I've seen Gary Taubes express a concern a few times that if the Carbohydrate hypothesis ever really replaced calories in/calories out, people might still assume that overweight people were to blame, but for a more specific carbohydrate gluttony instead of a general one. You can't really assume that that person with a cart full of carbs hasn't tried low carb, and if they did, that they failed low carb rather than the other way around. When I went low carb, I pretty much lost my taste for carbs, in a way. I might eat some pretty crummy carbs at Christmas, etc.--but afterwards, I can't wait to get back to my usual diet. I've done brief periods on low fat, high carb in the last couple years--again, I can't wait to get back to low carb. It's hard for me to come down too heavily on people who are tempted by potato chips, when the foods that tempt me are far less likely to make me fat--since I went low carb, the consequences of giving in to highly palatable foods have decreased. I can't really say that I have any more self-control, just that what little self-control I do have has become way more effective. I just don't want carbs that badly, I think only childhood memory makes them tempting at Christmas, the rest of the year, it's not like I'm jealous when other people are eating birthday cake or anything.

That meal at Denny's--when I was nine, I wouldn't have hesitated to eat that, but I was skinny, so people would have just laughed at my hollow leg and temporarily bulging belly.