Oprah Cutting Carbs?

So I'm at Kroger, picking up a few ingredients I needed to work on recipes today, and I see Women's World in the magazine rack at the checkout. Oprah is on the cover, and there's big headline reading "THE DIET OPRAH NEEDS! Lose 85 lbs on the plan that prevents diabetes! "I'm surprised she doesn't already have diabetes," reveals Bob Greene.. But this plan can lower her risk -- and yours -- 83%!"

I had to look, right?

So I threw the magazine in the cart, and ponied up my $1.79. The magazine is now sitting on my desk, open to the article about this diet.

I am at least mildly encouraged.

Greene, Oprah's favorite fitness and nutrition guru, is talking about cutting sugar, at any rate, and acknowledges that the cause of diabetes is, "Eat enough foods that spike blood sugar and burn off too little through exercise." He also says "Taking steps to keep blood sugar in an ideal range is a very smart approach for weight loss." No, really? He's just noticing this?

Greene is recommending cutting out sugar, which is certainly a good idea, and he also advocates cutting out "white carbs." And the article admits that all carbs get converted to blood sugar. Unfortunately, though, Bob is passing out the misinformation that we need carbs for "brain fuel." Apparently the news that A) the body can make glucose as needed from protein and, to a much lesser degree, from fat and B) that the brain runs just as happily -- or more so -- on ketones as it does on glucose, hasn't reached Bob Land yet, and therefore has not reached Oprah Land, either. The fact that whole grains convert just as readily to sugar as white ones seems to have passed him by, as well. Either that, or he's unwilling to step on the nutritional third rail by admitting we don't need grains at all.

Too, the diet emphasizes lean proteins -- fat free yogurt, low fat cheese, skim milk, turkey and chicken breast. Even "lite" ranch dressing, aka spicy corn syrup, is mentioned as a good choice. There are some nuts included, though, and some olive oil, so it's not a psycho-low-fat diet. It'll be short on healthy animal fats, though, and the vitamins that come along with them. And I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people were hungry on this program.

The protein servings are small, too -- 1 egg with 3 tablespoons of cheese for breakfast, for just 11 grams of protein, and just 3 ounces of salmon or lean beef at dinner.

Women's World also includes a handy-dandy chart of swaps you can make -- the "don't eat that, eat this" sort of thing -- but only mentions sugar, not carbs in general, as if there were some substantive difference between the two. For instance, instead of a Subway Sweet Only Chicken Teriyaki 6" sub on honey-oat bread, with 22 grams of sugar, they recommend a Subway turkey on wheat 6" sub, with veggies and vinegar, with 6 grams of sugar. But according to the Subway website, that turkey sub will still have 94 grams of carbohydrate -- less than the 120 grams in the teriyaki sub, it's true, but not hardly the huge improvement they make it out to be.

Similarly, they suggest that instead of Lean Cuisine Apple Cranberry Chicken, with 24 grams of sugar, yo have a Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro instead which has 5 grams of sugar. The Lean Cuisine dinner does have more carb, at 54 grams total, but the Kashi dinner has 38 grams, hardly blood-sugar friendly.

Still, just the fact that Oprah's very influential name and face are being associated with a program that focuses on limiting carbohydrate, and that admits that the cause of diabetes is not fat, but carbohydrates, is hopeful. I'm taking a cautious "we'll see" attitude, and crossing my fingers that this brings public attention back around to the concept of carbohydrate restriction, both for weight loss and for health.