sprouts, tomato, swiss cheese and rolled up tortilla style
1/8 slice of cantaloupe
Dinner:
3-4 oz salad greens
10 black olives
3 tbsp of fresh salsa
1-2 tbsp yellow onion
4-5oz taco meat (homemade taco seasoning)
2oz sour cream
Dessert:
Sugar free Jell-O
These are the types of eating habits instilled in my home. We eat whole, natural foods and we do not eat grains more than 2-3 times a week.
Aaron being punished for not being allowed to cook things for our family that I do not believe to be healthy is not acceptable. I'm completely agreeable to Aaron preparing healthy meals for our family to satisfy the homework requirement, but if it's all the same to you, *I* will define what's healthy for my family.
Thank you very much for your time.
Brook W
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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