Okay--

I just finished reading The Rosedale Diet and "Sugar Busters!" (the 1998 ed.).

Honestly, I am interested in Rosedale's 3 week "cleansing program" here... and some of the recipes look really good (Rosedale's book).

Sugar Busters was somewhat confusing and not as organized in context to me as Rosedale's book was. I didn't see anything in the book that said to keep sugar grams to 3 grams or less (was that in the 2002 ed. of the book?).

I do tend to gain weight if I overdo it on starchy carbs... and I'm definitely curious about lowering my grain intake to starches that are lower on the GI scale (i.e. sprouted wheat loaves, etc).

Unlike Atkins and Rosedale, I plan to keep my diet to daily small amounts of fats (i.e. olive oil, almond butter, etc) and not eat meat or dairy since I'm essentially a vegan.

Which brings me to a question: how is lowering your starchy carb intake from refined grains (i.e. breads, potatoes, etc) benificial if almost everything we consume is a carbohydrate AND emphasize more on eating protein-- how is this any different from Atkins?

The reason lowering starchy carbs from refined grains works is due to the glycemic index of foods. In other words, not all carbs are equal. I am diabetic. I can eat white flour and see a tremendous spike in blood sugar, but a more sane one with whole wheat. White potatoes send my blood sugar through the roof, but sweet potatoes don't.

Atkins works by creating ketosis, but a Glycemic diet works by lowering the amount of insulin (which happens to be the hormone that tells your body to store fat).

Sugarbusters is not a low carb diet. Atkins is.

Atkins will not work if you don't keep your carb count low enough to maintain ketosis. Some folks will lose without ketosis (I was not one of them) but the object of the program is to get into ketosis.

Sugarbusters and other glycemic index diets include plenty of healthy carbs, such as fruit, and vegetables. Both are limited on Atkins.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Hi Monet--

Thanks!

After reading Rosedale's book, I plan to do a modified Rosedale Diet 3 week detox program for refined starchy bread products and processed sugars.

Really, I'll be increasing my veggie load and switching my carb intake from refined carbs to whole grains. I'll also be reducing my grains intake somewhat for the 3 weeks before slowly upping them back to regular levels. I plan to keep eating my fruits and keep my protein the same - in the form of vegan products like tofu/tempah/vegan meats, etc.

Based on what I read and from what you wrote above, I believe this isn't the same as Atkins, though.

Oh, and how annoying was this? I found out that if I did a better search in my library computer system, I could have checked out the 2003 edition of "sugar busters!" I just put an reserve on it, so hopefully the 2003 edition answers some more of my questions if I forget to put them on 3fatchicks.com!