Carbohydrate Detox - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

I was asked to evaluate a 21 day detoxification program. Here's the basic premise;

"Removing sugar from your diet is the fastest way to lose fat and increase your energy. When your blood sugar is out of balance it causes depression, causes you to store sugar as fat instead of using it for energy, causing you to have highs and lows in your energy, and leading to diabetes."

I applaud every effort to cut back on simple carbohydrates - basically any carbohydrate that's white. These substances are a common part of every meal and snack in the Standard American Diet (properly referred to as SAD). The literature for this detox plan provides a list of over 40 sugars/carbs that must be eliminated from the diet for twenty-one straight days. If a person slips up once, they go back to day one and start over.

NO CARBS FOR 21 STRAIGHT DAYS.

While the goal is laudable, the process to achieve it is laughable - and for all practical reasons, IMPOSSIBLE. I can't come up with a single legitimate reason why anyone would publish such a program - unless the goal was to assure failure and then steer the person into a different form of treatment or therapy. That would be despicable, but I can't rule it out.

Let's start with the idea that processed carbs aren't good for us and couple that with the fact that they're everywhere we turn. The goal should be to eliminate them, but it can't be achieved. Now what?

Let's be real and make a conscious effort to avoid those kinds of things as much as possible. Perhaps we can consume fewer of them, less often, and in smaller amounts.

Instead of eating empty carbs every meal of every day (21 per week), do you think you could eat them only 10 meals a week (50% of the time), or even 4 meals per week (under 20%)? The key to my suggestion is that we should be consciously aware of foods that can be harmful and choosing to NOT eat them just because they're on the plate in front of us.

Instead of large orders of fries, eat part of a small order. There's no sin in leaving some mashed potatoes on your plate - regardless of how many starving people in the world would love to have them. Eat some plain yogurt instead of the packaged ones with fruit and sugar (a lot of sugar). No, don't switch from sodas to diet sodas - skip the soda altogether and have a glass of water or iced tea without adding sugar.

The most important pieces to this health puzzle are KNOWING the dangers, UNDERSTANDING that they are to be avoided, and then CHOOSING to cut back.

I use an 80/20 rule. As much as I would like to be perfectly healthy and always eat what's best for me, I have decided that if I'm good at least 80% of the time, I'm doing well. I think everyone can use this 80/20 approach to live a long, disease-free life.

What do you think?