On 9/16/2015 9:31 PM, Muggles wrote:

In the US, it's not uncommon for people to gain 10 pounds in a decade.
This doesn't sound like much. OTOH, it's not "just a little". In
the grand scheme of things, a pound per year translates into a caloric
imbalance (more coming *in* than being burned) of ~1 *lifesaver* each
day! Surely, we should be able to live without that *tiny* bit of
extra calories?? Yet, we don't. It's a slice of bread per week! :

Over the last 10 years I've quit eating potatoes and bread and other
such carbs not because it's bad for me, but because I just didn't want
it any more. Don't get me wrong, I still like the occasional baked
potato, but I've opted for baked sweet potatoes, instead.

I think potatoes and white rice are frowned upon as they are starches
(simple sugars) and *rush* sugar into the bloodstream. Instead, the
emphasis is on high glycemic index foods -- so the body has to "work"
to digest them (i.e., make their calories available).

Once in a
while I'll even allow myself some bread if it's a whole grain. It just
doesn't taste good to me any more.

I find bread to be highly addictive! When I'm trying to watch my
weight, bread is the first thing I try to get out of my diet.

OTOH, it's such an "easy" way to get some calories into your body
(vs. actually making a *meal*) that there is always the temptation to
just grab a few slices with butter, or slobber some Bolognese
sauce on a run and have a 20 second meal...

No sugar in tea if I have tea, and I
mostly drink water along with some fruit juice.

I drink (hot) tea exclusively -- in a 16 oz "mug". No coffee. No soda.
Very little "water". A box of 100 tea bags lasts me about 2 weeks.
Fruit juice is too sweet for me (exceptions being pineapple or
pomegranate -- which tend to be "self limiting" due to the
intensities of their flavors!).

I used to use honey as sweetener for my tea but was spending a *lot*
of money on 6 lb containers of honey every month or so ("sugar" just
doesn't taste right in tea). I can stomach Stevia if I use a fair
bit of fresh lemon juice in the tea. Or, agave nectar if I want to
avoid the lemon juice.

It does have natural
sugars in it, but I don't think natural sugars are nearly as bad as the
status quo wants us to believe. The same goes for choosing real butter
over fake margarine.

I use a *lot* of butter! And whole milk. And heavy cream. And cream cheese.
And sour cream. But, mainly in my baking. The only thing that uses margarine
are pizzelles; butter just doesn't work in that Rx.

I suppose I could eliminate more stuff from my
diet, but I have to eat something! It seems about everything there is TO
eat that someone somewhere is going to find a reason that it's bad for you.

There's a joke about The Cardiologist's Diet: If it tastes good, spit it out!
To some extent, this is correct. Our bodies obsess over fat and sugar.
Especially if we can get both at the same time!

I buy a lot of butter, sugar, flour -- esp this time of year (e.g., 50 pounds
of flour just for "holiday baking"). The consolation is that almost *all*
of this stuff gets given away -- let *other* folks suffer the ill effects
of these things, not me! : And, strangely enough, they are GLAD to
do so! ;-)