The following is a reprint from the blog "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb":

Is livin' la vida low-carb providing you with a "balanced" diet?

Eat a "balanced" diet. Make sure you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Implement lifestyle changes into your life. Stay away from fad diets which don't work anyway. Exercise more.

Sound familiar? If you've ever been to see your doctor and carry around a few extra pounds, then I KNOW you have heard these not-so-subtle recommendations that you do something about your weight. It's funny how doctors do this symbolic Mexican hat dance around the subject of obesity so as not to offend anyone like this doctor did.

But maybe we need to offend a few people with obesity rates continuing to go up and up. Why can't doctors just come out and say something like this: "You know, Jimmy, I'm looking at your charts and I must say I am very concerned about what I see regarding your current state of health. If you continue to go down your current path of weight gain as you have for the past few years, then you are headed straight for a situation you don't want to be in. But I have good news for you. If you decide to take back control of your weight and lose weight implementing a program with a track record for success, then I think you will not only overcome the difficulties that will most certainly come, but will you will experience life like never before!"

Talk about inspiring your patient to greatness! Had I heard THAT speech ten years ago, then I wouldn't have had to suffer through those extra years of carrying around excess weight like I did. While I longed to hear that from my doctor, unfortunately it never happened and probably never will happen as long as we live in a lawsuit-happy society like we do. Awww, he hurt my feeling telling me I'm fat, so I'm gonna sue his pants off! Yikes, it's gotta suck being a doctor these days!

Anyway, getting back to this issue of health advice, don't you just LOVE that one about "balance." Be sure you eat a healthy, balanced diet. What the heck in the world is that? Who determines how much of what you should eat is balanced? Do we need to include sugar, white flour, starchy foods, and processed foods to "balance" out our diets? I sure don't think so and I KNOW I am much better off having eliminated these foods from my diet as much as possible.

One of my readers who wrote to me recently said he lost over 80 pounds on the Atkins diet in eight months back in 2003 and has been able to maintain his weight by doing so. He made an interesting comment regarding this topic I'd like to share with you:

"Like yourself I find the hypocrisy in the medical profession when it comes to "low-carb" simply amazing because when you examine most diet plans, they usually recommend that you eat a controlled portion of meat, fresh vegetables and fruits. Isn't this basically a 'low-carb' diet?"

LOL! Excellent point! Contrary to popular belief, livin' la vida low-carb does include fruits and vegetables along with the meat that is so often associated with this way of eating. People on a low-carb diet have never eaten a more "balanced" diet in their lives with fresh foods rich in in nutrients that nourish their bodies with essential vitamins and minerals for healthy nutrition.

Anyone who tells you the low-carb lifestyle is unhealthy because it isn't "balanced" obviously hasn't paid attention to what it is all about. Relying on what you have heard about low-carb rather than doing the research for yourself is lazy and irresponsible. That's what gets journalists like this in trouble because they do a whole lotta assumin' about livin' la vida low-carb. And you know what they say about people who ASS-U-ME... :)

Adding to his comments, my reader suggests perhaps we need to rename "low-carb" something else so people will get it.

"Maybe we should just rename low-carb to something more appeasing to those critics too lame to understand they cannot attack our way of life without attacking theirs? I think not."

It really doesn't matter what you call it, the critics are still going to jump all over it if it even closely resembles "low-carb" (just look what they did to the "Total Wellbeing Diet" down in Australia which was interestingly described by the health critics in the land down under as "unbalanced"). That's why I refuse to back down from using this term because I think people need to know what it REALLY means to follow the low-carb lifestyle, NOT what the media wants them to believe.

So the next time you hear someone throw out the excuse to you that your low-carb diet is just too "unbalanced" to be healthy, just look at that person straight in the face, smile, nod and say, "thanks for sharing your concerns, but I'm livin' la vida low-carb, baby!" Then let your weight loss and improved health speak for itself.