Gary Taubes finds the side effects of eating LC

[Mitra]

Diary of a Carb Phobe (http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/diary-of-a-carb-phobe/d69f12b73d8e8110VgnVCM10000013281eac____/news.voices/in.the.magazine/may.2008.issue/0/0/1)

Aside from its many benefits, I've learned there are indeed some side effects to this dietary regimen--primarily social and marital ones. First of all, gone are the days that my wife and I will be invited over for a simple meal--the "let me put some spaghetti on the stove with a nice sauce" type of thing. (Friends who are exceedingly fond of grilling or barbecuing are the exception.) Invitations to dinner parties are offered with trepidation and a "what can you eat?" tone, as though whatever it may be will require a special run to the slaughterhouse. A whiff of resentment hovers in the host's kitchen, as though my dietary faddishness forced a menu change for everyone else, all of whom now have to eat a thoroughly mediocre leg of lamb when they could have enjoyed the host's signature buckwheat rigatoni with broccoli rabe and tofu instead.

[Missy]

LOL...hence WHY I don't mention what I'm up too! LOL :eek::lol: I figure to myself "I'll find SOMETHING" and....if there is NOTHING I won't DIE either way. :o

[Karole]

Yes, I always bring something to contribute , but then it is mostly relatives and very close friends that we have dining experiences with.

My biggest problem is at our trailrides (which last over a week ) where I am eating the food on their buffet. I truly have no way of knowing how something is prepared, but if it is a combo type dish, I always assume the worst, and don't put it on my plate. They have a nice salad bar, but by the end of the week, I am sick to death of salad.

I often eat breakfast in my camper as that is the really rough meal. They have lots of carby stuff and bacon and scrambled eggs is about the only thing I can eat for that meal. That grows old, meal after meal , also. But I made it through last year, and managed to continue losing so now that I am on maintenance I should not have any worse problem. They usually have a couple of choices of meat so believe me I never, every starve !!:D

[maxlharris]

I haven't written anything about the concept of the value cheat in a while (because I haven't been value cheating, I've just been less than thoroughly committed to the plan). But, if you're going to people's houses for one meal every two weeks, and the person makes a phenomenal "buckwheat rigatoni with broccoli rabe and tofu" (you lost me at broccoli, and really killed me at tofu), why not just have the one meal, go easy on the social graces, and enjoy yourself (oh, and let everyone else enjoy themselves too). If you're not diabetic, crank up the blood sugar for one meal, then clamp back down for the other 41 over the next 2 weeks. How hard is that?

The other solutions we do is WE entertain. Multiple are the people who have been over for my DF Carbonara and never had a clue that it was anything other than Barilla. They have a cheese plate to start. They are thrilled with the richness of something like the three cheddar cheese plate (farmhouse english, one with porter beer in it, and a blue veined cheddar from california). They are amazed at the richness of egg yolks, bacon, cream, parmesan. And then, the wife cranks a flourless chocolate cake (with splenda) for dessert. With fresh whipped cream with coffee flavor. No one complains when they come to our place. They all eat LC. And they never know.

[gitfiddle]

Thanks, Janet! I got my chuckle for the day. I can identify with most of what he says (especially the birthday pie incident) but no-one in my house feels guilty about eating in front of me and I'm the one with the chocolate stash. Not even hidden!

It's true that we don't get invited out for spaghetti any more.

[mcsblues]

I must admit I found this article fairly irritating - I thought GCBC needed some humour, but this wasn't really what I had in mind, because I think so many people will take seriously that - (a) what other people think of what you eat is a big deal (it isn't) - well at least not unless you write books about it - I guess that might attract more scrutiny and comment! and (b) enough of the "enormous portions" already!! - reminds me of one at least partially justified flaws in Atkins writing - at times he really did make it sound like you could eat as much as you liked as long as it was low carb - we don't want to go down that road again do we?:p

But the bit that did get my attention was that Gary's wife apparently doesn't do low carb :eek::rolleyes: - well, if he can't convince her ... :confused:

[Peachy]

My truest friends make sure there is something I will eat. Otherwise I drink a protein shake before hand and hope for the best. There is a little gourmet shop that has the absolute best tuna salad ($10 a pound). Everyone is happy when I show up with that!

[petra65]

I'm still in the process of reading GCBC and I find it tough to read. Keep in mind I'm used to reading technical material. Maybe it's my "sugar sensitive" brain. :lol:

[Inez]

I entertain a lot and it's always low-carb. I did make potato salad once (with bacon and cheese!), and one of my regular guests said what a great meal it was because he didn't leave feeling stuffed like he usually does -- well, he normally eats like a horse, which you just can't do with low-carb -- but that never seems to stop him. Some people just don't get it!

[Omlette]

I must admit I found this article fairly irritating - I thought GCBC needed some humour, but this wasn't really what I had in mind, because I think so many people will take seriously that - (a) what other people think of what you eat is a big deal (it isn't) - well at least not unless you write books about it - I guess that might attract more scrutiny and comment! and (b) enough of the "enormous portions" already!! - reminds me of one at least partially justified flaws in Atkins writing - at times he really did make it sound like you could eat as much as you liked as long as it was low carb - we don't want to go down that road again do we?:p

But the bit that did get my attention was that Gary's wife apparently doesn't do low carb :eek::rolleyes: - well, if he can't convince her ... :confused:

I have been asked (and so has my dad) on many occassions, "what can you eat" just because we low carb. My aunt cooks spaghetti quite often when she visits. We just tell her to fix what she wants, and to make a few hamburger patties to go with it. Put the sauce over the patty. At my house, I cook a spaghetti squash and the pasta stuff. I eat the squash.

My hubby won't low carb because other than meat, there is nothing he likes about low carb. He won't eat any veggie that is not starch. Actually, other than meat and desserts, his food list looks something like this - corn, pasta, rice, potato (sweet or baking). That is it for him. He has decided that he will tell the kids that he doesn't eat stuff like green beans because he is allergic.

[maxlharris]

I am maybe one step ahead of your husband. I would suggest that maybe the step is a perefectionist streak in me that sees how easy this would be if I ate leafy greens (imagine, if you will, doing low carb without salads, and eating out about 30% more than average people). I'm trying.

People will ask. People won't ask. We will consult with people. When people come over, they eat low carb. They eat fabulous. They get salads. They get a cheese plate to start. They get steaks or they get stews (the Bruce Aidell's Zin stew) or they get ribs (dry rubbed) or they get my Dreamfields Carbonara (and I never mention that it's dreamfields and no one has ever said anything like, "the pasta tastes funny" {it's all in the al dente cooking}). They get desserts (flourless chocolate cake, with fresh blackberries). They get cocktails (blackberry mojito: muddled blackberries and mint, rum, DaVinci simple syrup, straight seltzer). They get about 20g of carbs, total (we are having an occaison, but we're not going hog wild).

We entertain more often than we are entertained. But when we go, people will frequently consult with me (through the wife... I am neurotic about this and will get depressed, this is from picky, not from LC). They will make salad and not be offended when I don't eat it. They will make chicken. They will make tacos and I will eat maybe one taco shell. They will make dessert, I will beg off. It's only as awkward as you make it.

Lastly, I always come back to this: if you are going to the house of someone who is rightfully regarded as worth going to for the cooking (my parent's friends, the Baumann's, for instance... perhaps my parent's when my brother the chef in training is cooking, or my brother and his friends are over), you might consider the honey tree option of having one meal off plan, enjoyable, and normal (being picky, I have not much idea what this is like, few and far are the dinners I've been to where I've eaten all served without either trying something new {always an adventure} or passing on something {again, you can control half of how awkward this is, and 100% of how awkward you feel about it... it takes some practice}). Otherwise, you can politely refuse certain items, and make compromises ("we can come for pasta, you must cook Dreamfield's... it's very good, if you cook it Al Dente, and probably much better for you").

What Taubes seems to have forgotten is that these are his friends. I dunno. Maybe they aren't. But when you are with friends and family, you should be free to be yourself. This isn't as hard as Taubes is making it out to be.

Now, I have two menus to plan (we're having the neighbors over maybe next week, and I've a picnic basket to put together for self for this weekend... I'm thinking fritata).

Later.

[Omlette]

Fortunately, my DH likes the dreamfield and barilla pastas. He doesn't mind me making healthier carb choices for him when that is an option. If he could do only meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, and nut butters, he would be fine. I have taken to doing meat, advocado, and berries for myself a lot. It is summer, and I just don't want to cook a lot.

[maxlharris]

Curious: Why can't he do that?

The person who turned me on to Atkins is a very good friend (best I have other than DW) who knew me from way back when, and knew how picky I am (really, when I started, I ate meat, no seafood, eggs, nuts, cheeses {not stinky or weird}, starchy veggies of corn and potatoes, green beans and fruit. Green beans were my only veggie). She said, from what she understood, it would be pretty easy for me to do Atkins, as it wasn't that different from what I was eating.

Now, caveat time: It is easier to do it with a broader palate (have added, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, shrimp, crab, lobster, and more cheeses... can even handle spinach in certain situations, and shallots... I always forget the shallots). But everything is easier to do with a broader palate (except eat at McDonald's, but I don't miss that).

Caveat #2: I'm not in favor of pushing a loved one to do something they don't want to do. That's not the right way to put it. My wife, she eats something between mediterranean diet and low carb. Her carbs are probably <100, <120g/day. She eats a lot of protein. A lot of lean protein. She eats good fats. She shuns "bad fats." She likes this. Her only real health problem is high blood pressure. And it's mostly "white coat hypertension." I will not push her to drop her carbs. And why should I? She's fine. She's not gonna die anytime soon from health issues (she could be hit by a bus, but all the LC in the world isn't gonna help with that problem). So, she can do her thing, I do mine, we eat most things together, she eats more things (fair enough, I don't eat that many things), and we eat together. We lose weight together. We don't compete (shitty idea, pardon my Urdu). We're just happy little animals.

I know the felling on not wanting to cook a lot.

[Omlette]

Oh, he might would consider eating mostly meat, but I don't push him. He is a powerlifter, and eats lots of protein - mostly good fats. He usually only gets one side of carbs at night, unless I feel like fixing him 2. Granted, there are nights that I cook for him, something different for my son, and something different for myself just for the simple fact that I don't want anything that anyone else will eat. Or, I just don't feel like eating much, and I'm fixing him something that is more along the lines of a meat/pasta casserole. Plus, 3 nights per week he gets in late from the gym, so I try to schedule his food to be ready closer to when he will be home as he takes leftovers for lunch, so I like for his food to be fresh the night that I cook it.

He will eat onions cooked.