Gyrobob
Serious Thumper
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Posers ain't motorcyclists
Posts: 2571
Newnan, GA
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Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 12/16/11 at 08:11:35:Gyro and Kim -
I can't do the dubject justice in a few lines here, so lease forgive brevity.
There is no doubt that grains are carbs, but most are the "good", high density carbs that take a while to digest, and don't cause spikes in blood glucose levels. The bad wheat products, like refined white flour, donuts, cakes, etc. are horrible, no doubt. A small bowl of raw oatmeal, not refined, isn't bad for us.
I agree with Gyro's comment about obesity becoming rampant in the 1950s and later. But there is another thing we have to consier too. That is caloric burn. Carbs are the foundation of the glucose our bodies use as fuel.
How we burn that fuel is a big factor. After WW II, our society moved off of the farms and out of hard, manual labor into being a sedentary society for the most part. Hence, when our bodies aren't demanding a lot of fuel to keep bosies running that are working hard, the bad effects of carbs started showing up in diabetes and obesity.
In my bicycling days, back when I would ride 100 miles per week in the summer, I was skinny. Why? because at those work levels, my body needed lots of fuel, and I could eat pasta, bread, etc. and quickly consume the fuel. That's why competitive cyclists "carbo load" before an event - their bodies need fuel and lots of it.
I'm not saying that all of this theory is junk. But everything is more complicated than a few simple answers. We have to look at exercise, or call it work, to burn off consumption of carbs. If we are sedentary in our life styles, then sure, limit carb intake to a good degree. When you totally eliminate carbs for a time, as Kim did, or as the Cleveland Clinic program that I mentioned earlier does, you lose a lot of weight quickly, because your body turns to the stored fat to provide the fuel it needs.
But if you're really active, particularly if you have a job like construction laborer, you will burn what you take in. Do avoid the refined junk, as it is metabolized to quickly, and does spike blood glucose levels. But good, unrefined cereal grains like whole oats, barley, etc. do not dso that.
Why do you think that we feed race and working horses a diet of corn and oats? To supply their bodies with fuel, without spikes in glucose. First of all, thanks for sticking with the discussion in an objective manner. You still have some misconceptions I'd like to address, but it is a breath of fresh air to have a rational discussion with someone possessing an opposing point of view.
I agree with your comment on burning off the carbs. Atkins and Davis go along with this too. Atkins, in fact, holds that if you treat yourself to a heart-thumping, sweat-dripping 45 minute workout 4 times a week, you can effectively double the carb count you would otherwise need to maintain a given body weight.
They are (were) both cardiologists, so they would also be very supportive of keeping up the workouts. This is one of the big reasons for Kim's success,.. she is sticking to an exercise schedule that benefits her greatly.
Grains are mostly bad,.. wheat because of all the detrimental effects mentioned in the book (drawn from research over the past decades),.. but all grains do have an adverse effect on blood sugar, even what you refer to as "good" grains.
-- "Good" grains are "good" only when compared to wheat. An often used analogy is "good" cigarettes. Low-tar, filtered, cigarettes look pretty good compared to standard cigarettes. Both are quite unhealthy, but the cigarette lobby uses this comparison to recommend smoking more of the low-tar cancer sticks, rather than not smoking at all.
-- The whole-grain lobby uses the same procedure,... compared to white flour sugary food (twinkies?), whole grain food looks pretty good. They do studies showing an improvement when switching to whole-grain food. Therefore, we should eat more wheat/grain. They completely bypass what would happen if we switched to no grains at all.
Glycemic index shows how much of a blood sugar spike various foods cause. Most desirable is NO glycemic index at all,.. such as with meat, cheese, eggs, etc. Acceptable blood sugar increases go along with veggies, fruits, nuts, etc. Keeping a glycemic index in the low 20s or less will put the least strain on blood sugar levels. Anything above 40 will create a blood sugar spike above 200mg/dl two hours later for most folks.
cauliflower, green beans, lettuce, spinach, etc. 15
strawberries 20
raspberries 22
rice 70
oats 60
corn 60
whole wheat bread 62
white bread 70
pasta 55
snickers bar 43
table sugar 65
cream of wheat cereal 66
cheerios 74
Eat a bowl of oatmeal or cheerios in the morning, and I can guarantee you a blood sugar spike shortly after you get to work, followed by a late morning slump as the blood sugar level ricochets back down below normal, following by some strong hunger pangs demanding a mid-morning snack. Then the whole procedure repeats itself, and you are starving for lunch.
Keep the carb levels low and moderate, have no wheat/grains, and after a few days of this, the blood sugar roller coaster goes away. So do the slumps, and hunger pangs.
I do go on, don't I? 
Anyway, any grains give blood sugar spikes. Avoiding all grains, especially wheat, creates some very pleasant surprises. I won't repeat them here; this post is plenty long already.
Is there any chance you might get to read the book sometime? If you don't want to buy it (Amazon $16), some libraries have it, and the bookstores get shipments in occasionally, but they don't last too long. Some folks on the Wheat Belly FB page say they have read the book while relazing in the book store.
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