House guests who ‘don’t eat carbohydrate’

[Littlemessymiss]

The second time a particular house guest has brought a girlfriend who does not to eat ‘carbohydrates’ in the form of starch/ gluten. There is no chrohns/ coeliac. There is a limit to how many roasted cauliflowers and sweet potatos I can stomach.
We would not have evolved as a species if there was an absence of carb!
WIBU to educate these Americans of the joy of a nice rib of beef with roasties and Yorkshire’s?

@ "I don't eat sugar"

Do you mean sacarose? Or other sugars too?
Refined or any?

Also, you probably are in some form, which takes us to the start of the OP. Just say you're cutting on sugar/carbs/ etc.

It's different when people have allergies and really can't ear something.

All the rest is just tiresome for everyone else and then those who really can't eat something are taken less seriously.

Ah, wrong spelling. Sucrose, of course.

I don’t eat food with ‘sugar’ as an ingredient. I really don’t see how this is tiresome for anyone else- if so, just don’t ask me about it! I don’t go on about it. I’m only discussing it now because it’s come up in a conversation. I do eat carbohydrates, sugars such as lactose, for example, because they aren’t the ones that cause ill effects in the body. Actual sugar, white sugar, added to every thing imaginable was making me very unwell, and very unhappy. I really don’t see why it affects anyone else

My comment about ‘I don’t eat Xx’ is just exactly what anyone would say if there’s a particular food they don’t eat.

It's very odd the strength of feeling about this, the anger it seems to create in some folks.

I genuinely don't understand. As a host it's hardly complicated to cater to it, it's just a few more veggies for the op for example, and it's not like anyone is saying you should not eat x y and z either.

If someone is doing it because they are intolerant, or because it helps with their Ibs or their diabetes, or simply because it helps them lose weight or stay at a healthy weight, then good for them, if you like somone or care for them, why would this be an issue to you?

It's the way people state their preferences, I suppose.
If you say, I don't eat added sugar or cake or sugary products, I think it's fine.
Saying, I don't eat sugar, is a more definitive but broad statement that can leave hosts wondering about what foods you actually don't eat.
It sounds like you can't really eat any sugar, but then you probably do at some point.

If people with dietary restrictions, medical or otherwise, have consideration for their hosts, they will make their lives easier. Why wouldn't they, if it's people they like?

And if it's largely a preference, why not be kind to the host and say, yes, I'll try a little bit of that lovely home made cake, but just a tiny portion?
Instead of verging on rudeness with, no thanks, I don't eat sugar.

Bluntness it always does on these threads, and in real life. People see it as an extreme measure.

Lweji because the host isn’t going to be there in the summer when I’m fat, miserable and still overweight; the host isn’t going to be there when I’m injecting myself with insulin in ever higher amounts and them not working; the host wasn’t there to help me after my third baby with gestational diabetes, 2nd section, third baby in neonatal because his blood sugars were uncontrolled after birth; the host isn’t there with extra extra tampax to see me through my 10 day heavy periods due to pcos (which is caused by insulin resistance, and funnily enough is now cured due to not eating sugar)

So yeah, I will say ‘no thanks’ and if they do the whole ‘oh go on, you can have a bit, it’s only a little piece of cake’ I will tell them that actually I don’t eat cake, or I don’t eat sugar, because that’s far easier. Or, shall I just get them to post it to you??? Lest I be rude and offend my host (who is my mother in law, the only person who ever actually pushes this on me anyway??)

I have lots of people in my family who don't eat anything with sugar added, have to watch out with refined carbs due to blood sugar. Everybody knows this and accommodates them (or just eats their slice of cake! ).
I genuinely don't care what other people eat (unless it's pasta with ketchup like a friend of mine used to, I love food and that just upsets me!) but I do hate when people get obsessed with good/bad foods at the expense of their manners and sense of humour.

Grapefruit for breakfast, extra veg at dinner. I see where you're coming from though.

Currently doing low carbs

And this thread has had be in stitches😂😂😂😂

It's like there's an uproar!

She's just cutting out / back on the likes of bread and Potatoe and sugary stuff...

Mumsnet does make me chuckle sometimes.

Nitpicking about carbs in fruit and carbs in cucumber and carbs in milk is just fucking weird obsessive eating disordery speak. THIS!

I had an au pair once who only revealed once she arrived that she ate no bread, pasta, rice or potato. She also didn’t eat cooked vegetables or any fruit at all.

What she did eat was smoked salmon, steak, a whole bottle of red wine off the house wine rack, my chocolate, and the cheese I bought for a dinner party. She ate broccoli too but only the really expensive overpackaged tenderstem stuff.

Her health fixation extended to getting anxiety attacks if I asked her to work when her running club was on (which seemed to be most of the time.) I was glad when she left and in hindsight I should have been a bit firmer with her from the start.

The people that keep quoting about the cavemen not needing carbs yeah the cavemen didn't get treated for cancer either or chop the leg off without anaesthetic. but as time went on so did your evolution,the world changed,our roles. so did what the body needs so we evolved .someone didn't want to eat tomatoes once, then came across it and thought ooh I need a bit of that and they're all full of good stuff. somebody one day had Carbs and it gave them what they needed be at body or soul .so yes carbohydrates are needed and are part of a balanced diet it's been proven the way they are made up ,the complex carbohydrates in them that they are bio chemically doing good in the body as they're broken down giving us what we need to keep going throughout the day so we do need carbs. I am not a caveman my body is different to a caveman.its balance and moderation

I agree with Lweji, a lot of the adverse reaction is to do with the way these things are explained/discussed.

Only a ninny would have a problem with someone who said 'I'm sorry, it looks delicious, but for medical reasons I'm not able to eat X'.

The problems come in the other cases mentioned on this thread: people who claim to be vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free/sugar-free etc etc but in fact only follow that way of eating when it suits them, and the instant they see something they like the look of it doesn't suit them any more. Hence, hosts who've put themselves out and incurred extra expense to cater for what they believed to be a diet followed for ethical or medical reasons discover that actually it's just a fad.

Or the people who bang on endlessly about why it's a bad idea to eat XYZ while others are tucking into said foods and trying to enjoy them. Or those who explain in far too much medical detail why they can't eat XYZ, again often while others are trying to eat.

Of course, it's clear that there are a lot of ninnies about. Ignorant people who struggle to believe that allergies and intolerances are real and ignore what their guests/customers say about them, or even actively try to expose their guest to the allergen/non-tolerated food in the hope of catching them out or in the criminally reckless belief that it will 'help' them because they'll never get over it if they don't just keep eating that food until the body gets used to it.

Or the slightly less irresponsible but still deeply unpleasant people who deliberately feed a vegan/vegetarian with food they know isn't vegan/vegetarian.

Actually, kateandme, I'll wait for the biologists and doctors to confirm this, but I don't think our bodies are very different from a caveman's. Evolution hasn't changed our digestive systems out of all recognition. Our bodies need fibre for the bowel to function efficiently and one of the reasons complex carbs are good is because they're a good source of fibre, but you can get that from eating fruit and veg as well. I do agree that eating refined carbs is a big challenge for the body because it makes it a lot harder to keep blood sugar at a safe level and it's also easy to overeat so we end up storing far too much fat.

Wonder what caveman life expectancy was? 25? 35?

Tiger i agree, but also people/hosts who think it’s appropriate to challenge other people’s decisions on what they eat, round the dinner table, drawing attention to it, asking over and over why you don’t eat something you used to eat and discussing your body size/shape/health. I always very discreetly say no thanks; it’s very often the host who goes on and on. I’ve been accused of having eating disorders. I’ve been told I’m cruel to my children. That’s bloody rude too.

The Paleo thing is bull

None of the vegetables today bear any resemblance to what would have been around in paleo times. There is a good TED talk on the subject

If you/one is "sugar free" for medical reasons why can't you just say that when invited to dinner? As you would if you were vegetarian or allergic to seafood? 95% of hosts would go to the trouble of making a pudding so to just sit there as it's served and say "no thanks, I'm sugar free" looks like a holier than thou rejection of the hosts efforts.

It is rude to reject food that people have made for you without saying why. Almost as unbearable as eating something in a restaurant and the person near you pulling a face "oh yuck how can you eat that".

My brother has done a very low carb diet several times and lost several stones each time. Unfortunately he doesn't have the willpower to be vlc all the time and so the weight returns. Very low carb is great for losing weight if you can do it for life, otherwise it's the same as any other restrictive diet. Bloody hard and requires a huge amount of willpower!

@thenewaveragebear1983

I think you missed the point of my post slightly.

There's people who can't eat something or have serious restrictions for medical reasons.
Then there's people who read somewhete that sugar is bad for you and put hosts through the mill, only to later eat something loaded with sugar.
People who make the lives of those with serious needs more difficult.

A508hojas but according to other posters, people don’t like hearing why. That’s also rude. And I’d prefer not to discuss my fertility issues, menstrual cycle and other pcos symptoms with my host. I can honestly say I’ve not eaten a meal in someone’s Home other than family in longer than I can remember. I don’t say no thanks to be ‘holier than thou’ - I say it because as you rightly point out it’s really difficult to be low carb, I regularly have to deal with my own cravings and desire to eat food which ultimately will make me unhappy and unwell in the long run, and if I do have that ‘one piece of homemade cake’ I will actually feel the effects of it for several days and my body will crave more of it. I can’t see why a) this is anyone’s concern and b) why I should have some social expectation to explain my medical history when saying no to it. What if I say ‘oooh no thanks, I’m full’ - is that rude? Or ‘no thanks, I’ve got a terrible toothache which is aggravated by sugar’ - is that rude?

I think we should question why offering sweet food is seen as some great gift that should never be refused, and why not liking sweet food for whatever reason is seen as some great personality flaw. Honestly, it’s a one second exchange : would you like some? No thanks. Doing this has helped me lose 3 stone this year and I’m happier and healthier than I’ve ever been, and that’s not even taking into account the future health benefits of eating less sugar.

On a slightly different note, I recommending searching 'Whole30' which will get you a lot of good and fairly easy recipes without dairy foods, refined carbs or refined sugar.
I never mind about these kind of things. I view finding something the guest can eat as an enjoyable challenge, plus I usually end up discovering nice new dishes.

No carb isn't as easy as "just a bit more veg" for everyone... we eat a lot of meals that have carbs integrated into them - like risotto, pasta, pizza, lasagne. All with lots of veg too but making no carb versions would not be straightforward. We don't eat meat but lots of people don't routinely do meat and veg as a meal.

I carb count for my son to work out his insulin as he is type 1 diabetic.

You cannot, repeat CANNOT, have a no carb diet. Its impossible and annoys the shit out of me when people claim to be in one. Like another poster said, to be no carbs all you would do is drink water.

Christ, people are still going on about no carb. There is no such thing.

And yes, it's like an uproar, how dare you not eat my cake or Yorkshire puddings 🤣

And all these rude people that folks apparently know that come to dinner at their house , do they heck like. 🤣