Offtopic—— It's getting weird out there. Real weird.

Every time Amy posts one of these pieces, it seems like more of a good idea, and then I remember that fresh loaf of bread in the kitchen and think 'next week'....

Ever notice that most of these advocates for "health" are either scrawny looking wimps or tubby wads of cookie dough?

If they want to advocate for good health then they need to advocate activity, people were not meant to be a sedentary species. Bring back recess and let the kids run themselves ragged, bring back gym and let the kids compete and play sports. Parents, limit your kids fucking video game/internet time and shove them out of the house for awhile. They'll find ways to entertain themselves.

Always interesting when people make claims that have zero basis in reality vis a vis what's been posted. Take a look at Kresser's picture at the link. He isn't some stocky Gold's Gym type, but nor is he a "scrawny looking wimp." Taubes and Dr. Michael Eades are both very tall and pretty fit and quite handsome.

Amen.
I remember on my first trip to England, thinking that I had mistakenly poured cream on my oatmeal - the hostess assured me that it was just whole milk, which I had never tasted back in NYC.

I constantly choose the higher-fat versions of yogurt and other products as well - tastier and more satisfying. Low-fat yogurt looks and tastes like what's left at the bottom of a paint can.

And I order no fries, no Coke, no shake -- and drink nothing but water with my burger.

I know several self-professed "health nuts" who are on extreme diets, and they drink diet soda constantly and almost no water! My friend, who counts every calorie, washes down her rice cakes with diet coke and then wonders why it's so hard for her to work up the energy for a walk around the block.

It's an exageration to say 'all' I suppose. But look at the fatty our president decided was qualified on the subject.
How many chins did she have?

Hell, look at the people who propagated many of the current myths. You can see video/photos of them in the documentary, 'fat head'. Scrawny and sickly looking, or in shape (since round is a shape).

It took much longer than three weeks to wean myself entirely from sugar (and mostly from grains) - closer to three months, with some backsliding. If I had known then what I know now, I probably could have done it more quickly with less work. But I did it, and I feel fabulous - stronger and healthier than I've ever been.

Our county school system stopped serving anything but skim milk last year, without discussing this with parents. It was, of course, under the whole "but milk makes them fat" guise.
At the same time, they wanted to cut PE down to 1 hour a week. Because our kids can apparently afford to sit on their butts if they drink skim milk.
My kids have never had anything but whole milk and butter - never margarine. Think diet sodas are chemical city? Margarine is about one carbolic group from being plastic. Both my kids have had their BMIs done at the pediatrician. One was 14, the other was 15, which puts them in the bottom 5%. When they went to school last fall and drank the milk, they came home and told me the milk was disgusting. They drink water now.
I'm so sick of Michele Obama and her crew telling me how I should be feeding my kids. Diet is as personal as religion, and the government should stay out of both!

Amy I just want to point out that it's not a perfect dichotomy between counting calories and cutting carbs. I'm a calorie counter (well estimator really). I estimate them in and out. It has worked well for me. One thing I've noticed is that my effort to cut calories largely leads to cutting the carbs. Like at Taco Bell I noticed switching from a bean burrito to a bowl of beans takes me from 370 to 170 calories.
I really find value in restaurant nutrition information and wish more restaurants would voluntarily publish them. One of the perverse things about counting calories is that it pushes you towards processed foods that are easier to estimate. At least chain restaurants give me an option besides a frozen weight watchers meal.

The scary part of calorie counting is that I'm afraid some nosy cop will peer in my kitchen window, spot the digital scale on the counter and go get a warrant.

Oh yeah, fat free milk is useless. It just turns your coffee gray.

I used to be one of those who only drank low-fat milk or skim but switched to the real thing a couple of years ago. It tastes better, is more satisfying and leaves you feeling full longer thanks to the fat content. I won't go back.

Eleven years ago, when my dd was a baby, I was advised to feed her skim milk by one of those nutrition nuts. Thank God, I talked to her doctor first. She told me that it is important, especially for infants and young children to have fatty foods in their diet and that whole milk is a good source of healthy fat. She said that the developing brain needs that fat to create the connectors in the brain. Children should not be on low fat diets. Now, this doesn't mean they should load up on fried foods, but good fats are an important piece of their development.

"Eleven years ago, when my dd was a baby"
I can't wait for my kid to turn 16 so he drive me around to bars.

Well I finally read Taubes' books and promptly went low carb. What a bad science clusterfuck this lipids hypothesis has been..anyway, what I did last time I was at McD's was order the double cheese quarter pounder, no holds, and used the bun simply to hold the patties out so I could eat them. Sort of like potholders. I was good for 6 hours after that.

I'm totally off sugar, and cut way down on diet pop, but still got to have one piece of wheat bread a day. Hope that doesn't screw things up.

Amy what do you think about unsweetened iced tea instead of diet pop at the fast food places?

Let me be more specific in my statement then Miss Alkon:

Those IN POWER, who speak on matters pertaining to health, our health policy makers are a laughably out of shape looking lot.

The war on milk and dairy is causing severe calcium and vitamin D deficiencies in women.

* * *

I tend to go with the low carbs approach, however, if there is any one thing people can do to make themselves healthier besides quitting smoking, it's to STOP DRINKING SODA and energy drinks.

Even in my youth in the 60s and 70s, soda was something you had on occasion. "Heavy" soda drinkers I knew had a 12 ounce can a day. It's not unusual to see people polishing off 64 - 128 ounces of soda a day.

Whole milk isn't exactly low carb though is it? One glass has 13 grams of carbs, all sugar. And I know a lot of people find whole too rich, especially since milk is something you tend to consume in large quantities--drinking a glass, pouring it over your cereal, etc.

I personally prefer the taste of soy milk. The plain unsweetened kind I get only has 3 grams of carbs and 4.5 grams of fat, so it's much thicker and richer tasting than skim milk as well.

Yeah milk is one of the things you cut out in the Atkins induction period for example, because of the lactose. But at least the fat in whole milk provides more calories. Taubes would say it's better to get your calories from protein and fat, than from carbs. An high-protein/low fat is hard on your kidneys.

I'm a low carber. I went on vacation to San Francisco recently and had my first trip to In-n-out burger. I'm glad I went online to figure out how to order, because my 3x3 animal protein style was amazing. I wish we had those burger places on the east coast.

Long time reader, but this is the first time actually commenting. I am always happy to see Amy posting on this subject because of what a difference it made in my life. After reading a number of Amy's posts talking about the evidence supporting the low carb/real food lifestyle and then doing some serious reading on my own, I decided to take the plunge. I settled on Dr. Eades "30 Day Low Carb Solution" because with two small children and a more than full time job I wanted a plan that was super easy to follow. As Amy has mentioned, the first week or so can be rough, but after my body adjusted to not having sugar I felt great and lost over 70 pounds (in about 7 months). This happened with what seemed like very little effort and I never felt deprived/starved. I can't tell you what a positive difference this has made in both my personal and professional life. I feel like I am in my twenties again and am often mistaken for a beginning graduate student rather than a stressed out professor. I highly encourage anyone on the fence to just try it for a for a month. What is there to lose (other than excess weight)?