a nutrition message....just this once.....

ok, so this is NOT a nutrition blog.....in fact...i seldom talk nor think about nutrition.......mostly because i am discouraged about the new wave of pro-atkins dieters......and am not inclined to go up against the mania.......last night, at our annual twinkie run....a running community race/walk that is based on actual time versus predicted time for a 5k or 10k course.......the twinkie part is just about the traditional dessert course to the post race pot-luck.....anyway....i walked my part of the event with 2 female lexington lawyers.........who had ketosis breath...........gentle readers.....ketosis...or acidosis...is an abnormal metabolic state brought on by a low carb diet.....people in ketosis have breath that smells like fingernail polish remover.......and their blood, when it is so acidic, cannot hold oxygen as efficiently...so they have to breathe quickly to the point of panting.......anyway......i bit my tongue, and made no mention of this...even when they sat with me at dinner....and i could see by their plates that they were on the low carb diet........i kept my comments toward books, marriage, and parenting.....much safer topics than atkins......even when i was the only one in the group still on her first go-around........anyway, back to diet....there was an excellent article in yesterday's time by dr. dean ornish.....who i have had the priviledge to meet.....he has researched and written extensively on lowfat diets for weight loss and reversal of heart disease......i heard him debate THE dr. atkins at the american dietetics association meeting 3-4 years ago.......at which time he unveiled a decade of heart health/weight loss research data involving thousands of people....and dr. atkins revealed that he had only ever studied a group of 6 adolescent boys for 6 months....but they lost weight.......gentle readers.......weight loss with atkins is due to dehydration that comes on because of the need of the body to rid itself of ketones through increased urine output.....the body's metabolic rate slows way down....which explains why people who go on this crazy regime always gain more weight back than they lose......needless to say....we are having leftover pasta salad tonight for dinner because the low carb crazies wouldn't eat it.......i should mention that none of the actual runners are into low carb...they couldn't manage to keep up if they did.......it is only the spouses/roommates/lovers who do such things.....ah well....meanmamma has had her say...............