carbs are not the enemy

Dear Ellen:

I’m trying to eat 100 grams of carbs a day, but my binge eating is triggered when I go higher than that number. What can I do to keep my carb content as low as I want but also not binge?

D.R., Vancouver

Dear D.R.:

Here I go again on the carb thing. At times I feel like a broken record (how’s that for an outdated phrase?) about this.  Carbs are extremely  important for optimal brain and body functioning.  Eating carbohydrates won’t make you fat. Consistently eating too much of any food will make you fat – that or your genetic predisposition.  Diets don’t work for long term weight loss and maintenance. They never have, and they never will.

The late Robert C. Atkins is responsible for populating my office hours with an entire generation of carbohydrate-phobics. For this I am far from grateful. I sincerely believe he and his successors are doing the world a tremendous disservice.

What I find fascinating about the whole anti-carb phenomenon, is that in the 1980s, when I was struggling with anorexia and bulimia, the diet guru of the day was Nathan Pritikin. The Pritikin program was antithetical to the Atkins diet. With Pritikin, you could eat all the carbs you could want, but no fat, no salt, no sugar, and only small amounts of very lean protein. Eventually, this program fell out of favour as being unsustainable. I wonder if and when Atkins will as well.

When you use an external rule system for managing your food, you’re inviting trouble. You begin to categorize food as “good” or “bad” and start seeing yourself as either good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, depending on your ability to follow the rules that you’ve set for yourself.

Carbs are not the enemy. "The Diet" is.  Stop counting and start listening to your body. You can trust it to let you know when and what you need to eat.

With love,

Ellen

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