It is quite amazing just how many people take expert advice at face value, even the Government does it. When I mention that I was walking as exercise, people look at me like I have lost it. And yet, walking is good exercise and a few keep fit sites do have articles on this form of exercise though usually aimed at the 'oldies'. The playing down of walking as exercise is very much about vested interests of the fitness industry, after all, who will pay to walk?
It reminds of the furor over the 'Atkins' diet and the overhyping of incidents of stupid people who could not follow instructions to feed the hesteria. Who made the most noise then? The potato and wheat/flour industries, of course. They are happy not to come out against any diet as long as it does not preach against eating their products. Go on a water and bread diet for 6 months and the wheat industry will say just enough to be seen as being responsible.
Diets are a massive industry and Atkins obviously had a vested interest in defending their 'formula'. The debate sparked so much controversy that I bet thousands of people put of losing weight from the confusion when most 'honest' experts will agree that 'losing the weight' is much more preferred course of action than doing nothing. The manner of losing that weight, low fat, low carb, low whatever, becomes less important when you compare the dangers of being grossly overweight. Later, when you are in a safer zone, you can balance your diet working out what actually works of you!
I lost a lot of weight on a 'low carb' diet. I actually enjoyed the diet and not once did I suffer the dreaded 'hunger pangs' of other diets. I did not follow a particular brand of diet but like everything else, it had to become a habit and a life style change. You cannot revert back to bad eating habits having lost weight and expect that your body will react to that food differently than the first time when you piled on the pounds. As Einstein is reputed to have said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The vested interest didn't do my case too good because the rest of the family did want to follow the diet and as time went by, the special cooking arrangements slowly eroded away. With the stop smoking and the increased drinking, the pounds came piling back on.
So we have experts telling us what we should eat, how much of it and when. And occasionally, a brave scientist will raise their head above the pulpit at the risk of getting their head shot off to present another view. And how many times have we been told wine is good for you, not good for you and good for you again? How many times has old good advise turned out to be bad advise and now causes cancer? Experts have to be paid and who pays them. A lot of them are employed by the very same vested interests that they advocate? Are they always telling us the truth - think the cigarette scientists here?
Take the current 'five a day' bandwagon. Just about all the supermarkets and manufacturers of fruit juice and vegetable extract of some sort or another are telling you how their product makes up part of your 'five a day'. And yet, are all fruits the same? Do some of them not have enough sugar (fructose) in them to raise your blood sugar levels - which in turn leads to fat? What about vegetables? Are they all equally good after all even potatoes are poisonous when not cooked adequately?
My wife swears she believes, she is yet to practice though, the theory of eating for you blood group. I am skeptical about the blood group but I more inclined to think in terms of genetic makeup. The Chinese are renown for their alcohol intolerance and many, many cultures are lactose intolerant. Milk may be good for some of us but it is not good for everyone!
My brand of 'low carb' was based on a lot of 'expert' advice from many sources including the Atkins diet and the excellent UK produced The Carbwiser Plan (http://www.carbwiser.co.uk/) by Dave Mills. I learnt enough about how we get fat and what sorts of things make you fat and then worked with what I got (some products are harder to find) and try to fit in with the family. I, for example, did not stop drinking during the whole period (talk about flexibility!!!)
Where am I going with this post? Well I did touch on a subject that will be close to my heart or should I say, beer belly. The point is that you need to take everything with a pinch of salt especially perceived wisdom of the day. Use your mind, your education, listen to you body and add a dash of skepticism to determine what is really good for you. Blindly following a Bedouin diet because it is flavour of the day is likely to be a dangerous path to follow.
Blindly following anything, not only diets, is bound not to be good for your balance.
May you find the balance.
[First published on my Talking2Myself blog on specified date]