Is Low Carb Diet a MYTH? Have you been MISLED?

This low diet seems to be changing lives for the better. People have lost weight and claimed to feel better, cured heart diseases and diabetes, reversed obesity. Many popular celebrities and athletes are switching to law carb diet.

But is it just a fat lie to sell? Some claim carbohydrates as villains but some claim it’s just another fad diets and people are not meeting their nutrition requirements which is actually quite dangerous.

Fat or Fiction?

Carbohydrate consumption has contributed in the obesity epidemic

Tim Noakes

In the 70s dietary guidelines around the world promoted the food pyramid which recommended we reduce fat and eat a lot of carbohydrates, which is a cheap way of getting energy. Fat was the villain, so people started having too many carbs. Some doctors are now proposing yeah yeah that we flip the message and reduce carbs instead of fat. South African professor Tim Noakes believes that carbohydrate consumption has contributed in the obesity epidemic Because carbohydrate stimulate a hormone called insulin which increases the bodies fat stores.

The role of insulin in the body is to build fat, so if you were consistently eating carbohydrates every three hours, you consistently have an elevated insulin concentration in your blood driving the carbohydrates into fat cells and fat cells cannot release the fat. The brain interprets that you’re starving and asks you eat again. This is why you get a repetitive eating behaviour patter n of those you consume a high carb diet.

Carbohydrates and Insulin

When you eat fat you get essentially no insulin response

Prof. Tim Noakes

Of the three dietary macro nutrients, carbohydrates are the most potent stimulator of insulin. When you eat fat you get essentially no insulin response, When you eat protein you get a moderate response, when you eat carbohydrates you get relatively higher response. That doesn’t mean that We need a high protein diet but we need enough protein to sustain the muscle mass and also to prevent hunger. Professor Noakes says the low-carb diet with moderate amount of protein helps lose weight because it reduces cravings and makes you feel fuller for longer period of time, reducing the hunger.

While dietary carbohydrates or normal the main source of fuel in the body they are not an essential micronutrients. If you remove them from the body the body can switch to burning fat for energy instead. Professor Knox says that humans have absolutely no requirement for carbohydrates whereas there are essential fats and essential proteins Which we cannot generate in the body, whereas our liver produces as much glucose as required. The optimal level of dietary carbohydrates will depend on how well your body processes them. Some people metabolise them better than others.

Extreme low carb diet can eliminate healthy whole grain food and even fruits.

Low-carb advocate Dr Steve Finney says that many people are actually unaware that they are carbohydrate intolerant. Professor Tim Crow and nutritionist from Deccan University is concerned that this diet will eliminate healthy food groups like whole grain foods and even fruits.

What about athletes?

Ketones are produced when fat is burnt for energy, which is the state of ketosis.

It’s always been assumed carbs are essential fuel source for exercise. Professor Noakes himself preached consuming carbohydrates before any form of exercise. He says that when we need a fast fuel source then cabs will be helpful but for endurance athletes, you will last just as long by burning fat for fuel. A research done by Dr. Finney involving 5 bike racers concluded that if you give people at least four weeks to adapt they come all the way back to their previous levels of performance and they are able to do that in the absence of carbohydrate because ketones replace much of the body’s requirement for glucose. Ketones are produced when fat is burnt for energy, which is the state of ketosis. There is also a little risk of short-term fatigue and lethargy, constipation due to ketosis, but no renal problems so it’s fairly safe.

Fat

Often when we hear about facts, we imagine the fried chips and highly processed foods full of unhealthy trans fats while this is different. It’s real food and full of natural fats Like coconut, cheese, eggs and fatty meats. Celebrity chef Pete Evans says cooking with fats get the best results. While people are avoiding dietary carbohydrates, they end up eating more saturated fats which is implicated in clogging the arteries and causes heart diseases. Body needs an amount of good cholesterol. There have been many studies that link saturated fat and heart diseases together.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a failure to metabolize carbohydrates.

Diabetes is a failure to metabolize carbohydrates. Even though there is no one – size – fits – all approach when it comes to diet however their scientific evidence to suggest that a large population with obesity and diabetes would benefit from yeah restricting carbohydrates. Both in treatment and prevention of type two diabetes following a low-carb diet has a massive impact. people with diabetes don’t just come with diabetes but with a whole range of different medical conditions. Hence, it has to be prevented and managed with a low carb diet.

Conclusion

Restrictive diet usually fail because they are prescriptive and they go against their normal eating habits. The more restrictive the diet is the harder they had to follow, so most people eventually start reverting back to their old lifestyle and later again start another fat diet. Low-carb diet has its own benefits as discussed and there are many scientific researches that back that.