"Generally, if you are enjoying meals consisting of lean protein, good fats, and nutrient-dense, fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, you will naturally feel satisfied and have no desire to overeat. Invariably this means you'll take in fewer calories overall—no counting necessary.".

My kind of dietary lifestyle.

Bo

"Lean meats and good fats" is a falsehood. Lean meats will kill you, good fats will save you, but the only meats that are healthful are fatty meats.
And why bother eating whole grains if they're indigestible? The only way to make a whole grain digestible is to mill it... not a whole grain anymore!

Lean protein (98% fat free chicken or ham), whole grains, legumes, fiber-rich fruits was what caused my weight gain in the first place. Yummy whole grain bread & veggie sandwiches... There is nothing "natural" about eating grains and legumes.

FYI - there is a blog entry by Tara Parker Pope on this over at the New York Times. She completely missed the point that none of the low carb dieters in the study actually ate low-carb.

Several commenters on the thread have pointed this out, but she has completely ignored them. The majority of comments are the smugly thin idiots who chant "calories-in-calories-out" constantly as if they knew all along. One suspects that they, like Pope, didn't apply anything close to a critical eye to the study or its particulars.

When the New York Times is this lazy, the future of journalism is poor, at best.

Me too Bo!

Journalism is dead, all we have left is infotainment.

The appendix shows the menus given in all groups:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/data/360/9/859/DC1/1
(scroll down)
The "low carb" diet includes graham crackers, bananas, white potatoes. What a crock!!
From personal experience I know that even eating a couple crumbs of graham crackers makes my blood sugar go nuts and I start binging.
the whole point is appetite control - once you have that down the rest is so easy....

All the "nutrient-dense, fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains ..." are empty calories leading to embarrassing gas, bealching, heartburn, high FBS, chronic inflammation and premature ageing-- in my experience.

Good thing that there are so many different plans for each of us to find which one works best for us as individuals.

I don't have any of the symptoms you have and we are the same age.

All I'm asking is that they include an actual low-carb diet in their study, if they want to study macronutrient ratios and pronounce one better or worse than the other.

I agree.

I don't purposely try to get 'fatty meats' into my plan, but I'm not emphasizing lean meats either. Meat is just meat.

Now grains on the other hand...(no, I won't go there).

_________________________

***edited to add: just for some clarification here - I say 'meat is meat' because I don't want to have to worry about meats - meaning, I don't want to be trying to purposely always choose the fattier cuts of meat, nor do I want to always be going for lean meats only. Also - I don't think saturated fats in meats are nearly as bad for us as they're made out to be. All of this said, I am not saying that I disagree with the 'only lean meats' option - if you want more carbs, and are trying to lose some weight - then, yes - you can opt for 'lean meats' as a way of reducing fats so as to accomodate a higher-carb version of a low carb plan. This is built into Atkins too.

As bad as comments on a blog can be - how about the comments of physicians, researchers, RD's and other professionals at NEJM's comment section for the study paper itself?

http://www.nejm.org/clinical-direct...ght-loss-diets/

The comments are by date, so start at February 25 and then click through each day since if you want to read those comments and....well.....sigh

Persons with diabetes type 2 and those who are overweight have advantage of eating a lowcarb and high fat diet. The fats should be of natural sources, not margarines. Nice to see Dr Annika Dahlqvist Physician from Sweden contributing to the NEJM comments. I'm afraid her English is not terribly good. (100% better than my ability to comprehend Swedish though)

Yeah, isn't it funny how that is?

I can get away with a few lentils now and then in soup but not beans. Lentils are only about 10 net carbs / serving; delicious, very cheap, keep forever and are high in protein, but watch out for those little rocks that look like a lentil! I used to use pasta or rice to thicken soups. The Sherpa in Tibet live mostly on them and they are some of the fittest people on Earth. At least they were, until their diets got a Western influence.

Like Judy, I also do not suffer any of the above problems. However, I do maintain a healthy caloric level so my portions are limited. Perhaps a few tablespoons of black beans or an occasional slice of Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Cranberry Hazelnut Bread. The secret to whole grain and legume consumption is moderation.

Bo

Just my opinion, but anything that must be consumed in moderation is probably not a truly healthy food. I'm not saying a person can't or shouldn't eat these things. If a person can make it work for them, then fine. Just don't con yourself into thinking it's "health food".

A person can eat meat to their heart's content with no ill effects, if that is all they eat. I doubt the same can be said about any other food.