The Sassy Sandpiper contemplates that least popular of topics for this time of year – healthy eating (also known as dieting).

By M.R. WILSON, Columnist, TB Reporter

’Twas the night before keto

and all through my gut

came rumbling and grumbling

I’d eaten just what-

ever I wanted,

fake carbs and fake fat

in bright, shiny boxes…

Knew better than that…

’Tis the Season, and it began at Thanksgiving—or maybe the day before if you prepped early.

You know what I mean: those gluttonous eight weeks or so when the Grinch steals willpower, if any happened to be lying around the house.

But wait! Didn’t it really start at Halloween? You bought candy for the kids on sale in September and ate it in a few days? Labor Day picnics, those last blasts of summer? Oh, no. It was earlier. Fourth of July. You’re not patriotic unless you eat a fried chicken or two, drink a keg of beer, and scarf down a couple of Grandma’s apple pies. Ooops. That’s not right, either. It was the Memorial Day outing. Nope. Easter candy. Drat. Valentine’s Day! You may vaguely remember the shame of abandoning your New Year’s resolution to GET SERIOUS ABOUT EATING RIGHT.

Take heart. It’s not all your fault. You can blame the corporate co-conspirators that produce our so-called food, hack into our brain’s most basic needs, and keep us addicted to stuff our ancestors would not recognize as edible. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., explains how this all works (against us and for the food-medical-insurance giants) in his book, The Hacking of the American Mind.

Don’t look to your doctor to help you with this dilemma. Most of them receive zero credit hours in nutrition during medical school. Besides that, there is no profit in health.

There is good news and it doesn’t involve fanatic exercise, starvation, or budget-crushing menus featuring exotic foodstuffs from the Brazilian rainforest.

Ketogenic diets (burn fat for energy, not glucose) are getting a lot of attention these days and they work. The mechanism appears counterintuitive at first: eat fat and grow slim, as Richard Mackarness tried to teach way back in 1958. Since then our guiding Food Pyramids have been turned upside down by powers that be who blatantly ignored the science. Research has shown it’s not dietary fat but refined carbohydrates that cause our systems to go haywire. The liver gets stuffed with glycogen and pretty soon there’s no more room, so glycogen is converted to fat for storage and ends up on your hips and elsewhere, including the vital organs.

I’m oversimplifying, but great resources abound if you want to learn more about our truly astonishing physiology.

Knowledge is power and I am more than a little miffed about the nation’s food supply. Approximately 80 percent of the products in the grocery stores are processed, hiding manufactured sugars under many guises, many names. Mad food scientists toil ceaselessly recalibrating the “bliss point.”

Just eat real food. Limit carbs to 30-60 grams daily.

Merry Keto to all and to all a good bite!

Sassy Sandpiper | M.R. Wilson | Diet | Food | Tampabay News

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