... to a high-carb, low-fat diet.

I opened up a box of Cheez-Its; they smelled like dog food to me.

It brought back my memory of visiting Battle Creek, MI as a child. The Kellogg's plant was on one side of the highway and Purina was on the other.

hey michigander! Im one too. from the land of michael moore! birch run? frankenmuth? north of flint?

It IS funny, when you say oh Ill just have a taste of something you used to eat all the time, its totally different. Tuesday I decided to go off plan for a night, we were eating at chevys and I knew I wouldnt be able to say no to the chips and salsa. It still was pretty good, I had the fajitas and only a taste of the beans and rice, but the chips like, hurt my teeth! the beans and rice looked like cooled lumps of poo and just tasted like SALT. but the shrimp and other nummy bits of meat were DELICIOUS. hello, sour cream, guacamole, salsa? I could never go back.

This happened to me years ago when I started cooking and baking from scratch regularly (before I went on Atkins). One day I had a taste for a childhood snack and it tasted like cardboard and chemicals. I was appalled. My own food tastes so much better. It's amazing how taste buds can change.

I can understand what your saying totally. I remember things being so much better than they were and can't understand how I wasn't able to resist things. I have also noticed that I no longer smell "forbidden" things, like birthday cake, or pizza..those were dream foods for me then..now nothing.

For me, because I have much more energy & am no longer swollen all over. Weird how a high carb diet can cause me to hold so much water. Salt does NOT have this same effect, which indicates that the whole salt thing may be somewhat a myth for those of us w/ functioning kidneys...

I can relate to the crackers. Carb foods feel ultra-processed, fake, and "dead" somehow. Interesting how the palate changes w/ this diet.

I wonder how influential the food industry (all the makers of processed stuff, the majority of "food" found in most grocery stores) is in protesting a diet that advocates for real, whole foods. Are they responsible for the smear campaign against low carb, I wonder?

I'm probably late in the game to wonder this, compared to all the knowledgeable people on these boards.

I'm with ya, Jenn! The other day oldest ds bought some donuts and honey buns at the grocery, then didn't want to eat them in front of me because he was afraid I'd be tempted....I told him to go for it! They are just nasty greasy bundles of poison to me! YUCK!!!!

That said, I've had two VERY close calls recently - one was with Cheese-Its (just the box got me going) and the other was with home cooked fresh french fries. I was able to resist the Cheese-Its and only ate ONE fry.

I think I'm FINALLY over the processed junk now after 8 years!

I concur. I used to derive pleasure from a slip-up of junk food, but I no longer do. To me, it just tastes gross. I had some potato chips a few weeks back, and the artificial flavoring practically made me gag, plus it at the distict taste of some nasty seed oil. I never would have noticed that a couple years ago. I had some store bought pudding that was equally as gross. It was so sweet, I simply could not eat it.

I find I am more sensitive to salt and sugar now, and therefore can barely tolerate processed foods. I cannot believe I used to like that stuff. For example, I used to LOVE doritos, but I honestly do not think I could eat them anymore.

I think the food industry plays a bigger role than actual scientific reasoning ever could when it comes to diet advice. The corn, grain, soy and sugar people have everything to lose if people eat a good diet. I cannot imagine how much money they spend simply bribing congress every year to keep their industries afloat. That is why I think the bottom-up effect of websites like this one is so important.

I honestly cannot think of one manufactured food that I would consider to be healthy if eaten in mass quantities. And yes, I am including "lean" pockets and "lean" cuisine.

Hey scthgharpy! I'm in Jackson. I love Frankenmuth! I went three times last year.

It's been humid here, so I dumped that box of Cheez-It crackers into a container with a lid. Yesterday, I opened up the tub filled with dog food and told my 12 year old daughter to take a whiff. I then cracked open the crackers and told her take a smell of that, too. She said,

"EW. It smells like cheesy dog food!"

My daughter is my toughest challenge; she loves carbs. She's thin and active now but I just know that once her growing slows down, she's going to have the same kind of issues that I've had with carbs.

I 'bout to get all Jamie-Oliver-shock-treatment up in here.

When I started LCing again this time I also tossed out all the polyunsaturated vegetable oils and everything made with them.

All of the bottled salad dressings went, which means I've spent the past month experimenting with making dressings from scratch. Now I can't believe I didn't start doing it sooner. I'm hooked on homemade bleu cheese dressing, and have also made some wonderful creamy herb dressings with fresh homegrown herbs (including tarragon, dill, oregano, Italian parsley) and fresh garlic.

Problem is, I'm now spoiled. I went out of town over the weekend, and while I stuck very closely to plan all the dressings I ate were gross. I had some chunky bleu cheese dressing that I used to like, and it tasted like a big glob of soybean oil (which, frankly, it is). In other dressings, I could also taste the sugars, which I hadn't been able to do before.

When I got in last night I was starving, so I made myself a steak and a salad smothered in homemade garlic-bleu cheese dressing. Three days away had given the flavors in the dressing time to develop, and it was absolutely wonderful. And as I ate it, I thought, "Man, it's good to be home..."

I've noticed a LOT of things smell really gross now. Things I used to eat a lot of!