Month: August 2008

Are Low Carb Diets Healthy? The Debate from Opposing Views

I got an email the other day mentioning a website called Opposing Views. The fellow who wrote works for them, and thought that we’d be interested in their debate on whether low carb diets are healthy.

I’ll be honest: I’m a few weeks away from five years living low carb, and I can’t imagine living any other way. Make no mistake – I do cheat, but never so much that I find myself back on the Road to Fatville.

The ‘debate’ bores me, quite frankly, but some of you might still be on the fence regarding this, and be interested for that reason.

But there’s another reason why I’m posting about these folks: I’m encouraged that there just might be interest in a site that tolerates opposing views. I am sick sick sick sick SICK of people who have no space in their thinking for people who don’t agree with them.

Opposing views don’t deserve a smack-down – they deserve a listen. Even if you disagree, you should see beyond the viewpoint and ask yourself: why might this person believe so strongly in their position?

That, my friend, is empathy – respect for the other fellow or gal, and the genesis of real intellectual discourse where we all seek the truth rather than just strive to be right.

http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/are-low-carb-diets-healthy

[putting his soap-box away, our blogger goes back to his regular schedule.]

Indulge Me in a Thought Experiment

If you don’t mind, I’d like to try a little thought experiment – a visualization exercise. I need your help on this, and hope you’re game. It might be fun – it might be dumb, but if you know the outcome, it isn’t an experiment, right?

OK – make sure you are not hungry when you do this. You want to be comfortably full.

Here’s the setup:

In the not too distant future, the world has been taken over by thin people, call them the ‘Thinsters’, who have decided to perform fat genocide. Anyone who is fat will be put to death – and it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost the weight – even if you’ve ever been fat, they’re going to snuff you.

So, you’re sitting in a cell, and a rail-thin guard asks you what you’re last meal is going to be. He reminds you that this is a prison, and they can’t get you every last thing you’d like, but they can probably accommodate most foods and drinks that you’d eat or drink every day.

You can eat as much as you like, the guard says – it doesn’t matter now. He pulls out a pad and pencil to take your order…

What would you ask for?

Please post your responses as comments – or email me at lcc@lowcarbconfidential.com if you’re shy and rather not post – I’ll keep it, well, confidential.

I’ll post the second half of this experiment some time in the near future.

Stay tuned.