Carbs, the crack of the masses

I wasn't going to write about this tonight, but then I started poking around online...the government food pyramid. I read a couple of blogs that talk about how the American Government is making us fat. OK, they caught my attention. I was reading this piece that questions whether carbs are more addictive than cocaine. Well, scientists and nutritionists are starting to view sugars through an addictive model. This was part of my last conversation with my nutritionist. And I know that when I eat sugar, I can not stop. That tells me that they're addictive. Turns out, they also work in our brains in the same places as drugs...dopamine receptors. Carbs make us feel good, just like drugs.

Anyway, that's not really the point. The article talks about how the government is recommending that our diet consist of 45% - 65% of carbs. So, a little over 1/2 of our diet should be in the form of carbs??? Really?? Hmmmm, and who is it that subsidizes the corn and soy farmers so that their products can be processed into EVERYTHING that we eat??? I'm not so certain that I trust the government to tell me what I should be eating anyway, but I think I'm even more skeptical now.

So, I decided to check it out for myself. I went on out to the USDA's website in search of the Government's food pyramid. You know what I found? Well, I found the pyramid, but you know what else? I found that the Government's website that we're supposed to look to for guidance on healthy eating is confusing and difficult to navigate! No wonder Americans don't know what to eat! OK, seriously, I found what I was looking for, but it took awhile. Try your hand at it. I dare you. What I found was that the government recommends the following daily allowances for a woman my age:

• 6 oz grains, or oz equivalent
• 2 1/2 cups veggies
• 3 cups dairy
• 5 oz protein
• 1 1/2 cups fruit
• 5 tsp oils

OK, maybe not half, but carbs are the largest single group represented!! You've got to be kidding me! Don't they know that all those carbs are stored as fat and that flooding our bodies with all those sugars will increase our insulin output to the point of making us insulin resistant. Maybe that's the Government's way of subsidizing the pharmaceutical company? Yeah, this makes me angry. It makes me angry that our Government provides nutrition information in a format that is difficult to find and it makes me angry that our Government advocates eating so many carbs.

For me, I can't eat that many carbs. I'm simply not active enough in my daily life these days. OK, maybe lately I have been, but during the semester, not so much. Here's the thing. I believe Michael Pollan when he states 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' That makes sense to me. That's given me the results that I've seen recently, not carbs.

This banana and my grande americano were my pre-breakfast snack. I was a little off schedule...breakfast wasn't going to happen until a little after 10am...thus, the snack.

Normal breakfast....you can always tell when I bring my eggs from home because they're brown. The cafeteria uses mainly white eggs. Personally, I don't care if my eggs are white or brown or greenish-blue (from araucana chickens), I just look for cage-free.

Recognize this?? I ran out of lettuce for my salads so I brought in my 'mostly vegetarian' sautee along with some leftover broccoli and brussel sprouts. All those gassy foods, maybe that wasn't such a good idea?


This afternoon at work we had a party...I avoided the cake, but brought in some fruit salad. I had about a pint of mango and berries at the party. I also had a non-fat latte after work.

Dinner, salmon and avocado brown rice sushi with steamed yellow squash. There's also a little broccoli under there. That's soy sauce at the bottom of the picture.