For nearly twenty years, I followed a low-carbohydrate diet.
If you look at photos of me from those years, you’ll notice something consistent: I always had a belly.
At the time, I was practicing functional medicine, a form of holistic medicine that looks for underlying causes of illness instead of just prescribing medications for symptoms. Low-carb eating was the dominant trend. Many respected doctors (whose names you have most certainly heard of, like Dr. Mark Hyman) were recommending it, and like many practitioners, I followed suit—and recommended it to my patients.
The logic made sense. Remove grains, calm the immune system, reduce inflammation. And to be fair, for many people, low-carb eating did help—especially compared to the Standard American Diet.
But something wasn’t right.
Despite doing “everything right,” my own weight never normalized. And while patients often improved, I didn’t see the kind of deep, consistent reversal of weight gain and blood sugar problems that I was hoping for.
A Medical Paradox That Wouldn’t Let Go
Around that time, I came across something that deeply challenged my understanding of nutrition.
I read about a physician at Duke University, Dr. Walter Kempner, who treated extremely sick patients—morbid obesity, advanced kidney disease, dangerously high blood pressure, uncontrolled diabetes—using a diet built largely on white rice, fruit, and sugar.
As a health practitioner trained in low-carb thinking, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
If sugar was the enemy, how could a diet that included sugar lead to weight loss, lower blood pressure, and improved blood sugar control?
If avoiding carbohydrates was the key to metabolic health, why wasn’t low-carb working reliably—for me or for so many of my patients?
And from a historical perspective, it’s hard to ignore that long-lasting civilizations emerged only after the domestication of grains and other starchy crops
And why was a diet that was very low in fat, low in protein, and high in starch producing such dramatic results?
That question stayed with me for years, slowly gathering weight until I could no longer ignore it.
What the Rice Diet Really Demonstrated
The Rice Diet wasn’t magic. It was extreme, and it’s not something I’m suggesting people follow today.
But it proved something important.
It showed that:
- Carbohydrates are not inherently fattening
- Sugar alone is not the primary driver of metabolic disease
- Dietary fat plays a central role in insulin resistance and weight gain
The Rice Diet worked because it removed fat almost entirely, calories were naturally low, and insulin sensitivity improved rapidly. Blood pressure dropped. Kidney function improved. People lost weight—even while eating starch and sugar.
This challenged a core assumption of low-carb ideology.
Putting the Puzzle Together
Eventually, tired of carrying extra weight and wanting better energy, healthier blood sugar, and a long, active life with my family, I decided to test the idea for myself.
I shifted to a diet that allowed generous amounts of starch—rice, potatoes, beans, grains—while removing oils and animal products. In other words, a more sustainable, real-world version of the Rice Diet.
The results were unmistakable.
I lost weight (to the tune of 30 lbs). My blood sugar normalized. And I had much more energy.
That’s when I understood what had been missing.
Is This About Eating More Rice?
So am I writing this article to convince you to eat more rice?
No, though, let’s face it, who doesn’t love rice?
I’m writing it to help you understand a crucial piece of the puzzle.
If someone tells you that the only path to health is avoiding fruit, grains, and starch—and that low-carb is the only solution—you can tell them about the Rice Diet.
You can tell them that some of the sickest patients in modern medical history improved on a diet built around starch.
And you can stop being afraid of foods that humans have eaten for thousands of years. Foods that they really miss!
The Bigger Lesson
As Dr. John McDougall often says, you should be able to eat as much healthy, whole, plant-based food as you want—including grains and potatoes—and maintain a healthy weight.
When a diet is built around whole foods, rather than concentrated fats and highly processed products, the body knows what to do.
The Rice Diet reminds us of something simple but powerful:
It wasn’t carbohydrates that broke our metabolism—it was excess fat, largely from processed foods and overconsumption of animal products.
Until next time, enjoy more real food—and enjoy feeling lighter, more energetic, and most importantly, healthier.
Resource:
If you’d like guidance on getting started with a whole-food, plant-based diet, a good practical place to begin is: https://www.forksoverknives.com/start/