On Thu, 19 Jul 2001, Alison Whitwood wrote:

> What works better for me is if I don't try to be too strict on the low carb
> part of the diet. Stay paleo and avoid sugar and potatoes (therefore fries!)
> but have more veggies like carrots or parsnip, something with more carbs.
> That way, I don't get the boom and bust extremes.

I have found that there is a big difference, in terms of
compliance, between the 20-30g/day range of carb intake and
60-70g/day range.  On the former, although I have at times
sustained it for extended periods (months at a time), I find that
I have never gotten entirely comfortable with it, and it takes
more mental energy for me to do it.  Part of that, no doubt, is
that I don't know what the point of that level of restriction is.

In any case, I find that the time when I am most vulnerable to
cravings is in the evening, a few hours after dinner.  That's
when I get that edgy "snacky" feeling, and I'm likely to binge.
And the outcome was the same, whether I chose "paleo snacks" or
not: weight gain.

Doing the Steak Lover's (Anchell) Diet, I discovered that if I
was going to eat one of the higher-carb foods -- i.e., the
potato, sweet potato, or rice -- it would be at dinner.  And if I
did so, that would kill my cravings for the rest of the evening.
Fruit or berries would not do it.  I understand that rice is not
paleo (although a case can be made for wild rice), and white
potatoes are disputed, but generally frowned upon.  But there
should be no dispute about sweet potatoes and turnips of various
kinds, all of which are edible raw.  These are the paleo
starches, and I find that they really do make compliance a lot
easier.

I think we forget that there are such things as paleo starches,
and that our saliva contains an enzyme for initiating digestion
of them.  Why do we make that enzyme if we are not supposed to
eat any starches?

By just about anyone's standards, my diet is still very lowcarb.
At lunch and breakfast, my carbs are typically a single serving
of fruit or berries, which generally comes to no more than 15g of
carbs (3/4 cup of blueberries = about 12g; a slice of watermelon
= about 19g; 1/2 grapefruit = about 9g).  An average sweet potato
is about 28g.  So if I have grapefruit in the morning (typical),
blueberries or watermelon at lunch (also typical), and a sweet
potato in the evening, my carb total is 50-60g, but having that
sweet potato in the evening (or a white potato, which I still
occasionally do, since my wife likes them) seems to make all the
difference for the rest of the evening.

Since I have figured this out, I have been losing the weight that
had snuck back on.  I think it is important to figure out the
pattern that provides least resistance to compliance.  Speaking
as a 4-year paleo veteran, I know how important this is.  In my
case, it's more important to make compliance easier than it is to
keep carb below 30g, or whatever.

Todd Moody
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