Quote: (10-01-2012 05:10 PM)HiFlo Wrote:
carbs make you fat. Gary Taubes popularized this, and it works. wheat (bread and pasta), potatoes & sugar are the most common carbs.
Wheat was never the dominant grain in America until about the mid 1900's. Millet was America's staple grain for a very long time.
Prior to that is was High-grade strains of Corn.
Gluten and other low-brade carbs sources make you fat.
Carbs such as Rice, Potatoes IMO are higher up the totem pole. Many cultural diets have these as staples and are fine.
Potatoes get a bad rap because Americans/Westerners boil or fry the crap out of them, don't eat the skins, and generally add fats to it when consumed. Potatoes are full of Potassium, Vitamin C, B-Vitamins, Phosphorus, and Magnesium. Though they are a quick digesting carbs most culture eat their potatoes with a good helping of greens - my guess to slow down the digestion of the Potato starch. My culture does this, we also pair Sweet Corn with Beans - doing the opposite - to help aid in breaking down the corn.
We don't eat enough Root vegetables, they are full of minerals and trace elements our body need, Of course they will be energy dense as this is what helps feed the plant. Celery roots, Taro, Beets, Potatoes, Yams, Parsnips, Carrots - are all healthy and needed parts of a diet.
A Carrot is full of Sugar most would not claim for it to be unhealthy. If you deep fry it in fat, or boil it to high hell.. of course it would be though.
Eat your potatoes... they are good for you. (If prepared properly).
The Anti-Gluten thing is becoming more mainstream but it still a small segment of the population, mostly nouveau riche/white yuppies whom are big into it as they mostly are the ones whom suffer from Gluten ailments.
In short most Classic-cultures know what the hell they are doing with food. Generations of tweaking diets to geographical and physical traits. The modern diet for all its science and technology is complete trash. We have placed value in the process and abundance of food we eat versus the quality. Classic cultures put more emphasis in the quality of energy they were getting as they had to output more energy to gain calories - It was a matter of efficiency - A human could not process by hand the amount of empty calories we eat today.
This is why I always say if you want to know how to best eat and be healthy look to how your classic anestors ate - what foods did they consume from that region of the world and incorporate those staples into your diet. Your genetics are taylor-made to run on that fuel versus the Western Diet we are used to. Go back to your roots while borrowing the best from around the world.
This is why I can eat this (On right, Fufu):
Which is literally nothing but a dense pound + mound of 100% Carbohydrates, made from 100% Cassava flour which would probaly put most people in a Glysemic Coma and be perfectly fine and have energy all day with no crash.
......
Saturated fats. Yes they are good for you if they are from clean sources. The Saturated fat argument was made by Petro-Chemicalists whom wanted to pawn off plastic crud AKA Margarine as a healthier alternatives to natural Butter.
Many cultures use Palm and Coconut exclusively as their fat sources and have no issues with Heart ailements.