The controversy in recent years among government officials, the media, nutritionists, diet gurus, and consumers over the "low carbohydrate diet" phenomenon is nothing short of a good old fashioned, lunchroom food fight. Whatever you know or don't know, believe or don't believe about the low-carbohydrate trend, no one disagrees with the fact that the predominance of overly processed carbohydrates, sugar, fast food, and highly manufactured products has spawned a health crisis of great magnitude in this country. It would be hard to make a case otherwise when we look at the epidemic occurrence of diabetes, obesity, ADD/ADHD, depression, high cholesterol, hypertension, and other chronic illnesses.

In my own small corner of the world, practicing as both a psychotherapist and a nutritionist, I have been awed by the power of food to change people's lives. Significantly reducing their consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates has produced nothing short of miracles in many of my clients' lives and in their emotional and physical health. So dramatic were these changes that I began to feel I could do more to help people in less time as a nutritionist than as a psychotherapist, which eventually prompted me to focus my practice solely on nutrition. In addition to nutrition coaching, I also teach cooking classes, present corporate wellness programs, write articles, and give workshops, and the appetite for this information is huge. What I see, though, is that as hungry as people are, all too often the desire of well intentioned people to improve health gets buried by frustration, confusion, and ambivalence about learning a different way of eating.

We live in a society that makes it cheaper and more convenient to eat poorly. We exist at a time in history when forty years of misguided but persuasive thinking about the role of dietary fat has created a powerful "low – fat economy" based on thousands of products that increase the very problems they claim to prevent.