The five food groups are making me fat
By Rose Simpson
I’ve just rounded the corner of my second week on the South Beach Diet, and I’ve lost four pounds. Not only have I lost four pounds, but my head is clear and I can actually stay awake all afternoon without needing a sleep.
This has never happened before, the staying up part, as I have spent most of my life taking afternoon naps. Even when I was working, I’d close my office door, put my head on the desk and catch a quick few zees after lunch. I’ve never liked this about myself; everybody else seems to be fairly wide awake in the afternoon, but not me.
And the last few months, I’ve felt about to die in the afternoon, really, really, really sick and tired about supper time. I thought I might be drinking too much, but it wasn’t that. I cut out my usual habit of several rounds of red, but it didn’t make one bit of difference.
So I decided to give South Beach a try. The first two weeks of this diet requires the fattie to stop eating all fruit and grains, so basically no grains at all. In the morning, it’s basically, a couple of eggs, a few snacks during the day, meat, poultry, lots of veg and light dairy. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’re committed, the South Beach is a very easy diet to follow.
Within days, all of my symptoms disappeared. No more acid reflux, no more fuzzy head, no more sheer exhaustion in the afternoon. Not to mention the fact I’ve lost the equivalent of a flat of hamburger around the belly button.
It’s pretty clear what’s been making me sick and fat. It’s the grains.
I’ve spent the last few years as a very committed grainovore, meaning my diet consisted of lots of sandwiches, paninis, pasta and wraps. At lunch time, the old sanny has always been a staple. Now I’m eating vegetable soup and these weird rollups which are basically hummus and turkey and tomato wrapped in lettuce. It’s not bad actually.
No more pasta or rice for dinner, either. I don’t miss it. It’s nothing more than cattle feed anyway.
Nearly all of the other diets I’ve tried have included a hefty amount of grains – oatmeal for breakfast, wraps for lunch, brown rice, and so on. None of these diets have worked. And so, I’ve learned, balance is out.
It’s the best kept secret in the diet world – the five food groups can make you fat.
So there, Health Canada, stop spending all that money on fancy pie charts. Stop telling us that healthy eating is one size fits all.
As for me, I’m looking forward to going to the Gap for jeans again, in about four months.
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Rose Simpson
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