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What is low carb Diet?
 People
diet for two primary reasons, to lose weight, or to improve health--or both. If
you are a healthy adult who is not overweight and who has no family members who
are obese, the food pyramid recommendations of the USDA will work fine, as long
as you remember that the carbohydrates that are recommended are those contained
in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, even those who are healthy
and who are not overweight can maintain their health and vitality by following
a reduced carbohydrate lifestyle.
For
those who are overweight, or who have diabetes, the low-calorie and low-fat
diets recommended by the government do not work well. In fact, for diabetics,
they can actually worsen the condition. The only diet that strikes at the real
cause of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and type
2 diabetes is a low-carbohydrate diet. Many doctors and nutritionists are now
starting to recognize this.
There
are many different versions of the low-carb diet, such as Dr. Atkins New
Diet Revolution, Protein Power, Neanderthin, The
Carbohydrate Addict's Lifestyle Plan, Life Without Bread, and
others. All of them, however, have one thing in common -- a very strict
reduction in the consumption of carbohydrates. Most low-carb diets replace
carbohydrates with fats and proteins. Although diets vary in their
recommendations, as a general rule, a low-carb diet is synonymous with a
high-fat and moderate protein diet. Those on a low-carb diet should get at least
60 to 70 percent of their daily calorie intake from fat. Carbohydrates should
make up less than 10 percent, and in some cases, less than 5 percent of your
daily calorie intake.
After
being told for years to eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate "balanced" diet,
Americans are now the fattest people on Earth, and getting fatter every year!
The occurrences of adult-onset diabetes is also increasing. We now know,
because research has shown, that fat is not the enemy -- carbohydrates are.
On
a low-carb diet, you can eat until you're full, as long as you eat only allowed
foods. Allowed foods are meats, fish, poultry, eggs, and cheese, plus a limited
amount of green vegetables. Stay away from foods that are on the "Not
Allowed" list.
How does a Low Carb Diet work?
Burning Fat
Much
research has proven that dietary fat is not necessarily converted into body
fat. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are readily converted into fat by the
action of insulin. According to many experts, most overweight people became
overweight due to a condition called hyperinsulinemia -- elevated
insulin levels in the blood. When you eat a high-carbohydrate meal, the
increased blood sugar stimulates insulin production by the pancreas. Insulin is
the hormone that allows blood sugar to be used by the cells. However, a side
effect of insulin is that it also causes fat to be deposited, and it stimulates
your brain to produce hunger signals. So what do you do? You eat more
carbohydrates, and the cycle repeats. In time, your body cells become resistant
to insulin, meaning that your pancreas has to work overtime, producing up to
four or five times as much insulin just to keep up with the demand. It has been
shown that high levels of insulin have a deleterious effect on the body,
including premature aging.
Restricting
the intake of carbohydrates puts a halt to this vicious cycle. When you
restrict your carbohydrate intake, your insulin levels decrease and the levels
of glucagon increase. Glucagon is a hormone that causes body fat to be burned
and cholesterol to be removed from deposits in the arteries.
If
you severely restrict carbs, your body goes into a state of ketosis--burning
fat with the subsequent production of ketone bodies in the bloodstream. The
condition is called "ketonuria" if ketones are spilled out into the
urine. The result of ketosis is that your blood sugar levels stabilize; your
insulin level drops; and because your body is burning fat, you lose weight! You
can easily test to see if your diet is inducing ketosis with the use of inexpensive
ketone test strips.
When
your diet causes your body to go into a state of ketosis, you are said to be on
a ketogenic diet. For most people, restricting your carbohydrate intake
to fewer than 30 grams a day will induce ketonuria. Most people on ketogenic
diets lose weight fairly quickly. However, although some diet experts believe
that ketosis is a safe condition, it is not necessary to be in ketosis to lose
weight. Keep in mind, however, that when you choose a higher level of
carbohydrates than what is needed to bring on ketosis, you may have to limit
your total food intake (calories) somewhat in order to lose weight.
Also,
for diabetics who are not obese, it certainly is not necessary to induce
ketosis to reap the benefits of a low-carb diet. It is quite possible to bring
your blood glucose levels under control without being in ketosis. However, if
you must lose considerable weight, a ketogenic diet is the most efficient
method for bringing your weight back down to where it should be.
What are the benefits of a Low Carb Diet?
A Healthy Way
to Lose Weight
In
general, on a low-carb diet it is not necessary to count calories. Eat all you
want, as often as you want, in order to prevent hunger. Don't stuff yourself,
just eat until you're no longer hungry. Remember, there is a difference between
being hungry and having an appetite. Hunger means your body needs more food, so
you need to eat. Having an appetite means you have the feeling that you want to
eat, whether your body needs more food or not.
In
some cases, for those who are metabolically resistant, reducing total food
intake may help to stimulate or maintain weight loss. But it's the carbs, not
the total calories that must be kept low.
Because
you are consuming fats and oils, your appetite stays under control, because
fatty foods are very satisfying. Eating a high level of fat actually causes you
to lose weight faster than if you were fasting! That is because, during a fast,
your body thinks it is starving, so it kicks into a very high efficiency state
of metabolism. This slows down weight loss. But with a high fat diet, combined
with very low amounts of carbohydrates, your body knows it is not starving, and
metabolism is maintained at a normal level. Although consuming fats is
necessary for a healthy diet, try to limit consumption of trans-fats (margarine
and shortening). Good fats include olive oil, flax seed oil, canola oil, oils
found in nuts, and also real butter. Most fats should be the monounsaturated
and saturated fats. Avoid the polyunsaturated fats when possible, except for
those containing the essential omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish.
But
isn't a low-carb diet high in protein and doesn't eating a lot of protein
damage the kidneys? First of all, a low-carb diet is not necessarily a high
protein diet. It's an adequate protein diet. It's primarily a high fat diet.
But the answer to the second part of the question is no, there is no evidence
that eating lots of protein will damage healthy kidneys.
Advantages of Low-Carbing
Vitamins and Minerals
But
isn't a low-carb diet deficient in vitamins and minerals that are found in
fresh fruits and vegetables? A low-carb lifestyle used to control diabetes and
not to lose weight can be quite balanced--just stay away from refined
carbohydrates. However, most low-carb diets used for weight loss are not
"balanced" in terms of providing all the essential micronutrients.
That is why it is extremely important to supplement your diet with good-quality
vitamin and mineral products. It is also important to take a fiber supplement.
Look
at it this way: All your life your body has been constantly subjected to high
"doses" of sugar, in the form of refined carbohydrates. Your body
recognizes only one carbohydrate -- sugar. All carbohydrates you eat, except
fiber, are converted into sugar. Eating a diet that is 70% carbohydrates means
that most of what you eat is sugar. That type of diet is also unbalanced. The
purpose of a low-carb diet is to bring your body chemistry and insulin
sensitivity back into balance. To do that, you must eat a diet that is
unbalanced in the opposite direction of they way you have been eating for
years.
Once
the weight is off, and your blood chemistry, blood pressure, and energy levels
are back in the normal range, then you may start adding some more complex
carbohydrates back into your diet. By eating a moderate amount of foods like
vegetables and berries, and a limited amount of grain products, such as
whole-grain breads and beans, your diet will then be balanced and you can stop
taking the supplements, if you wish. Besides, the low-carb diet is not as
unbalanced as you might think. Meats, butter, nuts, cheese, and eggs contain a
lot of essential vitamins and minerals.
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