What if the body finds it difficult to digest anything other than rice and maybe some easy to digest vegetables and lentils?
What if meals like eggs, beans and spinach cause digestion problems like flatulence and diarrhoea to the body?

Redrajesh, your pancreas doesn't **care** whether other foods cause you distress. It will still quit working when it gets tired enough, at which point your life expectancy just got shortened by a whole bunch.

There is nothing magical about a low carbohydrate diet (using the term as a method of eating, not a crash 'diet' you expect to go off of once your goals are reached) that makes you NOT sensitive to other foods. You may have an egg allergy - or even spinach allergy, for all I know. So, you eat something else that is low carb. Like meat.

Not sure what type of beans you are referring to that cause gas....but unless you are speaking of green beans, you are not talking about a low carbohydrate food.

One of the very first responses that most people have to a true low carbohydrate diet is that their flatulence goes away. Completely and nearly instantly. Something else is going on with your body (IANAD) but like I mentioned earlier: your pancreas doesn't care. You work with what you have to make life as easy as possible on one of the organs you really need.

Pancreas is not the only component of the body....if I have to eat just rice to avoid flatulence what do I do?

Just for the sake of the pancreas, do I have to put up with discomfort and probably damage to the other parts of the body? Flatulence is definitely a sign of damage to the body.

I can't just keep having soy supplements dissolved in water in order to go low carb.

You don't **have** to do anything. You can keep on eating whatever. Heck, have a blast. Fall in a bowl of rice. Eat Ding-Dongs until the cows come home. Indulge in my favorite fantasy: chocolate peanut butter cups (oh, how I miss those!) Nobody is going to make you do anything. The point Amy is making is that there are consequences **that you cannot escape** if you **choose** to eat in that manner.

I don't have a gas problem - because I eat low carb. But if I DID have a gas problem as a result of eating low carb (which is nonsense, by the way, but I'll use your take on it as an example), I would consider gas a vastly superior result than having my feet cut off because my pancreas gave out. If you don't believe this happens, visit the geriatric ward of any hospital.

But, just to be clear: if your pancreas DOES give out....the treatment is: eating low carb. I personally find it better to eat low carb BEFORE the wheelchair, not be bound to a wheelchair and then still have to eat low carb anyway.

So, don't give me any more "what if's." The answer is the same. You either do it, or you don't. The choice - and the consequence - is yours.

What if meals like eggs, beans and spinach cause digestion problems like flatulence and diarrhoea to the body?

He's not saying to eat beans.

gharkness is right on this: "Not sure what type of beans you are referring to that cause gas....but unless you are speaking of green beans, you are not talking about a low carbohydrate food."

And it's carb foods that cause flatulence and diarrhea.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Japanese have the longest life expectancy of any nation. They do, however, eat rice. Daily. Nearly all 100 million of them.

I have been on the planet long enough to observe almost every nutritional fad from its infancy to replacement by another fad. each has had support from highly credentialed experts. We are omnivors who have evolved to thrive on a wide variety of diets. Excess is what kills us, as does starvation.

"And it's carb foods that cause flatulence and diarrhea." - not sure of that.
I have seen many people get flatulence due to foods like eggs and spinach and I even know some people who went off meat because it felt easy on their stomach.
One of the famous people who went off meat because it felt easy on his stomach is Scott Adams. So ultimately it is a question of stomach or pancreas...the devil and the deep blue sea.

Taubes' GCBC is starting to have an impact on the medical mainstream, and I myself cannot be happier about the fact that I went LC two years ago. Not only do I look slimmer but I need less sleep and am more energetic.

For me, one reason for accepting Taubes ideas was there were few attempts to disagree with him substantively, and the few responses that were written (Fumento, Kolata) were flimsy and polemical.

Now Stephan Guyenet at Whole Health Source has written some posts that disagree with Taubes in some respects and are worth reading eg. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/05/clarifications-about-carbohydrate-and.html

"We are omnivors who have evolved to thrive on a wide variety of diets."

I don't think 10,000 years (roughly the number of years since the beginning of agriculture) is enough for our bodies to have adapted to grains.

One thing I have noticed (I've been around a while, too) is that if someone takes a diet named "A," for example, and publishes it, the next thing that happens is that the general public takes A and makes it SUPER-A, and MODIFIED-A and BETTER-THAN-A and the next thing you know, it's bastardized to the point of ineffectiveness.

This is what happened to the Atkins diet. Back during the days it was a 'fad,' food companies made all sorts of faux-foods that were called low carb but were NOT actually low carb, and then they wondered why the damn diet didn't "work." When what really didn't work was the faux foods that were touted as being "low carb."

I also think that there is a subset of the population that actually can live quite well on a regular diet with normal carbs (the Japanese?) ....as long as they leave off the manufactured goods and fast foods. Once they go there, though, and once the metabolism is damaged, there's no real help for them except a low carb diet.

"GCBC is starting to have an impact on the medical mainstream"

I'm reading it now, and one of the first thing he says is that the low-carb diet actually goes back 150 years and was well known as a treatment for diabetes and corpulence. The low-fat thing is rather new.

I did the "steak and salad" thing myself back in the 1970s, before the fat police came along and scared me off it.

First off Redrajesh it sounds like you are looking for an excuse to not do low-carb. It does sound very small - farting means that I am causing damage possibly more then sugar or carbs are doing! As above which is worse farting or losing feet due to Diabetes or clogged arteries and a heart attack. The only person I really know that died of farting was the fat guy in the movie seven. Maybe you are doing something wrong because in the 7 months I have done of low carb I barely pass gas. Before all the time which is embarrassed me and grossed me out. Now - little. As commented above what kind of beans. I mean green beans are good but Kidney and lentils and others are not very good in low carb diets. Actually they usually a bit high in carbs and starches.

So Redrahesh if you want to stop just be aware that maybe you are making an excuse to stop. Take a good look at what your doing. If you deem it valid - then stop. But make sure it really valid.

Next off the rice comment with Japan and the bon mote of Japanese people live a long time. Yes Japanese people do eat rice AND they do live a long time but some logic to impart. One thing does not always mean - another. The duck that won the lottery. Person has gets statue of duck, person soon wins lottery - thus because of the duck the person won the lottery. No, getting the duck does not mean it won the lottery. That is a post hoc fallacy.

Here is another thought many other countries also eat rice and yet they do not live as long as the Japanese. Chinese and Korean life expectancy is not great - not horrible but they do not live a long time. Hmm something is wrong with that train of thought. Heck many African countries also eat rice as a staple and yet they seem to die off at an early age. Why because there is other reasons. In Africa it is disease. China - low quality environment and general cleanliness. Korea - drink smoking other various things. It goes the other way too. It is more the just rice that helps the Japanese live long. It is other aspects of diet - lots of fish and vegetables lot less processed carbs and other food. Life style - some Japanese have a very laid back life while others have stress and die of heart attacks at an early age. Other various factors have to be included. Yes maybe in the end the rice is a little reason why maybe they live a long but it is NOT the main reason of they eat rice.

Here is the second think to think about. The rice and Japanese life expectancy is a link that is used to make a excuse. For example something I learned from my uncle. He said for a healthy life it is probably the best to avoid drinking alcohol at all. Now studies come out time and again that say that yep drinking wine can help your heart or beer help lower blood pressure. My uncle commented that people use these studies and advice as an excuse to continue bad behavior. Yes that one small glass of wine is healthy (and delicious too) but MOST people do not keep to the one small glass or small beer or the recommended amount. People drink a big glass of wine or more - a bottle. Instead of one beer they drink two or three a night. Some people think and deduce that little is good, so a lot must be great. What has this got to do with rice. Yes the Japanese do eat rice usually plain maybe with some small side dishes most vegetable to go with it. Usually no sauce expect maybe a little soy sauce on top. Heck here in Korea - plain no sauce. In Japan portions are also small. But this logic morphs in to that okay Japanese eat rice and live long time so I can eat rice and live a long time too. But I am going to eat a lot of rice and plain rice is boring so I am going to add some chicken balls and some sweet and sour sauce or hmm how about a curry filled with potatoes and other carbs or lets pile on the butter or that rice becomes more then just a simple dish of carbs it becomes a horror of carbs and chemicals. That one bowl of rice the Japanese person eats become two or three times more. The same can be said with bread. A slice of toast is probably fine but pile on the jam or the butter or whatever.

Jeez, I once blew the doors off a bathroom stall after eating a low-card diet! I mean, the fire department followed me around with a running hose!
If I pointed my anus at Russia, the USA was accused of SALT talk violations. My sphincter became fart-chapped.

Be careful!

@ John Paulson: it starts off with farting and when ignored, it goes into dizziness 24 hours of the day...so no driving, no standing, no working at which point obviously someone is going to do something about it....and if the remedy is as simple as lay off eggs and spinach, of course that is what someone would do rather than try taking meds to fix things. What would you rather do? Let the dizziness grow worse till you get blind or fall off a building or something?

@ Amy: I wonder if these are outliers or a different category.
Maybe a one size fits all diet does not work and maybe there are 3-4 categories of humans with 3-4 different dietary needs. If more than 10% of the people get flatulence with eggs and spinach, they cannot be considered outliers, but would probably form a different category altogether. And maybe there is yet another segment which has problems with certain other types of food and requires some other dietary routine. In modern medicine, maybe the one size fits all approach is not sufficient especially with non pathological issues. Most early medicinal practices mention different body consititutions for people and prescribe different medications or remedies for similar issues for different people. Maybe it has to do with people falling into different categories. Just saying that probably there is something still more to be known in medicine.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Japanese have the longest life expectancy of any nation. They do, however, eat rice. Daily. Nearly all 100 million of them.

MarkD:

The math is still out on that one.

That figure is based on the official censuses and the ages reported.

But.... (de-httping to escape the spam filter):

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071

"More than 230,000 elderly people in Japan who are listed as being aged 100 or over are unaccounted for, officials said following a nationwide inquiry."

www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/23/us-japan-elderly-idUSTRE67M0BZ20100823

" that a man believed Tokyo's oldest male at 111 had actually been dead for over 30 years with his remains found mummified at his home. ...

Since then authorities have been unable to locate over 250 elderly people and reports have emerged of many old people dying alone, or of relatives running scams to get their pensions amid broken communities and overworked public volunteers."

Take those "outliers" out and the average age should drop dramatically.... I've seen someone do the math with some what-if's, and it might be the _average_ age is somewhere in the early 80s. (Which gibed with most death announcements.)

The Japanese smoke more and live longer. The French smoke more and have less heart disease. Should we therefore take up smoking?

Beans are notorious for causing gas. Eggs and spinach--not so much. As for dizziness, it could be crashing blood sugar, too little salt, or something else. Some people who are just starting a low-carb diet find that adding salt and taking potassium helps them get through that phase where their bodies are dumping water weight. If you suspect it's crashing blood sugar, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a blood glucose meter (they're $10 here) and test your BG before and one and two hours after meals, and anytime you feel you're fading, to see if your BG is wonky. If it is, a low-carb diet is a very good thing to start.