Tonight at the wine club meetup I attended, a waiter brought out an appetizer tray of cheese, olives, berries, pate, fatty deli meats, olives and dense white bread. A Swiss member who arrived in the U.S. two weeks ago told me that was typical fare in Switzerland. (In fact, it was typical of what my best friend and I ate on vacation.) I'm not a fan of bread, but overall, the appetizers were real, traditional foods with natural fats and a moderate amount of carbohydrates. Perhaps eating this kind of food is why the Swiss enjoy one of the lowest rates of obesity.
Years ago, before the Perfect Health Diet came out, I followed a program that involved eating quite a bit "safe starch." It was called Body for Life. It involved eating six small servings of carbohydrate along with six small servings of protein, plus two servings of fibrous vegetables per day. (A serving was the size of your fist or the palm of your hand.) There were six workouts a week (three weightlifting, three cardio) and one free day every week where you ate whatever you wanted and didn't exercise. In all fairness, these two programs are different: BFL allows certain grains, legumes and low-fat dairy and discourages fat. It doesn't call for a wheelbarrow full of vegetation. Nevertheless, my experience eating lots of fruit and lots of starch is relevant to the PHD because the amount and type of digestible carbohydrates are similar, and for the first few years, I didn't eat wheat except on free days. At first on BFL, I felt great. Before, I was continually...
Comments