Sunday, July 19, 2009

Zero Carb: Part One

My recent experiences on a Zero Carb (ZC) forum is essentially what prompted me to make the effort to begin blogging again. First a short history of how I ended up on that forum at all.
I was at one time a regular poster and had my own journal on Jimmy Moore's low carb forum. I was fairly active on that forum, posted a lot, and really enjoyed the folks I met there. I had joined in December of 2008, only 1 month after beginning my low carb diet, this time around. (That's another story for another day). My weight loss at the time was great. I was losing at a good clip and happy with my progress. Then came my first true stall. Weeks of no weight loss was frustrating although I new I would never give up. I did however start trying various strategies for getting my weight loss going. One of the strategies I looked at was lowering my daily carb intake to zero to get the weight loss going again. I was familiar with the meat and egg fast so popular on Low Carb Friends (LCF) forum which is essentially zero carbs. Only a few from the eggs. I began having an occasional day of zero carb eating. So my diet was Very Low Carb (VLC) and an occasional ZC day. I posted this in a message saying something like "Well I eat very low carb and sometimes zero carb" When I viewed the message I had posted it read "Well I eat very low carb and sometimes very low carb" The filter on JM's site had changed the words in my post. The phrase now made no sense. And I was very upset. Some questioning led me to the reason. The banishment of the ZC folks from JM's site. And the ZC forum that was created as a result.
I became increasingly dis-enchanted with JM and his forum and blog as I began reading his menu and the kind of food this man was consuming everyday. This is a low carb leader. Someone people look to for advice on eating right to lose weight and gain health. Some of his days food was nothing but pizza topping and ice cream with diet sodas thrown in. I was appalled. It was how a child left to their own devices would eat. I stopped posting on his site and went back to LCF. The censorship of thought and the bad example left me completely disillusioned. It also got me to start reading at the ZC forum.
I was still flirting with the idea of eating some form of ZC diet. I knew that I would never commit to eating that way forever. Or maybe I would. I was undecided. I would occasionally read the ZC forum but didn't really jump in until I registered and discovered and entire thread dedicated to JM's menu blog and his eating habits. It was almost 500 pages and read like a soap opera. I read the entire thing in a little over a week to get caught up, posted a couple of comments, but really stayed out of site for the most part. My interest in that way of eating led me to do some research on the First Nation people in Canada and Alaska. Specifically the Inuit of the west coast. They are probably the most famous of people who's native diet is completely based on consuming animals. They eat no plant material. They eat fresh killed meat, usually seal, and consume the entire animal. Raw. Meat, fat, and organs. Although their diet is ZC, it's quite different from the diet advocated on the ZC forum which is beef and water. I brought this up in a thread in the Newbie section of the forum and that's where I caught a glimpse of how the people there view their diet.
My first post on that thread:

Inuit food
I just looked at a site featuring the food of the Inuit people and I have to say no one on this forum that I've seen so far is eating their diet. They eat every part of every animal they kill with the exception of Polarbear liver and feathers.

It seems to me the nutrition they get from eating raw liver, kidneys, brains, eyeballs, blubber, etc. is not contained in a diet of beef only.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm a newbie and still trying to figure this out for myself.

Bear

One of the first responses:

RE: Inuit food
sfpolarbear Wrote: OK that's fine. But where can I see the evidence that all the nutrients required by humans is contained in conventionally raised beef?
I say you can see it all over this forum, with so many people who are fit and in perfect health, and many others well on their way there, from an all-meat diet.

I don't need no stinkin' studies to call it "evidence"


End of part one.

5 comments:

  1. Bear, I'm sorry you felt disenchanted at my site and I sincerely appreciated your participation in the discussion at my forum. While I had my run-ins with the ZC people who basically took over my forum last year, that doesn't mean I don't support people who choose to eat that way. The personalities that were involved were the problem. Regardless of what you think about me and my diet personally, I hope you reconsider returning to the forum to discuss the healthy low-carb lifestyle with like-minded people who will love and encourage you in this journey. It's been a pleasure to know you for these past few months.

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  2. Thanks Jimmy. I've been reconsidering lately. Mainlu because after seeing the thread on ZIOH that focused on everything that went into your mouth and the way they ripped apart Stargazey. I'm beginning to think I misjudged you.

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  3. Stargazey is a good friend of mine now, Bear, and is on to something pretty spectacular with this blood sugar testing. THANKS for sharing your contrition and I appreciate the big "Bear" hug. :D

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  4. Bear,

    I started out at JMs blog too but sometimes I have to roll my eyes when reading some of his stuff. Then I found the ZIOH forum which has great posters and good information, but I’m finding Charles and the inner circle to be pretty stuck in their own dogma and rudeness.

    Honestly, JM and CW can both be jerks. It wouldn't surprise me if JM is experiencing some smug satisfaction with CW apparently slipping from his throne... Not only has CW ripped into Stargazey, but Lex as well as many others.

    On Stargazey, I greatly appreciate her knowledge and objectivity as I don’t believe science has this nutrition/diet/weight/health thing totally nailed and she seems to get that and is open to new information and discoveries.

    I don't see that same objectivity in JM or CW. CW can't stand to have his "authority" questioned and JM is so wrapped up in his low-carb frankenfood dogma.

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  5. I hear what you're saying. On big difference between JM and CW is that Jimmy allows people to disagree with him. Heck he publishes some pretty scathing comments on his menu blog. If challenged, CW will just start an argument and then beat it death until he rips the person apart or dribes them off. Or he just tells the person that they don't accept or allow criticism from anyone who hasn't been doing ZC for at least 6 months. Period. Because it has to be experienced, like religion. It's a cult.

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