Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Short answer: many health care providers don't attempt to control it. Reading medical literature from the early 20th century, it looks like doctors of that era fought diabetes with everything they had: low carb diet, urine testing for diabetics, a hospital stay with a strict diet if there was sugar in their urine, and yearly testing of family members of diabetics. Insulin started being used in the early 1920s. Now? Some health care providers call a low-carb (diabetic) diet "old dogma" and don't counsel patients on diet or blood glucose testing. This was the case with a friend of the family, who was recently diagnosed, and my parents. While my mother was in the hospital recently, she was allowed to order any breakfast from what was basically a dessert menu: cinnamon rolls, cereal, juice, bread, waffles, french toast, pancakes, fruit, etc. Hopefully, patients who want to control their blood sugar aren't allergic to eggs, the only LC option for breakfast. Some

...is valid. Click photos to enlarge. Menus from the hospital where my mother is staying.

...is like complaining that there's no sign that reads "Employees Must Wash Hands" in the bathroom of a house of prostitution. (See Reno 911! , season 1, episode 3)

Dedicated low-carbers like to describe their way of eating as nutritious, filling, healthy and traditional. But what about people who want to eat decadently, not Puritanically? Who are sick of busybody goody-goodies and diet police ? Low carb is good for them, too. On what other diet can you eat dip for dinner and dessert for breakfast? Guacamole, pork rinds, crispy fried pork (fried in lard, seasoned with salt). This isn't a cheat meal--you can have this every night and eat until you're full since there are hardly any carbs there. (Note that you can't substitute corn chips--they're too carby. And don't get guacamole that's full of carbs.) If the dinner looks a little skimpy, it's because I saved room for dessert. Low carb, non dairy chocolate ice cream. It does have carbs in it, so go easy. Recipe here . I'm not sure if this is what some people call "rewarding food," but I'm full. Granted, I was never obese, but I'm from a

Anthropology professor Brian Fagan on diets of human ancestors: The Neanderthals were expert hunters, but when did hunting begin? Once again, the answer lies in Africa. Homo ergaster [a human ancestor from two million years ago] was an omnivore, completely accustomed to quite drastic environmental changes in the distribution of open grassland, forest, and semiarid terrain and the dietary shifts that went with them. Unlike their predecessors, these people were serious hunters and meat eaters--because they dwelled for the most part in open country, where meat was the dominant, though not, of course, only food source. We know this because the bones of numerous large mammals appear alongside stone butchering tools in some of the archeological sites that document their wanderings, whereas none appear in sites that predate them. .... Brain size is largest among species that hunt large mammals opportunistically while cooperating with and depending on one another. Brain size also correl

A commenter on another blog said, "Calories count: ask any woman over 40. Oh wait, you notice LCHF never mentions them or shows their success stories." I'm not sure where this person got that idea. Maybe he's new to LCHF; it seems to me like there's a lot of us out there who eat this way without counting calories. Three years ago, at age 41, 20 pounds fell off when I whacked back the carbs. I've kept it off and stayed pretty close to what I weighed in high school. Amy Alkon , Mary Dan Eades and Jackie Eberstein come to mind as LC ladies of a certain age; I'm sure I'm forgetting dozens more. Here's a photo of me taken June 3, 2013, age 44. (I wanted to show my best friend what I wore to see Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, since she pictured me in a lavender shirt, white linen pants, and starchy bag with a bottle of Perrier.)

Living in an area with hot, dry summers and poor soil, the plants in my yard live in spartan conditions. I don't constantly water them or use chemical fertilizers. And look how skinny and healthy they are! Festuca glauca. California poppy. Achillea 'Moonshine.' Iris. Clockwise from top: tansy, iris, lavender cotton, California poppy, indigo, juniper. Sundrops. Legacy buffalo grass. Love in a mist. Kidding aside, the plants don't have thin leaves because they live on scant rations in harsh conditions. They thrive in those conditions because they shed heat and collect water well with those thin leaves. California poppies have a tap root and irises have shallow tubers, which help both of them thrive in poor, dry soil. Buffalo grass has a short growing season--it doesn't green up until late May. Most of them come from places like the Sonoran Desert, the western Great Plains and the Mediterranean that have hot, dry summers. They