I have a girlfriend who is not low carb. She "focuses on eating healthy fats and protein" *blank stare* mmmmmk.

When we chatted about her eating way and mine they're very similar but she made sure to tell me shes not eliminating an entire food group. Shes just eliminating "processed things"

My thought is there's a stigma attached for many about the "restriction, or "removal" perception that a low carb "DIET" poses. If you eliminate foods due to an alergy or intolerance theres less stigma. But to do it "on a whim" or to "lose weight" the negative perceprion exists. So plans like Paleo orWhole 30. Dont talk about elimination (at least the people i know eating on those plans don't) and so there's no stigma. Or at least less of one.

auntstephie321 wrote: »

I feel like "low carb" has been kinda hijacked by keto. i'm low carb have been a long time now, well long enough 2.5 years with dips of very low carb keto level for a bit then back up. sometimes though I feel like I shouldn't call myself low carb since I eat grains and starchy veggies at times. I've seen enough people scoff at others saying they are low carb when eating those things and say things like "oh that's not low carb" or "I would never put those foods in my diet" "no grains here that stuff is poison" etc. (not here)

so I think some people, speaking for myself, might describe their woe differently as not to be launched in on by some that eat 0 carb or what not. a healthy balanced diet is naturally low carb, I eat rice and veggies sweet potatoes, rye bread etc daily and i'm usually total carb around 100, net closer to 80, somedays lower some a bit higher.

This is why we need to stop fighting among ourselves. I am VLC. Right now, I am part of the meativore May challenge of eating only animal products for the month of May, but I am not going to condemn anyone for their WOE.

The guidelines from the government are 45-65% carb. Anything that is below 35%, IMHO, is at least lower carb. Below 20% is low carb. On a 2000 calorie diet, that would be 175 g and 100 g respectively. As most people in this group are closer to 1500 calories, those numbers would change to 131 and 75 respectively.

Prior to the dietary guidelines being pushed on the US, the average person was getting just under 40% of calories from carbs. Even getting back to that level would be a HUGE improvement given diabesity was not an issue back then.

There is no such thing as the perfect diet that will fit everyone. Everyone has different genetics, history, goals, etc. I CHOOSE to address by BG problems by going VLC. There are only 3 foods that I believe all people should avoid - added sugar, refined carbohydrates (much of which can be found on the cookie and cracker aisle of the grocery store) and vegetable oils (specifically, corn oil, soybean oil and safflower oil).

Outside of those, different people will have different tolerances. Each of us needs to find his/her own tolerance and a specific WOE that we can live with for the rest of our lives.