Low-carb diets can be effective weight-loss diets and can prevent seizures in epileptic children who don't respond well to conventional anti-seizure medicine. The American Heart Association, however, warns that low-carb diets that allow unlimited consumption of saturated fat and transfat can give rise to cardio-vascular disease and deplete the body of essential vitamins and minerals. Following a low-carb diet high in soy and good fats, such omega-3, but low in animal fat minimizes the risks of low-carb diets.
Traditional Low-Carb Diets
A traditional low-carb weight-loss diet, made popular by the late Dr. Robert Atkins, initially restricts the daily intake of carbohydrates to about 20 g a day but allows unlimited consumption of fat and protein. In later phases you can consume more carbohydrates. Atkins' diet does not require you to count calories or limit portion sizes. Foods that are prohibited in large quantifies include breakfast cereals, sandwiches, pizza, burgers, pasta, rice, potatoes and fruit. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy are permissible, provided they don't contain "hidden" carbohydrates, such as sugar used as a sweetener.
How Low-Carb Diets Work
When you eat carbohydrates, they are converted into glucose in the digestive system. Glucose quickly enters the bloodstream and boosts blood sugar levels. The pancreas responds to this rise in blood sugar by secreting insulin. Insulin quickly removes the glucose. This triggers hunger, which you normally would respond to by eating. After eating more food, the excess calories get stored as fat. Fat and protein do not cause similar extreme fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels. As a result, they don't make you hungry as quickly. So, the theory goes, low-carb diets work by controlling your appetite. When you eat less, the body will convert body fat into energy, causing you to lose weight.
The Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet was developed in the 1920s to control seizures in pediatric patients. Like the newer low-carb weight-loss diets, the ketogenic diet restricts carbohydrates. It further restricts protein to the minimum required amount. Owing to the diet's food composition, the only dietary energy source the body can use is dietary fat. The liver breaks dietary fat into glycerol and fatty acids and produces ketone bodies during this process. The brain normally uses glucose as a fuel. But when carbohydrates and protein are restricted, the brain is forced to switch to metabolizing ketone bodies. For reasons that remain unknown, ketone body metabolism prevents seizures in some individuals.
Health Risks
Traditional low-carb weight-loss diets and the ketogenic diet can be unhealthy in the long run. According to the American Heart Association, the saturated fats and transfats ordinarily consumed by people following these diets can increase the blood levels of bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein. Bad cholesterol has been associated with a hardening of arteries, blood clots and heart disease. The lack of significant amounts of fruit and vegetables on the diet furthermore can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The American Heart Association therefore recommends not following the original low-carb diets.
Low-Bad-Carb Diets
A different kind of low-carb diet is the low-bad-carb diets. Cardiologist Arthur Agatston designed a version of this diet as an alternative to more traditional low-carb diets. This version is known as "The South Beach diet." The diet cuts down on processed carbohydrates and sugar but allows you to consume normal amounts of complex carbs, such as brown rice and whole-grain bread. The principle behind the diet is the same as that behind the traditional diets. Complex carbs do not metabolize as quickly as processed carbs and sugar. So, the diet avoids extreme fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin. This can help control your appetite and force the body to burn its own fat to provide energy for movement and maintenance.
Low Carbs and Minimal Risk
Low-bad-carb diets are healthier than the original low-carb diets. But you will not lose weight quite as quickly on them as on a more restrictive low-carb diet. They also are less efficient in preventing seizures, as the brain can use the glucose from the complex carbohydrates as a fuel instead of ketone bodies. There is, however, a way of combining the benefits of the two types of diet while avoiding the disadvantages.
A diet that cuts carbohydrates to the 20 g limit, or lower for seizure prevention, but allows mostly good fats could be effective and healthy if you supplement with a daily vitamin and mineral tablet. On this kind of low-carb diet, you can consume fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna and sardines, olive oil and other good vegetable oils, tofu, soy cheese, soy milk and bread, pizza or pasta substitutes made out of soy. Recipes for bread, pizza and pasta substitutes made from soy are on the official Atkins website.
Member Comments