Low Carbs, No Fats... Is It Really Healthy?

[Gangrell]

After reading Miss Blue's little thread on Coca Cola C2, it reminded me a little something about the whole carb diet. Now, I know like last year was the year for music, this is the year for carbs. It's hitting everything, beer, food, Coke, even my Pepsi has been hit by it (sadly). They all say it's perfectly healthy, but I beg to differ. I've seen it on the news and in newspaper that even though this may be the new diet, that it has severe side effects. Carbs means no sugar, no fat, none of the good stuff big people like myself enjoy, and along with that, means problems for the rest of the body. The body doesn't function very well without it's normal intake of sugar.

Carb Diet Health Concerns

What are your thoughts on the whole carb diet? Do you go for it, or be like me and just walk on a treadmill?

[Ilander]

I dunno, eating less and exercising more has always been the best approach for me, though my willpower of late has not particularly liked this approach...

I think that the low-carb diet has only one advantage, and that is to cut back on the intake of sugar (which most of the people on this forum get PLENTY of already...unless they're poor college students )...

Come on! we all know we just eat too much!

[Arvon]

Don't put too much in yer trap and yer butt won't grow. You can eat most everything as long as you watch the TOTAL amount. The old rule, moderation, works all the time. (except for the very few that have physical disorders).

[Larry_OHF]

The problem that is of most concern is the people that do not spend money on the books nor do any research on it and decide that since everybody is cutting carbs, that they can do that with no instruction manual...thus they cut out all carbs, including the ones that people like Atkins says that you "should" eat...the complex ones. This is where the person that is uneducated on how to diet correctly will end up nearly killing themselves.

My wife is a Nutritionalist, and I took some college classes on it so that I could have something in common with her. [img]smile.gif[/img] I know enough to know that these fad diets are bad news for the long-term.

Heck...Any diet that cuts any food out of the meal is giong to help you lose weight. The long-term effect is what to look out for. There are already three diets out that claim to be "better" than Atkins, using his theories, but not limiting the choices so much.

Another problem is that daily life does not allow for much exercise, including house-hold chores. Kids have too many good shows, games, and Ironworks to keep them from burning off the extra energy.

I was taught in my Nutrition class that Atkins did not invent this idea. He learned about what other doctors were doing in the past. A doctor will not operate on an obese person, because there is too much mass to cut through, and it is more dangerous. Thus, they would put people on these temporary diets that would greatly reduce their weight. One such diet was a strict diet that included Jello as a major source of protein. The doctors back then did not know that Jello is missing one enzyme to be a complete protein...so people were malnutritioned and got really sick, and some died. Later, they learned from their mistake, and recreated a diet that is similar to what Atkins teaches...but more restrictive, lasting about two weeks. After the operation, the used-to-be obese person was to return to a healthy diet, including many carbs.

I know this is all boring to a sceptic reader that likes the low-carb craze...so I will stop here.

[Ilander]

...now that I think about it, though, the low-carb thing certainly is healthy---healthy economically for the creators...seriously, that's pretty much all I have ever thought of the low-carb diets...they're just methods of sucking up money out of the average sucker...

[Larry_OHF]

Oh yeah...heavy proteins will work the kidneys tremendously. Some people do not even know that they have kidney problems because you can go though life with just one (50%), and never know it. But when you drop below I think 40% of your kidneys' function...you then realize there is trouble.
If you do not have trouble, and are on heavy proteins long...you will sustain damage. Ask any professional weight lifter that takes protein supplements. They know the science behind that as well as any nutitionalist.

The worst thing os all is tha Doctors do not have training in Nutrition. They can sometimes give ill advice that is believed, because they are doctors...but they have not been trained on it. One good example is that of a friend of mine...who's doctor told her to start her 6 month old on regular milk instead of spending so much on the powder stuff.

Babies less than one year old cannot digest the enzymes in cow's milk, so the poor kid had terrible stomach problems, and was always sick. She learned her mistake after weeks of hurting her child, but since the doctor is not nutritionalist, he cannot be held responsible for bad nutritional advice.

[Gangrell]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Heck...Any diet that cuts any food out of the meal is giong to help you lose weight.

True, true, but I guess every diet has negative side effects anyway you look at it. There was a fellow, I forget his name, but he wrote a book bashing food diets. I think he said that exercise is the best approach because all diets do when you cut back on them is, yes, they make you lose weight but that's the last thing they do. They make the muscle structure in your body break down first before anything else.

I don't understand some people though, they become so amazed that they lost "so much weight" in so short a time. One woman in an article or on tv, I think, lost about 50 pounds in 9 months off the Atkins diet? That's a drop in the bucket. I lost twenty pounds in two weeks just by walking for thirty minutes everyday, not that hard, takes even less willpower than it does not eating something fattening.

Edit: On another note, I'm not bashing people because they don't have a lot of time on their hands, I'm talking about the people that do.

[ 07-10-2004, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

[Memnoch]

You're always going to need some level of carbs in your diet in my opinion, because they give you energy. As long as you don't go overboard with the intake I don't think it's a problem. I tend to prefer protein anyway.

Personally, I think it's more when you take your carbs which influences your weight/health. I'll have my carbs (rice, pasta) in the morning and at lunch, and try to keep away from them in the evening, unless I've just trained in the evening, in which case I don't mind having some simple carbs (bread, a bit of rice) to replenish my energy afterwards. It's just a bit of commonsense - if I wanted to get really cut then I'd be a lot more careful about my diet, but I'm happy with my training regimen burning it off. And drink lots of water - it does wonders in rejuvenating your body and flushing out toxins and metabolic waste.

Just a note on diets - I'm not a big believer in diets. What I am a believer in is diet. As in watching what you eat, making sure you don't go overboard on products with high fat content, not eating a hi-carb meal at 1am just before going to bed, keeping junk food to a minimum, and all that sort of stuff. I call that eating healthy, rather than dieting. Now if you're a model, diet becomes VERY important, unless you're blessed with a fast metabolism. If you really want to sculpt your body, then what type of food you eat will heavily influence that - but for ordinary peeps like us we don't need to go to that extreme.

I agree with Gangrell that a bit of exercise goes a long way. I train about 4-5 times a week, cardio and weights, and personally I think it does a hell of a lot for my health. I also play rugby and cricket, which also helps (rugby's not all that healthy when you're getting stomped on though ). I'd recommend everyone take up some kind of physical activity, be it walking, running, sports, going to the gym or whatever. If you're active, your muscles will be burning more calories per day, and you can eat more carbs - they won't have the same effect as if you were sedentary.

Be active. Your body will thank you for it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 07-10-2004, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

[Rataxes]

Heard quite a few people saying a low carb diet works pretty well. How well you respond to a certain diet is of course very individual, but generally the advantages of this diet are that you never feel hungry, that it preserves muscle mass better than normal low calorie diets, and of course that you're free to eat all those delicious fat meats that your body normally doesn't respond well to.

The basic idea of the diet is that almost completely depriving your body of carbs will eventually force it to start converting your fat reserves into "ketones" that your body and brain can use as fuel. Hence, your body will slowly enter a state of ketosis, meaning it'll start using fat as fuel, whereas it would otherwise use carbs for intense physical activity, and muscle proteins when that isn't available.

If you're a healthy person I don't see any risks with this diet. Ketones are of course inferior to carbs as fuel, meaning you'll probably find it more difficult to do intense physical exercises and your muscles wont be able to perform to their maximum. Your brain not operating optimally during the period where you go into ketosis is what has discouraged me from trying it out, what with studies and such. I think having to give up everything containing carbs would be evened out by being able to eat 2 pounds of pork chops every day

And Gangrell, 20 pounds in 2 weeks? You sure you aren't exaggerating those numbers by quite a bit? A tenth of that weight loss in that period is what is considered safe (meaning little loss of muscle tissue). It's practically impossible, except for very obese persons, to lose more than 2 pounds of body fat per week.

[ 07-10-2004, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[T/-/alali]

I believe that cutting carbs is a waste of time if you drink alot. My Dad is on the Atkins diet, oh sure, he lost a little weight, but not enought to make him healthy. My big thing is Alcohol, my dad LOVES vodka, I think that is one of the reasons he is still so big. He says "Vodka has no carbs, I can drink as much as I want!" He's been on the Atkins for a year, and only lost a couple pounds. He exorcises, I think it's just the drink holding him back from losing weight.

[ 07-10-2004, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: T/-/alali ]