The advice comes as part of Paltrow’s new dieting cookbook ‘It’s All Good’ and has provoked anger from dietitians who prescribe to the medical establishment’s overarching belief that carbohydrates are excellent as part of a balanced diet. Many have warned that a diet for children that is free of carbohydrates is not healthy and might even be dangerous for them.
But what’s the real truth of the matter? Are dietitians being overzealous with their dependence on the government’s prescribed nutritional advice, or is Paltrow really doing more harm than good with her suggestion that children can do without carbs? Of course there is a tendency to think that she may just be playing the role of the neurotic celebrity, but the fact of the matter is she’s right: no-one, not even children, need carbohydrates in their diet.
There are no nutrients found in starchy carbohydrate foods that you can’t get from other aspects of your diet. And often the other places you can get those nutrients from actually provide it in a much healthier way.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to stop eating carbohydrates or stop giving them to your children, but it does mean that Gwyneth Paltrow’s suggestion that we can get on fine without them is completely validated.