Diet 2

There's a fun story, probably apocryphal, about the great Scottish skeptic David Hume. He and a friend were walking by a pasture when the friend said "It seems Farmer Brown has sheared his sheep." To which Hume replied "At least on this side." I think, given all the contradictory recommendations floating around today about food, one must be at least this skeptical when talking about diets.

The Eat This, Not That No Diet Diet has a target area of between 1400 and 2400 calories in daily intake. I've been told to aim for no more than 60 grams of carbohydrates in any one meal and some nutritionists suggest around 45 grams. One gram of carbohydrate is equal to four calories so the daily total should be between 540 and 720 calories per day from carbs.

Fat is controversial also. The old US Department of Agriculture  recommendation was to limit fat input to 30% of your calories or less and to avoid saturated fats. Now the USDA  is suggesting that  20-25% of the diet should be fat, and that saturated fats might not be as bad as once thought although monounsaturated fats are best. The math gets tricky because a gram of fat is 9 calories unliks the 4 calories found in carbs and proteins.

Finally, the USDA recommends between 15-35% of your calorie intake should come from protein. To me as a diabetic I figured that the carbohydrate figures were the important ones to build around, but then I ran into a problem because total carbs have to be divided into three meals and two snacks. Ultimately, I had to do some juggling. My diet goal will be around 2,000 calories a day of which 35% comes from carbs, 45% from protein, and 20% from fat. This is pretty close to my doctor's recommendation and allows me, hopefully, to allocate the carbs in meals and snacks correctly.

OK, if you've stuck with me so far, you've earned a couple of days off from diet talk. Stay tuned tomorrow for the latest amazing story from around the internet.