THE CARBOHYDRATE ADDICTION SPECTRUM
Why “Everything in Moderation” is Nonsense for Some of Us
By Mitch Weiss (Old Guy Carnivore)
Look, I’m almost 79 years old, and I’ve been around long enough to know that people are different. Shocking revelation, right? But here’s what nobody wants to talk about: we’re not all wired the same when it comes to carbohydrates.
The carnivore community—hell, the entire low-carb world—has been dancing around this for years. We’ve got the lion diet folks eating nothing but red meat, salt, and water. We’ve got regular carnivores. We’ve got “sloppy carnivores” (yeah, that’s a thing). We’ve got keto people, low-carb people, and then Paul Saladino over there telling everyone to eat fruit and honey like it’s 1999.
It’s a spectrum, people.
And where you fall on that spectrum determines everything about what’s going to work for you. Not what should work. Not what works for your neighbor or your favorite YouTube doctor. What works for you.
Here’s How It Works:
On one end, you’ve got people—lucky bastards—who can actually moderate. They can have a cookie at a party, enjoy it, and move on with their lives. Their brain doesn’t hijack them. For them, “everything in moderation” actually makes sense. Good for them. I’m happy for them. But that’s not most of us who end up in the carnivore space.
Then you’ve got people in the middle. Maybe keto works. Maybe low-carb works. They need some structure, some rules, but they’ve found a place where they can include some carbohydrates without falling into the pit of despair and the rabbit hole of excess consumption.
And then you’ve got people like me on the far end. The ones for whom one bite—ONE BITE—of blueberry ice cream turns into “where did that entire container go?” We’re the ones who can’t moderate. We’re addicts. And I don’t use that word lightly.
The Blueberry Ice Cream Story (Or: How Your Addiction Plays You Like a Fiddle)
Every three or four months, my subconscious whispers to me: “Hey Mitch, maybe you’re healed now. Maybe this time you can moderate that blueberry ice cream.”
And like Charlie Brown running at Lucy’s football, I fall for it. Every. Single. Time.
I’ll buy the frozen blueberries. The heavy cream. No added sugar, no added anything—just blueberries and cream in the ice cream maker. Healthy, right? Natural sugars only. Should be fine.
It’s crack. For me, it’s crack.
One spoonful and I’m gone. I can’t stop. And this happens even after months, sometimes years, of not touching the stuff. The addiction doesn’t die. It just goes to sleep. And it wakes up the second that first bite hits your tongue.
Why This Matters (And Why “Just Have Willpower” Can Go To Hell)
Here’s what people don’t understand: This isn’t a moral failing. This is neurochemistry.
Some of us have brains that respond to certain foods—especially high-glycemic carbohydrates—the same way a drug addict’s brain responds to their drug of choice. The dopamine hit. The crash. The craving. The compulsion. It’s real. And telling someone like me to “just moderate” is like telling an alcoholic to “just have one beer.” It fundamentally misunderstands the problem.
The Danger of Keto Knockoffs
Want to know what’s especially insidious? Making low-carb versions of your trigger foods.
Keto pizza crust. Carnivore pancakes. Sugar-free cookies that taste “just like the real thing.”
For someone at my end of the spectrum, this is playing with fire. It’s not just about the carbs—it’s the taste, the mouth feel, the ritual of eating that food. Your brain doesn’t care if it’s technically zero-carb. Your addiction gets triggered anyway.
Why would you do that to yourself when you could get to a place where you don’t even think about pizza? Where you could care less about it?
Finding Your Place on the Spectrum
The goal of my new site, carbaddictionhelp.com, is simple: Help you figure out where YOU fall on this spectrum.
Because once you know where you are, you can stop fighting yourself. You can stop thinking there’s something wrong with you because you can’t moderate like other people. You can stop trying to force yourself into a dietary approach that doesn’t match your neurobiology.
Not everybody needs to be a carnivore. Not everybody needs to be as extreme as me. There’s no shame if you don’t need to be that extreme. If you can enjoy something without falling into that rabbit hole of excess consumption, there’s no reason you can’t do it.
But here’s the thing: addicts can’t moderate.
And if you’re reading this and nodding your head because you’ve had your own version of my blueberry ice cream story, then you need to accept that moderation might not be in the cards for you. At least not with certain foods. Maybe not ever.
The Bottom Line
We’re programmed differently. Some of us have addiction wiring when it comes to carbohydrates. Understanding what created the mechanisms that drive these cravings and addictions is the key to accepting them as real and accepting the fact that there’s nothing wrong with us.
We’re just different than the other guy.
And once you accept that—really accept it—you can stop torturing yourself and start eating in a way that actually works for your brain.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure there are no blueberries in my freezer.
Contact: Old Guy Carnivore on YouTube
[email protected] carbaddictionhelp.com