The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten [48]
My first successful Montignac meal is over.
By the time I reach San Francisco, I have finished Dine Out and Lose Weight. (You can order a copy by dialing (800) 932-3229.) This is not an easy book to love, brimming as it is with non sequiturs, pointless anecdotes, feeble humor, self-contradictions, and braggadocio. Considering the very competent prose in another of Montignac’s books, published in Britain, I do not know whether to blame Montignac or his American translator.
But the key idea is this: There are bad carbohydrates and good carbohydrates. Bad carbohydrates cause a sharp spike in the level of glucose in the bloodstream. Good carbohydrates cause a much milder and slower rise in blood sugar. The extent to which a carbohydrate raises the level of glucose in the blood is expressed by its glycemic index.
When our blood sugar rises, the pancreas produces insulin, which enables the body’s tissues to absorb glucose, removing it from the bloodstream. But many of us have a problem. We have become insulin resistant, and so our pancreas needs to produce more insulin than normal to get the job done. The excess insulin has a disastrous effect on our waistlines: it causes our fat cells to store extra calories, whether from proteins, fats, or carbohydrates, in the form of body fat. Food is not turned into fat in the absence of insulin.
The essential trick is to eat only proteins and fats (these trigger very little insulin production) and good carbohydrates, those with a low glycemic index. Caffeine is forbidden because it stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin.
The worst carbohydrate is maltose, found in beer; its glycemic index is 110, worse than drinking pure glucose, with a rating of 100. Then come white bread and instant mashed potatoes (95); honey and jam (90); cornflakes and popcorn (85); carrots (85); refined sugar (75); corn, beets, white rice, cookies, and boiled potatoes (70); white-flour pasta (65); and bananas and raisins (60). As you can see, white bread is even worse than sugar. All of these bad carbohydrates should be avoided at all times and under all circumstances.
The best of the good carbohydrates are green vegetables; with a rating below 15, they can be eaten freely with proteins and fats. The other good carbohydrates are not quite as harmless and should generally not be eaten with fats: fructose (20); dark chocolate (22); lentils, chickpeas, dried beans, and dried peas (30); fresh fruits (35); wild rice (35); dairy products and whole-grain cereals (35); whole rye bread, green peas, and fresh white beans (40); whole wheat pasta (45); oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and brown rice (50).
And that’s why calories don’t count. For Montignac, “the calorie theory is probably the greatest ‘scientific swindle’ of the twentieth century.” I like the sound of that.
Armed with my newly gained knowledge of good and evil, I cross the Oakland Bay Bridge and approach my motel in Berkeley with a quickening appetite for an ample feast of proteins, fats, and green vegetables. But the hour is late, and I am lucky that room service is still operating. Dinner is chicken wings, chopped steak, cauliflower, green beans, and caffeine-free diet Pepsi. After a trying transcontinental journey, I customarily reward myself with a little treat to help forget the indignities and humiliations I have suffered. Sometimes the reward is a jumbo family pack of bite-sized Snickers bars. This time I refrain.
Days Two to Five. Do I still weigh 170 pounds or has Montignac already started to work? I will not know for nearly a week when I return home to my Detecto Doctor’s Scale.
I am in Berkeley to attend three days of baking demonstrations by Professor Raymond Calvel at the Acme Bread Company. Calvel, now eighty-three, is probably still the leading French teacher of bread baking. The Bread Bakers Guild of America has organized the whole thing, and every morning fifty of us meet for breakfast at the motel—coffee and juice and baskets of muffins, Danish pastries, and some of Calvel’s