[parliament32]

It's ridiculous just how terrible refined carbohydrates are for people. There are countless accounts of people losing weight and getting healthier by simply reducing refined sugars in their diet. It's surprising that this isn't common knowledge yet, although I guess we're fighting Big Sugar here.

I field countless questions about diet on a regular basis, and honestly the #1 tip isn't about calorie reduction or low carb or any gimmicks... it just comes down to "start cooking your own food, from real ingredients". Buy fresh meat and produce and go from there. Weight loss and health will come naturally, because real food is far more satiating than the calorie-and-sugar-dense snacks the western world is used to eating.

[gowld]

It's certainly common knowledge that sugar is fattening (but many people don't know that carbs are relatively bad too), but carbs are cheap and tasty so hard to quit.

[cco]

This always surprises me as cutting out refined and/or unrefined carbohydrates has no effect on my weight.

The only thing that moves my weight down is reducing calories or increasing activity while maintaining the same caloric intake. I suppose it's entirely possible these people are doing the former and just don't know it.

[GordonS]

I think that quite often reducing refined carb intake is quite likely to result in a reduction in calorie intake - when our blood sugar rises and then falls, it triggers feelings of hunger, making snacking more likely. With unrefined carbs, the GI is typically much less, resulting in a slower rise of blood sugar to a lesser peak.