Low Carb Diet Solutions

Low carbohydrate diets recommend reducing sugar and other carbohydrates, and many recommend eating animal proteins, vegetables and fats as your primary source of nutrition. The diets often are popular because many allow you to eat foods that are prohibited on traditional low calorie diets, such as steak and high fat dairy products.

Identification

Carbohydrates are macronutrients found in many foods that contain sugars. They are classified as either simple carbohydrates, which contain one or two sugars and are found in table sugar, sweeteners, fruit, candy, baked good and milk products; or complex carbohydrates that contain three or more sugars and are found in legumes, grains, corn, potatoes, starchy vegetables and cereals. Low carbohydrate diets restrict these foods and rely instead on animal proteins, fats, vegetables and some low sugar fruits for your daily food intake.

Theory

The key to the success of low carbohydrate diets is insulin. Gary Taubes, author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories," suggests that when you eat carbohydrate foods, the sugars in the foods cause a quick rise in blood glucose. When glucose rises, your pancreas releases insulin to bring blood glucose levels back into an acceptable range. Insulin plays multiple roles in metabolism. One of its main roles is to facilitate fat storage. When insulin is present, your fat cells are unable to release their fat to be burned as fuel. By controlling insulin, your body is able to burn fat for fuel. Some diets refer to this state as "ketosis."

Diets

Multiple low carbohydrate diet options exist with variations in the amount and types of carbohydrates you are allowed to eat. The Atkins diet is the most well-known low carbohydrate diet. Atkins incorporates three to four phases with increasing levels of carbohydrate consumption: induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and maintenance. Atkins recommends eating around 20 g of carbohydrates per day from leafy green vegetables during induction, and then increasing carbohydrates in stages until you find your personal carbohydrate threshold.

Protein Power is another low carbohydrate diet. The diet has three phases: intervention, transition and maintenance. During intervention, you eat 7 g to 10 g of carbohydrates per meal. During transition, you can eat about 15 g of carbohydrates per meal, and in maintenance phases you will eat 20 g to 30 g of carbohydrates per meal.

Another low carb diet, Zone, recommends eating 40 percent of calories from protein and 30 percent each of your calories from fat and carbohydrates at every meal Other low carbohydrate and semi-low carbohydrate plans include PaNu, Neanderthin and South Beach.

Support

In a 2002 health article for "The New York Times," Gary Taubes examined conventional weight loss wisdom and years of research into the mechanisms of weight loss. In the article, What if It's All Been a Big, Fat Lie, Taubes suggests that the American obesity epidemic may be tied in to the very foods that they've been told will help them lose weight: grains and carbohydrates. Some research also shows modest support for the efficacy of low carbohydrate diets, such as a 2003 study led by Gary D. Foster and published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" that concludes that low carb diets did produce weight loss and warranted further study.

Criticism

Critics point out that low carbohydrate diets are typically low in fiber and high in saturated fat, which can lead to increased risks of certain health problems such as heart disease, heart attack, stroke, certain cancers and gastrointestinal problems. The high protein content of such diets may also lead to kidney disease. Check with your doctor before going on any diet, including low carbohydrate diets.