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

Yes, but B that is the French way, isn't it? A diet of cake, hot chocolate and not much else. You can indeed be very thin that way but I don't think very happy or healthy. There is a cohort of thin people around who eat very badly. Also more women than not who had the cake then eat more cake and then biscuits and on and on. Few have the self control to stop at the one slice of cake.

Yes, the article linked above from the Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/mar/13/gwyneth-paltrow-no-carb-diet-perfect-sense pretty much mirrors my own views.

I read an article once from a baker who makes Gwynnth loads of "no carb" cakes.....she puts weird stuff in instead of flour. But its still stacked full of sugar, cream, chocolate,etc. Apparantly Gwyn can't get enough of them.

But sugar is a carbohydrate!

Exactly!

I've just googled looking for the article but can't find it now. Its Sadie Frost's ex nanny who's the baker.

Let them eat cake - it's better than processed breakfast cereals.

If my children couldn't eat potatoes and pasta and bread without getting fat I would be wondering what else in their lives was wrong. To my mind, a child should be burning enough calories to need plenty of fuel. A child who needs the diet of a sedentary adult is probably doing something wrong.

cory well said!

French people that I know are slim and eat very well - but they don't eat between meals and they always have plenty of vegetables and fruit every day (not massive piles of them, but several small portions). I think anyone would be hard pressed to say that the average French diet is less healthy than the average British one. Knowledge of nutrition is deeply embedded in French culture in a way that it is not deeply embedded in British culture.

Is that a pint of gravy that Gwynnie is holding up to her mouth in that photo? 'I am fun, I'm not joyless'.....zzzzzzzzzz. When you eat the way she does and tell people in a severe tone that your life IS NOT JOYLESS, I am less inclined to believe it.

Can we stop Brit-bashing and get back to Gwynnie bashing please.

Do french people spend all day cooking Bonsoir, just curious?

No, I don't think so, though they probably spend more time cooking and eating than the British do - they certainly spend more money on higher-quality ingredients.

ta.
I dont eat bread or pasta or anything with wheat/gluten in (coeliac) but do eat rice/pulses/veg so some carbs. The kids eat anything and are healthy and slim.
I'm always poorly despite this so-called healthy diet. Lack of B vitimans maybe because of lack of decent grains?
I still think anyone who calls their child 'Apple' is a bit barmy however

I thought GP was gorgeous as a young actress but I don't know why her youthful fabulousness qualifies her to self-appointment as some sort of guru of maternal best practice. Maybe she just sort of fell into acting and did brilliantly at it, and she thinks that anything she just happens to do (like motherhood) she will be similarly amazing and celebrity-worthy of?

I don't think suggesting ways to make cakes etc using better ingredients really is the route to good health. It's like saying coca cola is great because it has aspartame nut sugar. Better just to ditch the diet of cake than try to make substitutes.

On healthy eating I think there is one group of people who eat very badly (hence 60% of British people over weight these days) and on the other those who eat well (and the eating well could be in a variety of ways - it might be 100% vegetarian, it might be brown carbs, protein veg no processed foods, it might be 100% fat/protein - eskimos, it might be rice and fish - Japanese. What all those different ways of eating have in common is no sugar and healthy unprocessed foods.

I agree - if you want a piece of cake, have the piece you really want, instead of something else, from time to time and just eat a diet made up principally of fresh home-cooked food, three times a day.

Which is of course a lot easier said than done, as shopping and cooking from scratch takes a lot of time which these days we are supposed to spend earning in order to buy ever more manufactured goods (ready meals) and outsourced services (restaurants).

I make a fatless, sugarless, eggless fruitcake that is very nice and you only need a small piece.

Well as long as it's not also joyless, exoticfruits

!

No-I really like it and can have it without guilt!

I can stick to my healthy diet if I have a piece of the cake and a square of chocolate every day!

I agree Cory in theory kids should be able to eat almost anything and not gain weight but I know a few kids who are overweight and their parents swear they eat a healthy diet and are very active - not sure what you would suggest to their parents - the theory doesn't seem to work.

Are you trying to lose weight exotic?

Lost it 3years ago, and have remained constant ever since- don't even have to bother weighing myself.

Well done exotic - not many people lose weight and keep it off for 3 years.