Wednesday, April 1, 2015

carbophobia

The carbophiles like to call the carb-intolerant "carbophobes."  Whereas FEAR is rather a poor description of our wariness, I see nothing intrinsically wrong with being fearful of something that can screw people up as badly as excess glucose, fructose and starch are able to do.

Am I also crack-phobic?  MeOH-phobic?  MRSA-phobic?  If so, is there anything actually misguided about that?

Are andropausal men estro-phobic?  Recovering-alcoholics EtOH-phobic?  Should people of color in some parts of the US be generically bullet-phobic or specifically cop's-bullet-phobic? 

It is, alas, the tendency of some young and resilient individuals to sneer at the older and more wary for their bodily faultiness ... but I find that to be a result of their own youth-driven innocence of life.  They tend to consider themselves strong and invincible because of intrinsic virtue, and that those who are not (or are no longer) are morally inferior cuz "weak."  The karma-bitch in me looks forward to their surprise in a few decades, as she does to the shock of the ultra-religious in the theoretical after-life.  ;-)  "Wow," they'll say, "this isn't quite what I expected...."  [evil grin]

I believe that avoiding danger is a sign of intelligence, not mental derangement, which is implied by the word "phobia."  Even "safe starches" and paleo-approved sugars have the power to cause me to store fat, which is something I don't need to do.  With my time-altered hormonal milieu, I don't burn glycogen and glucose as efficiently as I used to, so reducing the dietary precursors of both makes more sense than trying to force my body to compensate. 

Why oh why do carbophiles want all of us to eat like them?  I can understand why the overweight ones might -- it's a case of misery-loves-company or similar.  But why do the lean ones care?  Makes even less sense than the veg*n arguments....

17 comments:

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    1. :-D as they say here in Texas, "i tell you WHAAAT!"

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  2. I just cannot wait until I see the post menopausal song that people will sing. Not one single person I know who is post menopausal eats high carb without obesity. Not even the naturally thin ones.

    The only thing I'm afraid of is not thinking for myself!

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    1. you've got it sussed -- NOTHING for you to be afraid of! :-)

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  3. Yes, I'm weary of how you can eat anything if you watch your calories...blah blah blah...then your estrogen starved body starts storing fat all over the place...whoopee!

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    1. yes, for the carb-intolerant, you can only eat the rice and potatoes if you're willing to exist on a STARVATION level of intake -- not for me, thank you very much! i'd SO much rather have my ribeyes, lamb-racks and salmon....

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    2. Tess - this sounds good to me "SO much rather have my ribeyes, lamb-racks and salmon...."

      All the best Jan

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    3. yep! :-D give me a "high reward" diet -- as opposed to a certain disproven hypothesis, it's NOT fattening! although some people have a hard time stopping while eating even fatty ruminant meat, it's self-limiting for a lot of us, me included.

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  4. Hey, guys! I am back from 10 days of a Colorado skiing and eager to be opinionated again!

    The Wiki defines a phobia from the perspective of clinical psychology ", a phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities."

    The people who blame others in carbophobia basically say "Ignore your experience (like improving health and BMI) and base your diet on what others report and also some bias observational studies because LCarbing may not be enough to make you young again and as thin as you wish to be". Despite ridiculousness of such proposal, it often works, fortunately, most come back promptly to their proven diet regiment despite the inconvenience of avoiding eating cakes and pies which in their opinion are "to die for" and bland foods like mashed potatoes and pasta during social events because our behavior is not an unreasonable anxiety disorder, but more likely a Pavlovian reflex.

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    1. Hi Galina ...... I'd only been saying to Eddie hope Galina is well - have not seen you around, and now here you are at Tess' blog.

      Glad to have you back ..........

      All the best Jan

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    2. hi, Galina! hope you had a wonderful vacation -- it's great to see you back! :-D

      yes, inspired by certain -- ahem -- "rice lovers" I took a whirl at adding starches back into my diet about two years ago, and SURPRISE ... I started gaining weight on them, too! I DID manage to fix my gut to the point that I can have a small serving of potatoes or even grains on a highly-infrequent basis (which makes "public eating" easier), but as an everyday occurrence ... bad idea!

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  5. G'day Tess. It seems some of the lean ones, and even not so lean ones, care a great deal because restricting carbohydrates is deeply offensive to their sensibilities. I get that impression, at least - especially from the hostile intruders into certain forums - the truth must be told! With shitloads of references!

    Some people go through life determined to be offended by almost everything - except being told what to do by the greater majority. Being part of the herd is comforting, I s'pose. The black sheep need to be brought into line and told to stop upsetting everyone else's sense of peace and serenity while grazing on grass.

    Re the "eternally offended", I see some people set up blogs purely to 'disprove' the black sheep. That's all they do. I don't get it, but I don't really care either.

    Have a good one.

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    1. I can only imagine that deep down, they know the high-starch diet is detrimental, but they've self-talked themselves into a state of denial. the more people who CAN give up their wheat, rice, beans and potatoes, the more they doubt themselves, and that makes them uncomfortable.

      you have a good one, too, Chips! :-) as it's getting "springy" here, I imagine you're getting into the lovely autumnal weather that I love so well, in your part of the world....

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  6. How do you, guys, like it ? From the primalpalate.com -

    " So in an effort to make Paleo even easier and more accessible to the masses, we are proud to say that it’s okay for everyone to eat sugar again! You know you want to!
    There’s nothing quite like having a sugar craving at night, and now, instead of having to look for “healthy” alternatives, you can just reach for a candy bar. No big deal! With this recent change to our “30 Day Guide to Paleo” program, it’s so easy, anyone can do it!"

    So they try to appeal to the people in their audience who regularly suffer from sugar cravings at night , probably the result of sugar eating as a bed-time snack. I can testify how going to bed hungry will never result in a sugar craving during sleep even after being warn out by exercising during the day. I even observe it in my not-LCarber husband.

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    1. i sit here with my mouth hanging open in disbelief.... could that be an April Fools post???

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  7. Well I know speaking only for myself - I only ate a few days "healthy lacto-ovo-vegetarian" high-carb fare on my vacation over a MONTH ago, yet I'm STILL struggling to get back in line...(Yeah Easter didn't help either)

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    1. yes, the sure sign i've had too many carbs is WANTING MORE! ...oh, and having the scale number rise inappropriately....

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