Friday 3 February 2023

Carbs Are So Last Season

 

There have been some changes about the casa and I don't just mean the Christmas Tree has finally come down. Yes, we held out until Candlemas again this year, and the place is now looking somewhat lacklustre ... but I merely digress. The Pipistrellos have gone mad and have given up carbs.

It wasn't intentional, but in the way of such madcap adventures, it started with Your Correspondent falling over in the street. Cessation of Normal Activities until the gruesome wound to the leg (and the pride) healed meant time for catching up on some of the more obscure blogs that my catholic taste imbibes. I know, Bertrand Russell and the whole History of Western Philosophy should have been the natural solace for such catastrophes but I did instead get rather distracted on the youtubes. Which is where one such blogger had me tripping, hem hem, and, like Alice, I found myself in a Wonderland where everything was totally on its head: There are people out there, sensible adults, for whom fruits and vegetables, let alone the conventional notion of carbohydrates like bread and whatnot, never appear on the menu ... and are still alive!! Indeed, thriving. And since what such a diet looks like is basically meat-and-water, they're known as Carnivores. Who knew?? 

There are varying shades of low-carbs/high-fat and keto-this and zero-carb-that to this spectrum of dietary outliers and a whole new vocabulary to get stuck into. Think ketones, oxalates, lectins, Lipid Hypothesis &c. &c. What even are they? And as we've our own mini laundry list of Health Issues and a sense of scientific curiosity (viz. susceptibility to fads, as Dear Brother might say), we've hopped on board as an experiment. This may fall into Controversy Corner for you, Dear Reader, but perhaps just consider me as your guinea-pig and I shall report back from time to time on How It's Going. 

So far, after the first ten days, we've neither felt the urge to murder anyone nor commit carbicide.


Image credit: Flying With Hands


14 comments:

  1. "So Last Season"? hehe... that looks like my mum's coat and hairdo in 1958-62.

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    1. Sharp and sophisticated, I take it then, dear Hels!

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  2. I am a confirmed 'Steak with Lamb sauce and a side serving of Pork chop' type of person, but I do still eat my carbs and vegs. Are you Diabetic? I am type 2, but have never let is spoil my gourmet principles.

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    1. No not diabetic, but Type 2 is very much in vogue these days, dear Cro. You sound like a true food connoiseur to not allow it to spoil your fun.

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  3. Dear Pip, "Think ketones, oxalates, lectins, Lipid Hypothesis &c. &c. What even are they?" I am (very, hem, hem) well versed in nutrition and health knowledge, even if that sounds a bit like bragging, but these are themes I am really interested in and follow research. I am (knock on wood) very healthy, but by way of precaution have good doctors who like to discuss with me (my gynaecologist is so interested - his highest manly praise: "You think like a man! Wonderful!") - that he always adds half an hour (unpaid) time for discussion and sometimes trying something new).
    So what I do about nutrition: I follow my appetite.
    I am convinced that we can "hear" very well what is good for us and what not.
    To drink 4 litres of water per day cannot be healthy; keto-diet neither, and, and, and.
    My diet is healthy (except when in the Netherlands - they eat a lot of fat - which I abhor, though I love and eat butter and cream - in normal portions), and I have a very good weight and have to do nothing to keep it (except lots of moving). I never had plastic surgery (igittettegitt!) or Botox (igittegitt again! do they think that poison paralyses only their face muscles? not their brain? it was a dangerous weapon in WWII!)
    I do not forbid myself anything if I feel an appetite - but I listen to what happens.
    So - no counting of calories, carbs. I look that I get enough protein, which is so important when one gets older) - I keep no diets and am not obsessed with health fads. (Sorry that my comment is so long - but as I said: I glow for that theme :-)

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    1. Dear Britta, what a wonderful comment! In truth, I'm not so interested in health fads either but the curiosity of Mr P and I was piqued by our discoveries and if some benefit may come from playing guinea pig, we're all for trying it. Uncle Davey in "The Pursuit of Love" liked to shock his body into rude good health with radical approaches and he was a marvel! (If not altogether satisfied with the results, hahah!) "I must explain that I'm on a new diet, one meal white, one meal red ... I could never forgo the kippers, so delicious, so digestible, but, above all, so full of proteins."

      Very pleased to read, too, that you are a beauty au naturel - I would never have expected otherwise. Nasty stuffs those, ahem, "enhancers".

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  4. WELL, I GAVE THEM UP PROBABLY 15 YEARS AGO WHEN I BECAME GLUTEN FREE! YOU CAN DO IT..........NOT THAT BAD.I HEAR NOW TOO THE GF PASTAS AND BREADS SHOULD NOT BE EATEN EITHER THESE DAYS.DO NOT ASK ME WHY AS THAT INFO WENT IN AND OUT VERY QUICKLY!
    JOIN MY DIET.........NO CARBS,NO VINO,NO DIARY BUT OCCASIONALLY I CHEAT THERE IN THAT DEPARTMENT!NOT MUCH LEFT TO EAT!PROTEINS WHICH I DONOT CARE FOR MUCH ANYMORE AND GREENS AND YOGURT.
    EATING IS NOT WHAT IT SHOULD BE ANYMORE!I JUST EAT AS I NEED TOOO BUT IAM NOT ENJOYING THE PROCESS!
    XOXO

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    1. Dear Contessa, ahead of the curve, as ever! Although I must hasten to remind you that there are still carbohydrates in gluten-free staples, it's just the grain glutens you are avoid there - so helpful for coeliacs and other delicate flowers. Dairy? It's still on my radar, for I cannot do without lashings of butter and cheese!

      Get well soon, carissima! xx

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  5. Having grown older than I would have thought possible in the previous millennium, I would think it silly to deny my palate its small pleasures.
    And what let my correspondent fall over in the street?
    Take good care of yourself, Lady Pipistrello.

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    1. I know, dear Sean, aren't we stark-raving mad to be flirting with such privations? But, there cannot be scientific experimentation without blowing up a few test-tubes in the kitchen laboratory, hahah!!

      As to the dramatic hurling of Your Correspondent to the ground, wonky paving stones and purposively striding met to have a difference of opinion as to which way was up. I blame wanton neglect by Council and not my inherent inability to fly when required. All better now and Normal Activity has resumed, but thank you for your consideration.

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  6. Replies
    1. Oh, Spo dear, do you anticipate homicide on the horizon?

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  7. Carbicide, now there is a new word for me, your post and thoughts made me smile.

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    1. A new word with your smile is like a gift with purchase, even though carbicide does conjure unspeakable horrors with pastries. Welcome to the Comments Department, dear Terra :)

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