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Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#101

Post by fanboy123 »

warmfuzzykitten wrote: post #83
fanboy123 wrote: post #23

I think the real answer is because it is more systematically profitable to sell carb products and (food) companies are really really good at selling things to people. It is interesting to see comments on this forum that involve the strategy of reasoning with the public to get them to accept their idea. Next time you see somebody drinking a soda explain to them what fructose does metabolically to their bodies. Your me…

I think, first, one should differentiate between the part of the food industry that is actually the sugar industry - products like Coke and Gatorade and Snickers - and the part that is packaged convenience food that also contains a lot of sugar. (High-fructose corn syrup is just another sugar with 5-10% more fructose.) The convenience food industry is highly motivated to sell what the public wants to buy. They follow…

I don't really think its a conspiracy unless you consider advertising to the public to be very secretive and back-room.

I agree mostly with what is said above but I think it is important to emphasize that what the public wants to buy is heavily influenced by what they see on TV.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#102

Post by ljf »

Since moving to only /expressly/ eating carbs once a week (as in the 4 hour body book) I've lost a stone and gone from 24% body fat to 17% - all in about 8 weeks.

Plus my /gut/ feels a hell of a lot better now I'm not eating bread, and when/if I do I get a pretty rough stomach.

People don't realise just how bad processed carbs are. We didn't them for centuries and only do now as they are sold to us cheaply.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#103

Post by tsuipen »

endtime wrote: post #4

I've found the fat hypothesis - 'fat makes you fat' - to be false, or at least not to apply to me. I am not exactly anti-carb - I eat potatoes, and a little rice - but I have been eating a diet that I guess you could call 'Paleo 2.0' for the last 7 months or so. The basic goal is to minimize my intake of grains, fructose, and legumes, and maximize that of saturated fats. I also happen to be vegetarian, so for me this…

One of the major parts of the Paleolithic diet is consuming at least 65% meat. With this in mind, you can see how your diet is very much not like theirs.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#104

Post by ljf »

david_p wrote: post #97
ajscherer wrote: post #79

I'm always surprised at the theories people are willing to believe about obesity, particularly people on hn. It really sounds reasonable to so many of you that the cause of the obesity epidemic is people actually listening to nutrition advice from the medical establishment and following the food pyramid? My view of what has happened is this: technologies and ingredients were invented by food manufacturers over the pa…

While I have to agree with you, your theory fails to explain why people in Europe (who have the same access to calorie dense and convenient food) are less obese (in proportion) than North Americans. I believe that culinary customs AND some additives used in industrial food play an important role. Just check out High Fructose Corn Syrup : this is in very product in the USA and is (almost) never used in Europe.

Agreed - though in Europe (though maybe not the UK these day) food isn't marketed as agressively, people eat main when they are hungry not for something to do, and home cooking is a way of life and is held in high esteem.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#105

Post by narrator »

A more subtle reason for the pro-carb bias is it provides justification for vegetarianism since most vegetarian diets are much higher in carbs than fat. Vegetarians, animal rights advocates, and people who may eat meat but nevertheless are against promoting it because of their concern for the environment want to believe that their more moral diet is also healthier. The easy way to do that is by lending their confirmation bias to any scientific study that maligns high fat diets and thus meat eating and to ignore contrary research findings that does not confirm their bias.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#106

Post by MikeCapone »

narrator wrote: post #105

A more subtle reason for the pro-carb bias is it provides justification for vegetarianism since most vegetarian diets are much higher in carbs than fat. Vegetarians, animal rights advocates, and people who may eat meat but nevertheless are against promoting it because of their concern for the environment want to believe that their more moral diet is also healthier. The easy way to do that is by lending their confirma…

I'm afraid this might be true, and I say this as someone who was a vegetarian for almost 3 years partly for environmental and moral reasons. I started eating meat again after reading Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories".

I still agree that it's better for the environment and for the animals to have a vegetarian diet, but I couldn't find a way to stick to it without eating way more carbs than I felt was good for me.

I'll be the first in line when 'grown' meat that doesn't come from an animal with a central nervous system that can feel pain/stress/anguish/etc comes on the market, though...

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#107

Post by adw »

david_p wrote: post #97
ajscherer wrote: post #79

I'm always surprised at the theories people are willing to believe about obesity, particularly people on hn. It really sounds reasonable to so many of you that the cause of the obesity epidemic is people actually listening to nutrition advice from the medical establishment and following the food pyramid? My view of what has happened is this: technologies and ingredients were invented by food manufacturers over the pa…

While I have to agree with you, your theory fails to explain why people in Europe (who have the same access to calorie dense and convenient food) are less obese (in proportion) than North Americans. I believe that culinary customs AND some additives used in industrial food play an important role. Just check out High Fructose Corn Syrup : this is in very product in the USA and is (almost) never used in Europe.

Your portions are bigger. (Seriously.)

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#108

Post by StacyC »

terio wrote: post #12
hvs wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just used the words "potato", "noodles", "rice", and "flour" in a distinctly negative tone. Those are some of my favorite foods, preferable doused in butter. And I'm 6'1", 170 lbs.

Fair enough, but, like the article points out, personal experience, or case studies, doesn't count as scientific proof here. My own experience is that I can eat as much butter (real butter), bacon, olive oil, and other fats as I want and my weight won't change. But as soon as I start to eat bread and potatoes, I can easily gain 10 pounds. This is a very complex issue. For every single person there are many factors in…

"But as soon as I start to eat bread and potatoes, I can easily gain 10 pounds."

Same here, and I looooove bread, but it makes my midsection fluffy.

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#109

Post by endtime »

tsuipen wrote: post #103
endtime wrote: post #4

I've found the fat hypothesis - 'fat makes you fat' - to be false, or at least not to apply to me. I am not exactly anti-carb - I eat potatoes, and a little rice - but I have been eating a diet that I guess you could call 'Paleo 2.0' for the last 7 months or so. The basic goal is to minimize my intake of grains, fructose, and legumes, and maximize that of saturated fats. I also happen to be vegetarian, so for me this…

One of the major parts of the Paleolithic diet is consuming at least 65% meat. With this in mind, you can see how your diet is very much not like theirs.

You'll note that I stated explicitly that I'm not following standard paleo. I gave the following as one of the resources I like: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/ (formerly panu.com, for Paleo Nu).

Re: Why do people resist the idea that carbs are worse than fat?

#110

Post by sophacles »

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that studies and/or those who do them are not very trustworthy? I have watched studies conclusively prove that eating chicken eggs will:

kill you sooner, make you live longer, have no measurable effect, cure cancer, cause cancer, and defeat communisms (joke)

Similar cycles for other types of food. Similar cycles various types of activity.

Having watched this for so long, am I really going to suddenly believe that carbs are evil, that I should found a new moral system (and a new diet) on the latest studies which, in my experience are going to be shown wrong in a few years anyway. Or should I just go ahead an eat the way I've observed the people who live to be old eat?

Related: look up the story of the boy who cried wolf.

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