# I'm now boycotting any food product that says anything about "Carbs" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 5, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263 "2004-04-05T00:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/61 "2004-04-05T15:43:57Z")
> [@Michael Ellis](#): > > Isn’t “pulling your pork” a euphamism for mastrubating? 🙂 And I was trying SO hard not to include any such suggestion in my (perfectly genuine, btw) question! Oh well, serves me right for being polte and ladylike for once - why break the habit of a lifetime? **county** Thanks for your repsonse - I can’t say I’m very sure what difference the knife method or the “hand job” makes, but at least now I know what the name means! Incidentally, just how blooming dangerus are all these dreaded carbs meant to be? Honestly, I find a need to eat cheaply means eating rather a lot of rice, potatoes, lentils etc (OK, plus veg), and heck, if I chose to rad up much about Atkins, I suspect I wuold quickly fear it was time to make peace with any available gods and say goodbye to family! ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/62 "2004-04-05T15:56:29Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > Actually, I’ve been assuming that the next media blitz will be something bad about vegetables – too much bioaccumulation of heavy metals from the soil, or something. Fats, carbs, and dairy have been done – what’s left but veg & fruits for the next “Panic Diet Trend”? Could be, but I’m thinking that the pendulum’s going to swing between low carb and low fat for a while, as people make bad food choices on one diet, assume it doesn’t work, and go over to the other. Joyful, ain’t it? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/63 "2004-04-05T19:18:04Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Plus, I’m really active and the lack of carbs made me feel horrible and weak. I’m now just trying to avoid foods made with either corn syrup or white flour (ingredients in 99% of the crap food out there) and double my vegetable intake. I’m not a vegetarian, but I also have eliminated refined sugars, corn syrup, white flour and simple carbs from my diet and I have tons of energy. I feel better than I have in years. As I’ve posted in the numerous recent Atkins threads, it’s also helped me get rid of nearly crippling migraines. Obviously, I’m eating better than I have in years, but it’s my belief that too much sugar and too many carbs in my diet were responsible for my migraines. > [@](#): > > THe one good thing about the Atkins fad is it got me out of the mindset that I couldn’t eat vegetables unless they were steamed or raw (no added fat at all). Veggies are much tastier with some added oils… I agree. I love steamed broccoli or sugar snap peas with a little real butter on it. Butter went through its own vilification back in the 60s and 70s (“Butter?!? No! Butter will KILL you! You must use margarine!”). We _never_ had real butter around when I was growing up, always margarine. A pat of butter would cause your arteries to close up on the spot and you would just fall down dead in the street. :rolleyes: Now it’s margarine that’s getting the bad rap, and butter is okay. See how these things come around? > [@](#): > > It seems to me the low carb craze is exactly like the low fat fad of a few years ago. The general idea is good (more whole foods) but quickly becomes completely perverted by the food industry who markets all sort of “fake” foods comprised of the the very ingrediants the original diet was trying to get you to avoid… Exactly. It’s all I see now in the grocery store, “Low-carb this” and “Low-carb that.” One poster a while back claimed to have seen bottled water marketed as “Carb-Free!” That seems a bit far-fetched, but these days, nothing surprises me. Walk down the “Diet Aisle” of any grocery store and there are tons of Franken-Foods being marketed as low carb. I’ve even started seeing salad dressings now “Zero Carb!” … when regular salad dressings (not the low-fat or non-fat types) are usually only 2-3 carbs in 2 tablespoons. I mean, come on, how low carb do you need? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/64 "2004-04-05T19:24:16Z")
Thank God for this thread! I am so sick of hearing about Atkins. And seeing the food/restaurant industry falling all over itself to promote low-carb this and that. And listening to my friends whine about how they “can’t” go out for pizza, and they “can’t” eat my delicious pasta primavera, so I’ll have to make something else. As if they can’t just have a little and shut up about it already, without keeling over dead. I treasure the few friends I have left who are still omnivores. The few who are still a pleasure to eat with. I have nothing against people who have medical issues, but the people I’m talking about are all in perfectly fine shape and are in it for the fad factor. And I would never tell someone else what to eat. But the media seems convinced that Atkins is GOD, and my local grocery stores shelves are fully stocked with fake “low carb” “foods.” I can’t go out to eat without being handed an “Atkins-friendly” menu. And because I want to be a good hostess, God help me, I actually went out and bought a fucking low-carb cookbook just so I can feed my whiny-ass friends when they visit. I can’t even live Atkins-free in my own damned home. I’m with [Dave Barry.](http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/8292220.htm) I’m going to eat bread, and pasta, and potatoes, and rice, and carrots, and orange juice, and all of those other “evil,” “toxic” foods that have been feeding people for thousands of years. GOD, I can’t wait for the Atkins craze to just DIE so we can all go back to eating FOOD. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/65 "2004-04-05T19:51:49Z")
All this happened rather quickly, didn’t it? Seems like a year ago, you hardly ever heard about Atkins. ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/66 "2004-04-05T21:24:44Z")
Out of morbid curiosity, a few weeks ago I looked at the ingredient list in a “low-carb” fresh pasta product (it was just plain noodles, no flavorings or veggies or whatnot). I thought I’d see what the heck you can make pasta out of that will ensure it to be “low-carb.” It was one of the most frightening things I’d ever seen. I couldn’t pronounce, let alone identify, more than half of the at least 30 ingredients on the list. Then I compared it to the label on the regular fresh pasta. I think that label had 5 or 6 ingredients. Why bother eating “low-carb” frankenpasta? If you’re going to do the diet, do it the way it was intended - which certainly doesn’t call for eating fake pasta made out of weird chemicals! ---
**Author:** ![Lilairen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lilairen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilairen)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/67 "2004-04-05T21:44:16Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > Well, as a homebrewer, I know that you can - I swear to God - use Beano (yeah, the anti-flatulence tablets) to make low-carb homebrewed beer. I read about it in an issue of _Brew Your Own_ magazine last year. The enzyme breaks down more of the carbohydrates that are usually left over in beer, the yeast processes them, and your beer comes out lower in carbohydrates, and with a drier taste and slightly higher alcohol content. _small terrified noise_ It makes some sense, but . . . _squeak_ But I’m reminded that I need to rack my grape-strawberry wine and see if I’ve got a stuck ferment. Harrum. ---
**Author:** ![htns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@htns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/htns)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/68 "2004-04-06T04:29:37Z")
> [@fushj00mang](#): > > I’ve got three words for you: Food Guide Pyramid. Yea, it’s a hokey thing that gets eight year olds thinking about eating healty (well, it’s supposed to.) But I live by the bottom level: bread, pasta, cereals and grains. I tried the Atkins diet, but the loss of carbohydrates in my system made my ass drag through morning PT. > > But, one question: Low-carb beer…why bother? Remember the food diagram we all learned in the 1980s? Milk, meat, dairy, grain. Two servings of each per day. If it was good enough then, it’s good enough now. Fuck the new pyramid up the shitpipe with a flaming chainsaw. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/69 "2004-04-06T08:04:25Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > I think your friend was confused, too; however, she is partially correct - green vegetables are carbs. Carbohydrates are organic compounds that consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Vegetables are carbs only in some bizarre pidgin-English sense. To say “green vegetables are carbs” is like saying “I am molecules.” I suppose it’s true; but it’s a rather silly way of putting it. > [@](#): > > Yes, they contain a lot of cellulose and few actual grams of carbohydrates, but they are, in fact, still carbohydrates. Check out this > [link](http://health.yahoo.com/health/encyclopedia/002469/0.html). All vegetables, fruits, breads, pastas and the like fall under the umbrella of carbohydrates. To say that green vegetables are not carbohydrates would be inaccurate. No, to say that they _are_ carbohydrates is inaccurate. It is _more_ accurate to say that they _contain_ carbohydrates. At any rate, that’s all entirely beside the point. When we are talking about diet, what we should be concerned about is the number of grams of carbohydrate in the food. A 2 1/2" biscuit has 26.76 grams of carbohydrates, while a spear of brocolli has 1.62 grams and a leaf of lettuce has 0.35 grams; virtually none. They are quite simply not the same category. To say that they are is to confuse the issue. ---
**Author:** ![RAWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@RAWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RAWDuke)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/70 "2004-04-06T13:34:51Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Nutrasweet. > > I’ve really been thinking about putting out my own diet book. Unlike Atkins, who apparently emphasizes appropriate serving sizes and low carbohydrates, I’m going to emphasize appropriate serving sizes and foods that end in a vowel. > > Therefore, past **a** is okay, but noodle **s** are not. A potat **o** is okay, but not french frie **s**. Chow down on broccol **i** , but don’t touch spinac **h**. > > I’ll call it “Dr. Aribitrary’s Capricious Diet System.” > > I’m gonna be so goddamned rich. So, does this mean I can have ONE noodle, but as much pasta as I want? Can I eat a french fried potato, as long as I don’t eat any fries? I think you’re right, you’re gonna make a fortune. Surround those two paragraphs with 150 pages of BS and you’re there 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/71 "2004-04-06T13:52:20Z")
See, there you go again, **blowero** , introducing common-sense and coherencey where it isn’t required 😉 And yes **Lib** , it has been rather phenomenal - it wasn’t too many years ago that I remember hearing about a diet where complex carbohydrates were advocated in great bulk - 12 slices of bread per day plus _anything else you want_ (the idea being that after the 12 slices of bread, you wouldn’t have much room for other food). One wonders what will be the next fad - are there any more extremes left to run to? ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/72 "2004-04-06T14:53:38Z")
I learn some cool things in pit threads. F’rinstance, I’ll no longer blame Dr. Atkins for the lo-carb and no-carb craze, and I won’t mentally label all Atkin’s dieters as misled nutjobs. I’ll save my vitriol for the marketing geniuses and the fad-chasers they pander to. Oh, and diet zealots. Sheesh. Thanks especially to **JavaMaven1** for the level-headed and informative posts. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/73 "2004-04-06T15:19:09Z")
I don’t know too much about this book that Dr. Atkins wrote, but I saw him on Larry King live and his logic does seem to jive, although I still have the strange feeling that its too good to be true. I’m sorry. Call me old fashioned, but I get the feeling that something isn’t right there. But I am not against intelligent people making informed deciscions about their own diet based on controversial, yet relatively sound science. I left for Europe before the whole Atkins craze and I have been back only a few times since then. I hope it dies out before I leave. Luckily Atkins hasn’t caught on here. But what really chaps my ass is the fucking HYPE surrounding it and the stupid jackass mouthbreathers that will buy anything that the media tells them. Isn’t this a media dream come true? Hey! You can eat fatty foods and LOSE WEIGHT! You know there are some people who haven’t even read the book that have minimal knowledge about it. While they probably aren’t going to go completely Atkins, I bet they would eat at KFC more often (now that it’s “health food”) and would be eating the “Low-carb thick burgers.” For me its just fucking sad and disgusting all at the same time. Don’t get me wrong Atkins dieters, I don’t have a problem with the diet itself when followed correctly, but this dumbing-down process that happens everywhere is really going to be dangerous. Take this fatass with his POUND of pulled-pork, for example. Now I don’t know much about atkins but it seems that he does reccomend eating lots of vegetables. I don’t think this guy did it. But he put lots of extra sauce on it which is loaded with sugar. Its just a combination of sadness and disgust for me. It makes me disgusted that our society is so willing to dumb down an experimental diet to make it mass marketable. It is also sad that so many people actually try it because they think its easy. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/74 "2004-04-06T15:27:26Z")
I’ve been reading this thread, and I’ve completely missed the bit where people said that they are working out AND eating right. Being a thin flabby person isn’t significantly better than being a fat, flabby person. Get out there and sweat, people. Oh, and if I hear one more person squeal about “carbs”=I’m going to ask them what a carb is, what the difference between a simple carbohydrate and a complex carbohydrate is, and ask how the body uses carbohydrates. If I don’t get the right answers, they’re getting bitchslapped for being moronic food faddists. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/75 "2004-04-06T15:31:09Z")
Ya but what would Dr. Phil Say??? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/76 "2004-04-06T15:39:37Z")
There’s nothing more painful than the combination of ignorance and volume found in so many of the dieters out there. It’s never going to get better, but it is fun to quiz them on basic nutrition and watch them squirm. For what it’s worth, over the past 20 years or so, researchers have been looking at the effect of food choices on weight and body composition. There’s reason to believe that what you eat might be as important as how much of it you eat. This should be obvious–a diet composed of 2000 calories coming mainly from fruits and vegetables and being supplemented with lean protien and healthy fats is clearly better than a diet composed of 2000 calories coming from junk food. Very recently, there’s been some research into whether nutrient timing is important. It’s still early in the game, but it’s starting to look like it does matter. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/77 "2004-04-06T15:50:22Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > No, to say that they _are_ carbohydrates is inaccurate. It is _more_ accurate to say that they _contain_ carbohydrates. At any rate, that’s all entirely beside the point. When we are talking about diet, what we should be concerned about is the number of grams of carbohydrate in the food. A 2 1/2" biscuit has 26.76 grams of carbohydrates, while a spear of brocolli has 1.62 grams and a leaf of lettuce has 0.35 grams; virtually none. They are quite simply not the same category. To say that they are is to confuse the issue. I don’t think I’m going to argue this with you - I can see that I’m not going to get anywhere. However, I will point out once again that basically anything you eat (minus dairy & meat) has a plant derivative, which is why it’s called a carb. You do realize that regular white bread began as a plant (wheat), right? It’s just incredibly processed and mixed with other stuff. And just saying that vegetables only contain carbs rather than are carbs is just wrong - vegetables and fruits are made up of more complex carbon compounds than white bread because the flour that makes the bread has had all the other stuff removed from it. But just saying that vegetables are not carbs does not make it any less true that they are, in fact, carbs. Just because Dr. Atkins says something does not make it gospel. That’s one of the problems I have with people on Dr. Atkins’ diet. Yeah, the diet has some good points (eat more vegetables), but he’s not Christ or anything. You don’t have to take everything he says with blind faith. If you do happen to have legitimate proof (as in something that comes from a source other than the Atkins Web site), by all means, please prove me wrong. But until you can provide proof, you’re just blowing hot air. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/78 "2004-04-06T16:03:42Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > Carbohydrates are organic compounds that consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Vegetables are carbs only in some bizarre pidgin-English sense. To say “green vegetables are carbs” is like saying “I am molecules.” I suppose it’s true; but it’s a rather silly way of putting it. Not at all. Vegetables are, in essence, pure cellulose. Cellulose is, in essence, _pure sugar_. Just not in a digestible form. Cellulose is a long chain of glucose molecules connected by b-1,4 linkages. Check [this](http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/cell.htm) site for more info. We can only digest (in a general sense) a-1,4 bonds. So although green vegetables contain very few carbohydrates of any use to us, they are pure carbs. Make no mistake about it. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/79 "2004-04-06T16:19:17Z")
> [@](#): > > However, I will point out once again that basically anything you eat (minus dairy & meat) has a plant derivative, which is why it’s called a carb. No. Merely being derived from a plant does not define a “carb”. Carbohydrates are chemical compounds that generally (but not always) contain a ratio of 2 hydrogen atoms:1 carbon:1 oxygen. When you eat carbohydrate-heavy foods, like bread or potatoes, the body turns some of it into glycogen for immediate energy, but stores most of it as fat. When the body runs out of glycogen for energy, it begins breaking down fats, but fats can’t be turned back into gycogen. Instead, the fat is broken down into byproducts called ketones. This process is called ketosis, and its what Adkins adherents try to achieve through their diet. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263/80 "2004-04-06T16:32:30Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > I’ve been reading this thread, and I’ve completely missed the bit where people said that they are working out AND eating right. Being a thin flabby person isn’t significantly better than being a fat, flabby person. > > Get out there and sweat, people. Yeah, I didn’t mention this because 1) _everybody_, whether or not they’re trying to lose weight, should do this, and 2) I didn’t think it was relevant to the discussion about newly created “crap” food marketed to the “low carb” enthusists. (who, BTW, usually [aren’t](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&ncid=594&e=6&u=/nm/20040405/hl_nm/food_lowcarb_survey_dc) eating as low carb as they think) I find myself somewhat suseptible to these sort of things because even though I know a lot about nutrition, I’m always on the verge of not making weight for my chosen sport and I’m _lazy_, like many Americans. I’ve done the tracking all the foods I eat and making sure I get the right balance thing and it bores me. I eat a lot more ad lib than I used to and I like relatively _simple_ rules on foods to avoid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-now-boycotting-any-food-product-that-says-anything-about-carbs/238263.md?page=5)