Natural Low Carb Diet

Eating naturally in accordance with your body's nutritional requirements can help you to maintain a healthy weight, have energy to get you through the day, and keep you from getting sick. The natural foods movement recommends eating seasonally available, wholesome foods that are minimally processed. Some low-carbohydrate diets also follow this natural foods philosophy. Proponents believe that eating a natural, low-carbohydrate diet can help you lose weight and attain better overall health.

Identification

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate-containing foods. The diets don't allow processed foods such as pasta, baked goods, sugar, corn syrup and flour. Natural low-carbohydrate diets take it a step further, suggesting you eat seasonally available local organic produce and organic, antibiotic-free, grass-fed proteins, wild-caught fish and organic produce. Evolutionary diets, Paleolithic diets and ancestral diets are all natural low-carbohydrate diets, while PaNu and Protein Power Lifeplan are natural low-carbohydrate diets.

History

Early humans were hunter-gatherers. According to PaNu creator Dr. Kurt G. Harris, disease occurs because human beings have abandoned their early metabolic living conditions. Instead of eating foods that were available to hunter-gatherer societies, today we rely on highly processed foods that are full of chemicals. Both Harris and Dr. Michael Eades, creator of the Protein Power Lifeplan, recommend returning to the metabolic conditions of early man by eating foods similar to what hunter-gatherers ate. This includes placing an emphasis on seasonal vegetables, occasional fruits and natural meats. It also includes eating animal fats instead of oils derived from seeds or grains or hydrogenated fats. Both doctors also recommend avoiding dairy, all grains and artificial sweeteners, which wouldn't have been available to early humans.

Theories/Speculation

Gary Taubes says in "Good Calories, Bad Calories," that processed carbohydrates, grains and sugars are making people fat and sick. According to Taubes, your body reacts to these foods by releasing insulin, which causes most of the problem. Insulin is a fat-storage hormone, and it moves food into fat storage when it is present in the bloodstream. It also keeps the fat cells from releasing stored fat. When insulin is absent, your body burns fat as fuel.

Support

An article in the February 2005 "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" from the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University focused on the evolution of the Western diet and its link to disease. The article suggests these changes include an increase in processed foods, carbohydrate foods, dairy products and certain types of fat; and that the changes may indeed be responsible for many of the diseases of civilization including obesity, autoimmune disorders and diabetes.

Research supports the efficacy of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss. A 2010 Temple University study printed in Annals of Internal Medicine evaluated both low-carb and low-fat diets and found both to be equally effective.

Considerations

Natural low-carb diets consist mainly of animal fat and protein, vegetables and some fruits. The Mayo Clinic website cautions that such diets may be high in fat and cholesterol, which can lead to increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Talk to your doctor before going on a natural low-carb diet.