Gwyneth Paltrow and avoiding carbs for kids - what do you think?

[JaneGMumsnet]

Hi,

You may have read news stories today about Gwynneth Paltrow avoiding carbs for the whole family, including her children aged eight and six:

"Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we're left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs."

We'd be interested to hear what you think about this story.

Does your own diet influence the way you feed your children?

Thanks,

MNHQ

"in terms of nutrients they aren't doing anyone any favours"

That's a strange thing to say. Don't you think various types of Vitamin B are not good for us?

That isn't what I would do. DH has no gall bladder and so he eats very little cheese and next to no cream and so the sauce will be made with skimmed milk and not a lot of cheese. It is also a lot cheaper because I didn't have the chicken and the cauliflower cheese in the same meal. I can't see that your recipe is good news for the arteries.

I am not prepared to miss out carbohydrates and fill children up with fatty foods to have the latest guru reverse it all in 10 years time. If you eat everything in moderation you can't really go wrong.

There are many people who just eat beige food but I don't think you're one of them!
Which is why it is unrealistic to tell those who do that they have to cut out carbohydrates.

Meant to say-it has to be gradual.

exotic - My mum doesn't have a gall bladder, either, but I have never seen her avoid cheese or cream. In fact, she eats cheese pretty much at every meal.

Please tell me a bit about why your DH avoids cheese & cream. I'd like to tell my mum.

Starfish - I didn't say that you can't find Vit Bs in anything else than pasta.

I said it is not devoid of nutrients (ex: Vitamin Bs - Folic Acid, Riboflavine, Thiamine), which was your claim below:

StarfishEnterprise Mon 18-Mar-13 21:53:06
You can certainly stretch a meal further with carbs than without in terms of quantity but in terms of nutrients they aren't doing anyone any favours.

10,000+ since farming started seems like quite a while to me. We don't live the same lifestyle as stone age man, nor (luckily) do we have the same life expectancy.

I'm happy that other people are happy with what they eat. This is a good thing. I'm also happy to continue eating what I consider to be a healthy diet modeled from my experience growing up. I'm public health trained, so interested in good quality research (most isn't) and totally uninterested in the latest sales pitch whether that's from the food industry, diet industry or the latest crank.

Oh, and apparently the Paltrow/CMartin kids have just been photographed eating what look like decidedly unhealthy snacks with Chris so perhaps they don't actually follow their mum's advice anyway.

I'm not sure Cote - he just puts it forward as a reason- I think it has more to do with the fact he needs to get his cholesterol down- or at least not up. He loves cheese and used to eat a lot- he has virtually cut it out.
Most people don't have lots of money, it is far better to fill up on macaroni than double cream and cheese that they can't afford.
I love all this talk about beige food as if you whole plate is beige! There is nothing wrong with contrast.

I saw the thread with them eating crisps! Much better to fill up with a bit of pasta in a meal and not need them. I am pleased they are like normal children- despite GP as a mum!

I'm with nooka.

DH wasn't dieting- he cut right down on fats and the weight dropped off- he is much healthier.

nooka - 10000 years is very little in evolutionary terms though. I'm not convinced our bodies are supposed to run on the stuff we're putting in them these days. Plus, the wheat we farmed then, for example, is very different to the wheat we farm now.

I'm pretty sure we couldn't run on the caveman diet.

exotic - You must read Born To Run. I think you will really enjoy it.

I was actually following on from teaandthorozine with 'our bodies are supposed to run' - in a general way. I was imagining daily life in 21st century on the caveman diet, and wondering how you coped in the winter.
The book looks very interesting. I expect that you could run, in the literal sense, on the caveman diet- after all that is what they spent their days doing.

Why not, exotic?

I imagine cavemen gorged on meat when they made a kill and then spent a lot of time hungry. Beyond that it was what they could find in the way of plants, berries etc. the whole day was spent on it. They were hunter/ gatherers- good for running but not for commuting for a day in the office.

Well, you're probably right re commuting!

I think the principle is still pretty sound, though. We developed to eat meat, fish, plants, fruit in season, maybe eggs, nuts, seeds etc. Some periods of hunger are not necessarily a bad thing (and fairly easy to manage on that sort of diet anyway, where your protein and fat intake is much higher than your carbohydrate intake)...

We have got so used to almost any type of food being readily available at any time, we think abundance is normal and right for our bodies... I'm just suggesting that maybe it's not, always.

And there wouldn't be enough food to go around. This is why farming developed. There still wasn't enough for all, which is why protein has always been padded out with dumplings, pastry etc -to make less stretch further.

I am quite fascinated by all these theories -this one based on meat and fish- and yet vegetarians think that the human body isn't designed for meat at all and we shouldn't keep animals on farms but cover the entire land with poly tunnels.

Meanwhile sensible people ignore it -and eat all in moderation.