I guess it’s that youngish, hippish, look, eh? I just must be one of those meat-avoiding tote-bag wearing college girls, right? That’s what the people who work at my school cafeteria think. Today, yet again, I was told not to worry–I wasn’t picking food with meat in it. Well darn! Did it ever occur to you I had other things on my mind than avoiding animal protein?!
My school is currently working on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, which means less meat, particularly beef, and cheese, are served at each meal. In fact, one dining hall has meals where they don’t even serve cooked food with meat at every meal! Of course, in my veg. days I would have cheered about this, but those days are long past.
The human species has been addicted to grains for around 10,000 years now. When I say addicted, I mean it in the literal sense of the word. Grains are damn hard to get off of, especially when you’re surrounded by them. And even more so when they’re cheaper than meat, grass-fed or factory (hell) farmed. I think most Americans have an addiction to grains that fits the DSM definition of addiction:
The seven criteria for substance dependence are as follows:
(1) Tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
(a) A need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect.
(b) Markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance.
Children of alcoholics who don’t drink but do overeat are likely to meet criteria (a), as are those who suffer from binge eating and/or bulimia. Many people who regularly consume grains likely don’t realize they suffer from symptom (b).
(2) Withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following: (a) The characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance (refer to Criteria A or B of the criteria sets for Withdrawal from specific substances). (b) The same (or a closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
If you don’t believe you are addicted to grains/sugars try avoiding ALL sugars, including breads, pasta, chips, candy, etc. for thirty days. Then get back to me.
(3) The substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended.
How come 95% of dieters regain back their weight? They cannot avoid starches, as it is not simply a matter of will (or rather “won’t”) power. Even those who go on a low-carb diet talk about feeling good and then falling off the bandwagon, and therefore falling prey to a substance they did not intend to consume.
(4) There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use.
See above about dieting.
(5) A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance (such as visiting multiple doctors or driving long distances), use the substance (such as chain smoking) or recover from its effects.
Since many Americans/Amerikans don’t realize carbs are a problem–or simply won’t admit it–they have no idea how much these substances (and yes, I consider starches “substances” not food) are harming them in their daily lives. For example, I used to eat a sandwich at lunchtime, and would subsequently become extremely sleepy during my 1:30 pm class. It wasn’t until I substituted the sandwich for a salad with meat and fat that I realized how much the bread was affecting me.
(6) Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of substance use.
Once one has ingested enough carbohydrates, she will come down with diabetes, and metabolic disorders, and/or perhaps mental illness, . While folks may not realize this, in many cases it is the carbohydrates that are driving these diseases that impair social function. In other cases, it is processed food, such as diet soda or exposure to other toxins in our environment that hit one before lifetime intake of carbohydrates do.
(7) The substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance.
Even people who have been shown the evidence that carbohydrates cause long-term damage come up with all sorts of excuses to continue consuming carbs. Simply look at the veg-o-sphere for evidence of that.
Source:
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Text Revision, Fourth Edition, (Copyright 2000). American Psychiatric Association.
I should add that I started this post to start a dialogue about this wide addiction problem and what to do about it. Handling it on an individual level is one thing, but not everyone has the resources–education, money, support–to sustain a diet that works for them. So how do we provide these resources? I’m sure you all can think of more questions we can pull over as well.
Yeah, I know what you mean… And I really do wish I could avoid grain altogether; but since I’m in college, it’s pretty hard to avoid and sometimes, you just have no time to prepare a really good meal.
While I personally don’t gain weight easily, grains do make me feel sleepy and that’s not good for afternoon classes. I also noticed that I tend to get really thirsty after eating a lot of it. Man, sometimes I wonder what the hell we were thinking when we decided to make bread…
Hey Paleosister,
I think you might be interested in responding to this: http://www.feminisms.org/4141/should-feminists-be-vegetarian/. I don’t know how often you follow them, but they recently did a show on it. I wish they had Lierre Keith instead, but at least they had both sides of the debate. I don’t even know if I want to respond, but the whole issue of what we eat is getting very tiring and I feel like it’s just going to cause more rifts and infighting in feminist spaces, and I really hate that.
Hi B,
Thanks for writing. I am a very big fan of the F Word blog. I also think Lierre has a much stronger argument than George, who just seems to want women to eat as little animal products as we can get aware with. This is not touching on the larger issue of agriculture, or the fact that we NEED animal foods to be healthy.
I don’t know you, but you seem like a committed feminist, so I’m extra glad to see you here!
This is so excellent. Thank you!
Hi, my first time here, via Let them eat meat, via Denise Minger…
In a sense, I took your challenge. Last March I read a reader’s digest interview of Gary Taubes book, Why we get fat, which totally intrigued me. I bought the book for kindle, devoured it, and gave up sugar, starch, bread, pasta, all the obvious sources of carbs. And I lost 30 pounds, and lost GERD and felt better.
The only thing I had trouble giving up was ice cream, so 2-3 times a week I was eating a pint of Haagen Daaz Rum Raisin, and still losing the weight, so I thought I was ok. But it was worrying me. Could I still be doing damage with the sugar even though its so much less than what I used to get with all the sources of carbs I’d given up? So I decided to relegate ice cream to special occasions, which might amount to 10-12 times a year.
Any way, the other carbs were easy to stop, the ice cream was hard.
After I’d started my new way of eating, I read Wheat Belly, and became convinced that it was wheat causing my GERD. It was probably the major source of my weight gain.
When I try to talk about the dangers of wheat and sugar to people, like my wife, they resist with loud denial. They don’t want to hear it. They make all kinds of excuses. They are waiting for me to drop dead because of meat and fat, then they will gently say “I told you so, sure you lost weight, but you were clogging your arteries.”
So, long story short, I believe what you write about addiction. To me, it’s clear as a bell, and the wheat and the other carbs are killing people.
Raw milk/milk products is my next project.