Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Healthy Low Carb Diet

Question:
I recently read the Carbohydrate Addict's Halthy Heart Plan (Heller) and have been on a low carb diet for a little over a week. It seemed like a good idea since I'm hypoglycemic, a bit overweight and moderately have triglyc. + cholest. Today I did some internet searches for articles on low carb diets and was surprised to find so many negative articles from doctors and nutritionists on the subject. Now I don't know who I should believe? Any advice? Also, the book said the cravings should stop in 3 days. After 8 days I'm still having nasty cravings and feel light headed during the day....but I haven't cheated on the diet at all. Anybody with similar experience? Or,does anyone have a healthy low carb diet?

Answer:
The arguments usually go like this : unhealthy as you don't get any veg High-protein diets cause heart failure you only loose water weight too much bad fat so you'll die of a heart attack it;s a trick diet because it's really a calorie restricted diet it may work but you'll gain it all back The first two are obviously bogus (atkins diet, for example, could almost be described as high-veg). The heart failure theory is based on a high protein diet that became notorious sometime in the 90's. Unlike the atkins diet it used some kind of purified protein substance and little fat. Apparently the effects seen with that diet are not seen when natural sources of protein are used. Most low-carb diets bear little resemblance to this dangerous manufactured protein diet. The medical and science world are not in agreement over the issue of saturated animal fats. A good example of this is a medical columnist, Dr Le Fanu, for the serious UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) who has plenty of reputation to loose. He wrote a book, recently publised, called The rise and fall of modern medicine in which he describes the history of the cholesterol/saturated-animal-fat-is-bad-for-your-health/heart theory. The book was well recieved (you can read reviews on the web). He makes the point that the theory has never been genuinely demonstrated, let alone proven. He also speculates as to why the theory has persisted so long despite the evidence to the contrary. The next point (calorie restriction) is a half-truth. By dodging carb cravings one ends up eating less calories, but there is no emphasis on calorie restriction in low-carb diets. This important mechanism is obviously missing from high-carb diets. You do gain it all back IF you go back to what made you fat int he first place, ie : carbs. This diet does not promise to turn a fat person into a naturally thin person. Whatever made the fat person susceptable to gaining wait isn't necessairly corrected. The value of these diets is that they are relatively easy to stick to (no fat or carb cravings and a wide range of foods) and suited to being done for life. And that, generally, is the advice that low-carb material gives : do it for life.