Taking Out the Carbage

[This piece was written for my “Taking Out the Carbage” column in Kit Pharo’s “Pharo Cattle Company Update.” I’m "leveraging" it here in the hope that it will help me get back into regular contributions to this blog …]

“Title page of "La Physiologie du Goût" ("The Physiology of Taste") by French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) with a portrait of the author. 1848 edition.” From Wikipedia

"Shunanything made with flour, no matter inwhat form it hides; do you not still have the roast, the salad and the leafy vegetables?"

This quote from Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's The Physiologyof Taste, published in 1825, makes three points:

1. Carbohydrate restriction is not a new concept. The notion of the fatteningcarbohydrate has been around for almost two hundred years. Nor is it a "fad" diet. Its status as the most effective means of treatingobesity was thoroughly established and well accepted by researchers and clinicians until the 1960s.

2. Those genetically predisposed to fatten (us "easy keepers") who want to be as lean as their genetics will allow them to be (and those exhibiting the various conditions of metabolic syndrome) should limit theircarbohydrate intake. The degree of restriction will be individually determined. The easiestplace to start is by avoiding added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages. But we must also limit starch. Starch, when digested, is sugar (glucose).It doesn't matterif it comes from "healthy whole grains" or refined white flour. Its effect on blood sugar is quite similar.

3. Any diet that includes"the roast, the salad and the leafy vegetables" can hardly be called boring! People typically do not suffer hunger on this type of diet, and since they experience greaterweight loss and improvements in metabolic markers, it is an easierdiet to maintain than low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets.

"Oh, Heavens!" all you readersof both sexes will cry out, "oh Heavens above!But what a wretch the Professor is! Here in a single word heforbids us everything wemostlove, those little white rolls ... and those cookies ... and a hundred otherthings made with flour and butter, with flour and sugar, with flour and sugar and eggs! He doesn't even leave uspotatoes, or macaroni! Who would have thought this of a lover of good food who seemed so pleasant?"

"What'sthis I hear?" I exclaim, puttingon my severest face, which I do perhaps once ayear. "Very well, then: eat! Get fat! Become ugly, and thick, and asthmatic, and finally die inyourown melted grease: I shall be there to watch it."

JeanAnthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825


edited 10:06 6/18/2012