With everyone and his dog eschewing carbs, you may be surprised to hear that the likes of Keira Knightley, Britney Spears, and Beyonce all confess to a Jones for a plate heaped high with pasta. Yes, that’s right: pasta is an all-time favorite of many of today’s Hollywood celebrities.
No less than Julia Roberts has confessed to the media that while she was shooting Eat Pray Love in Italy, she scarfed down the pasta on a regular basis. As Roberts put it, some of the pasta indulgence was about the fact that she was in Italy, though she admits that it was more about being able to eat pasta all day long instead of the more usual one bowl a day.
Devil Incarnate
“How can they do it?” you wonder. It does seem kind of crazy, considering we’ve been told for decades that carbs are the Devil incarnate. We’ve been warned they’ll make us fat, tired, and bloated. But look at those celebrities. Do they look fat to you (not to mention tired or bloated)? But it seems that the editors associated with Health magazine have at last debunked the awful carb myth by outlining something called, “The CarbLovers Diet.”
Co-author of The CarbLovers Diet, Ellen Kunes cites research on what she calls “Resistant Starch,” about which she states that adding some to breakfast will put your metabolism into fat-burning mode. Dieters who include this type of carbohydrate in their morning meal will burn 25% more calories per day.
No Pigging-Out
Kunes isn’t giving you permission to pig-out on muffins and bagels, but rather encourages you to eat certain types of carbohydrates, such as potatoes, bananas, beans and other pulses, as well as whole-grain pasta. These so-called “Resistant starches” bring about a chain reaction that helps to shrink fat cells, stoke the metabolism, preserve muscle tissue, and help you feel full for a longer period of time.
The CarbLovers Diet has four rules:
*Eat one “CarbStar” at each meal—the book enumerates 11 foods that belong to this category. Adding one to every meal is said to encourage “fat-flushing.”
*Balanced plates—the CarbStar you have at each meal should fill around a quarter of your plate. The rest of the plate should be divided between known diet-smart foods like fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean meats, and healthy fats.
*Pay attention to portions–you can eat any carbs you like at your meals, but in order to succeed at this diet, you’ll need to take the authors’ advice on portion control. Reviewers said they felt well-satisfied on this diet and never suffered hunger pangs.
*Avoid deprivation—this diet is unusual in that it includes foods that would be no-no’s on any other diet: pasta, chocolate, bread pudding, potato chips, and pasta—you’ll find them all here. The authors believe that if you deny a particular craving, you’ll only end up binging on the desired food and that this will make you gain weight. Instead, you can have just a bit of a favorite indulgence each day to forestall binge-eating.