This piece was inspired from both a little anger and exasperation from a conversation my dear wife and I had earlier as she was preparing to go to work. The anger and exasperation was not because of anything she has done, it was a result of something she was told by a “Nutritionist” while she was attending to one of her clients. Loraine is a personal care attendant who provides daily care to citizens in our community who are unable to care for themselves any longer, yet are still well enough to not be placed in a nursing home. As a personal care attendant, Loraine also interacts with other health care professionals who are a part of her clients care teams. Some of these professionals she speaks to on a frequent basis, some maybe only a few times at best. Some she will encounter multiple times a week with multiple clients, this “Nutritionist” being one of them. With this particular one, I am using the term “Nutritionist” very loosely as being a certified Nutrition Consultant myself, I am left scratching my damn head wondering just where in the hell this character received his training and certification from after the complete bullshit he told her this morning.

So what is it this “Nutritionist” said that has my britches in a twist?

As a lot of us do as we age, my dear, sweet wife gained a few pounds over the years, some of them as a result of a few health issues I am not going to get into here.

Life issues and weight gain happens.

Loraine made the wise and personal choice that she was going to do something about her weight gain and began doing Keto pretty strictly at first and has since been incorporating my methodology, David’s Way, by bringing in more complex carbs while still avoiding simple carbs and refined sugar. Loraine has lost just about 30 pounds now with a very healthy rate of loss, and I could not be any more proud of her. She looks and feels great. Yet, this “Nutritionist” told her that she is going all about her weight loss wrong.

Wrong! Despite her healthy rate of weight loss has been a consistent 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Wrong! Despite how she feels so much better physically and emotionally.

Wrong! Despite how she manages to stay on track even with the demanding schedule of her very demanding job.

And just what in the world is Loraine doing wrong in this “Nutritionist” mind? He said that she should not deprive herself of foods that she enjoys just because they contain sugar. She should not avoid foods that are comprised of simple carbohydrates. Apparently this fool believes the choice to cut out sugar and other simple carbs is not sustainable in the long run so you should just try to do a better job of managing your consumption of them.

Minimally, I find this to be poor advice coming from one who may not know any better.

Professionally, as this individual is a supposed professional, I find this advice to be absolutely contemptible.

Someone who is putting themselves out there as a professional should know this theory is complete bullshit. While it may be workable in theory, in a practical application, it is complete garbage spread by many who should know better.

Why is it bullshit?

Many, if not most over weight or obese individuals suffer an addiction to refined sugar and simple carbs. Refined sugar and simple carbs might make food taste really well, but it is a fact that most foods that are high in sugar are very low in nutritional value and very high in calories. It is not rocket science to figure out that too much high calorie low nutrient based foods are going to make you fat and be harmful to your over all health by increasing inflammation within your body, causing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, increased risk of cancer, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and more.

It is a fact that sugary foods cause your body to spike your serotonin. Sugary foods will increase your level of endorphins which make you temporarily feel better. Sugar causes your dopamine to surge. All of this serves to make you feel better in the moment just like a drug. These facts are not even arguable. Think about this, have you ever craved a brussels sprout in the same manner as you craved a piece of chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream? Unless you are some kind of outlier, the odds are high that you didn’t. Brussels Sprouts do not contain added sugars like cake and ice cream. Brussels sprouts do not make you feel good in the moment like a piece of cake, now does it?

I have written about this in the past and will say it again; Telling someone with a weight problem which has come from a poor diet high in sugary foods they should continue to have sugary foods in their diet is as irresponsible as telling an alcoholic they should continue having the occasional beer or glass of wine. It is as ignorant as telling an ex-smoker they should still enjoy an occasional cigarette. Nobody in their right mind would ever do those things, so why in the hell would someone who is a so-called nutritional professional tell a person who has battled obesity as a result of a carb addiction they should still eat sugar?

I get the theory that in a perfect world, we should not deprive ourselves of foods that bring us enjoyment. But, we do not live in a perfect world, do we? Having battled my own sugar demons, I know the addictive nature of this substance quite well. I also know from personal experience that going sugar free is both doable and sustainable in the long haul. I give you plenty of delicious sugar free dessert recipes on this blog in order for you to still enjoy desserts without the guilt or worry of cravings which come from sugar consumption. There truly is no reason for anyone to continue eating refined sugar if it is causing them health and weight problems. It drives me crazy to see or hear of a nutritional professional or business such as Weight Watchers tell their clients that it is perfectly fine if they continue their consumption of sugar and simple carbs. I would like to ask these nutritionists, and the corporate folks of Weight Watchers, just how in the hell do they expect someone who has proven they had no control over sugar and simple carbs in their diet in the past, is going to have control in the present. I would like for each of them to look me in the eye, and with a straight face, explain to me their position on how this is supposed to work in the real world, with real people who have real nutritional based weight problems.

Be careful of who and what you believe! Hell, you can even question me. I am open to any and all questions and will answer all. When you take advice from any professional, consider the nuances of their advice and their motivations. While I do believe there are some out there who may have well placed intentions, they may not full well understand the problems they are attempting to address. If one has never had a problem with carb addiction, it may seem reasonable to direct another to continue eating sugar. However, there are others, such as Weight Watchers specifically, who I believe are not on the up and up when they say “Eat what you want and track it, nothing is off limits”. While many do find success with Weight Watchers FreeStyle program, I find the vagueness of their program instructions to be either poor management or possibly even nefarious. They tell you that you can continue eating all the foods you enjoy as long as you track them and do not exceed your points. So folks continue eating junk food to their point limit, and then continue filling up on zero point foods that are still full of calories for the rest of their day which causes them to exceed their caloric needs based on their basal metabolic rate. I followed their program very closely for almost two years. I interacted with many folks on their social media platform Connect, and there was always that underlying theme that people would continue to eat all the foods they have always enjoyed, and then could not figure out why they were not losing weight despite not exceeding their point allowance.

Seriously. telling people with a weight problem they can continue to eat all of their favorite foods is ludicrous. By having some people who do enjoy weight loss success, there messaging gives a false sense of hope to those who will be nothing more than an income stream to Weight Watchers for months or even many years to come. I find it to be good profit driven business sense while also being morally repugnant.

I pledge to you, that we will always have your best interest at heart. My desire is to help folks to learn and adopt healthy nutritional habits as a life style in order to achieve a healthy body fat percentage, and good health, instead of only concentrating on a random weight number on your bathroom scale. What makes David’s Way different from other weight loss business is we want to help you, and then have you move on without our help. I do not want you as an individual to be nothing more than a perpetual income stream as some of the other weight loss business would have you. I promise that as with our blog articles, all of our advice will be well researched and thoughtful for you as an individual and a person as a whole.

You are not just a number or statistic as you would be from others. We will give you advice which is straight forward. We honestly want to help you to be the best that you can be.