| Staying
Healthy on a Low Carbohydrate Diet
by Marjorie Geiser
It is estimated that about
32 million Americans are following some type of
low carbohydrate diet. This is the result of fad
diet authors claiming that carbohydrates are the
cause for America’s rising obesity problems.
The backlash against carbohydrates is a result
of the low fat craze that started in the 80’s.
When consumers started cutting
down their fat intake, manufacturers figured out
that they could create low fat processed food
products that the public would buy. Because these
products claimed to be ‘fat free’,
Americans didn’t pay attention to the fact
that they were not also ‘calorie free’,
and as a result, the total amount of daily calories
has slowly been increasing. In fact, although
the total percentage of calories from fat has
decreased, the actual amount of fat intake has
increased by 10# per year since 1975! The increase
of carbohydrate has also increased, at a rate
of 20# per year, mostly as a result of highly
processed foods.
It is estimated that 3800
calories are now produced for every American man,
woman and child. We have evolved from a world
of feast or famine, but we’re in a state
of perpetual feast, although our bodies have not
changed. We have no defenses against excess calories:
Every year, 300,000 to 400,000 deaths in the US
are attributed to obesity.
Meanwhile, Asian and Middle
Eastern populations consume 50-75% of their calories
from rice and have some of the lowest rates of
obesity and heart disease in the world. People
living in the Mediterranean also have fewer health
conditions commonly seen in the US. This diet
consists of whole grains, vegetables, legumes,
nuts and fruits. Their diets are rich in fish
and low in meats and poultry. Although their fat
intake is about the same as in America, the type
of fat is primarily monounsaturated fats, such
as olive oil, where Americans eat primarily saturated
animal fats.
Regardless of the actual advantage
or disadvange to following a low carbohydrate
diet, there are three recommendations for maintaining
good health while following such a diet. The first
is to choose healthy fats over the unhealthy,
saturated fats, when considering fat intake. Examples
of healthy fats would be plant fats that have
not been ‘hydrogenated’, which makes
the fat more solid at room temperature. It is
believed that hydrogenation is actually more harmful
to health than saturated fats found naturally
in animal products. Plant fats would include nuts,
avocados, and olives. Oils such as olive oil,
canola oil and peanut oil are better choices than
fats that come from animal sources, such as butter,
lard or bacon grease.
Multiple studies over the
years have shown that excess animal fats lead
to higher risks of cancer, heart disease and other
inflammatory disorders. Saturated fats have been
linked to increased cholesterol, LDL (the ‘bad’)
cholesterol as well as to increased LDL cholesterol
oxidation. In fact, in January 2004, an Atkins
representative put out a press release advising
the public to decrease their amounts of steak,
eggs, and saturated fast to less than 20% of their
total fat intake.
The next recommendation to
ensure good health is to eat plenty of fruits
and vegetables. Although fruits and most vegetables
are restricted in the initial phase of some low
carbohydrate diets, they are then allowed back
in limited amounts. The phytonutrients that come
from a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have
been shown to decrease blood pressure, as well
as protect against cancer, heart disease, diabetes,
metabolic syndrome, and obesity. It’s easy
to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet,
once you get in the habit. Examples are; add some
berries to breakfast, eat a tomato at lunch, include
broccoli with dinner, drink some vegetable juice
with snacks, and have a large salad with your
meal.
The final tip to ensure good
health is to eat a diet of whole foods, rather
than fall back on the ‘easy’ snack,
convenience foods of today. If American’s
had just cut down their amount of fat intake in
the 80’s, without finding new ways to snack,
we may not be seeing the epidemic of obesity we
see, today. When people started going on the low
carbohydrate diets, they eliminated a large number
of calories by eliminating snacking, especially
at night, where common snacks are chips, crackers,
and other high fat, high refined carbohydrate
foods, such as ice cream. Today, though, much
like in the 80’s, manufacturers are now
developing ‘low carb’ and ‘low
net carb’ snack foods. We can now find ‘low
net carb’ chips, crackers, ice cream, popcorn,
even low carb pizza! As Americans start to increase
their intake of these foods, we will soon see
a slowing of the weight loss many had seen initially.
In order to call themselves
a ‘low net carb’ food, manufacturers
subtract the fiber and sugar alcohols from the
total carbohydrates in the product, rather than
produce products without carbohydrate. There is
no actual FDA standard for what a “low net
carb” food is, yet, though, so right now
it’s anything the manufacturer wants to
say it is. These foods also are very high in fat
and saturated fat, usually through hydrogenation.
So, not only will calories be added back into
the diet through resuming unhealthy snack habits,
but they will be calories consisting of high amounts
of the unhealthy fats.
So, while following a low
carbohydrate diet, in order to ensure continued
good health, follow these three recommendations:
1) Make most fats you eat the healthy, plant fats,
rather than eating a diet high in animal or hydrogenated
fats, 2) Eat plenty of nutrient rich fruits and
vegetables, which are high in disease-fighting
antioxidants, and 3) eat mostly whole, fresh foods
and very little processed snack foods, even if
they say ‘low carb’, in order to avoid
hidden and unnecessary fat and calories.
About The Author
Marjorie Geiser
has been teaching health, fitness and nutrition
since 1982. She is a nutritionist, registered
dietitian, certified personal trainer and life
coach. As the owner of MEG Fitness, Marjorie’s
goal for her clients is to help them incorporate
healthy eating and fitness into their busy lives.
To order her 30-Day Health & Fitness Challenge
e-course and learn more about Marjorie, go to
her website at www.megfit.com
or email her at Margie@megfit.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marjorie_Geiser |
