Low carbs are dangerous?!

Answer:
Having seen what a powerful difference changes in diet and lifestyle can make, it makes me want to pull out what's left of my hair when I see the renewed interest in high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. These diets are hazardous to your health. They were first popularized by an undertaker in the 1800s -- maybe he needed more business.

Telling people that pork rinds and sausage are good for you is a great way to sell books, but it is irresponsible and dangerous for those who follow their advice. I would like to be able to tell you that these are health foods, but they're not. Fortunately, there is a way to safely lose even more weight while eating great foods in abundance.

Here's the real skinny on fat:

There is a large body of scientific evidence from epidemiological studies, animal research, and randomized controlled trials in humans showing that high-protein foods, particularly excessive animal protein, dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses. In the short run, they may also cause kidney problems, loss of calcium in the bones, and an unhealthy metabolic state called ketosis in many people. The American Dietetic Association recently condemned high-protein diets as being dangerous, "a nightmare of a diet."

In contrast, whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans contain literally thousands of other substances that are protective, having anti-aging, anti-cancer, and anti-heart disease properties. These include fiber, isoflavones, carotenoids, bioflavonoids, retinols, lycopene, geninstein, on and on.

However, most people don't really think anything bad will ever happen to them. They think prevention is borrrrr-ing: "I don't care if I die sooner, I want to enjoy my life."

So do I. But how much fun are you having if you're feeling tired, lethargic, and impotent? Or dead?

When you go on a high-protein diet, you may get less blood flow to your most important organs. When you get less blood flow to your brain, you may feel more tired and you think less clearly. (Think about a time when you had a rich Thanksgiving feast, and how you felt afterwards.) When you get less blood flow to your heart, you increase your risk of chest pain or a heart attack. And when you get less blood flow to your sexual organs, your sexual prowess decreases.

When I was in medical school, we were taught that most impotence began in your brain -- psychological. We now know it usually begins in your arteries -- physiological. The reason that Viagra is one of the best-selling drugs of all time is that so many people need it. Impotence, also called "erectile dysfunction," is a silent epidemic, present in at least one-half of men over the age of 40. But did you know you're much more likely to be impotent if your cholesterol level is elevated? Knowing this is a lot more motivating for many men than telling them they're going to live to be 86 instead of 85 -- even when they're 85!

Not to mention bad breath and body odor. Your body excretes toxic substances like excessive amounts of meat in your breath, perspiration, and bowels. When you eat a lot of meat, it takes a long time for it to make its way through your digestive tract. As it putrefies and decays, your breath smells bad, your sweat smells bad, and your bowels smell bad. Not very attractive. You may want to lose weight to attract people to you, but when they get too close, it becomes counterproductive.

Yet many people do lose weight on high-protein diets, and cholesterol levels may even decrease. How can this be?

The important distinction to make is between simple carbohydrates and whole foods, also called complex carbohydrates. The dangerous half-truth is this: simple carbohydrates cause you to gain weight, but complex carbohydrates help you lose weight. The goal is not to switch from simple carbohydrates to a diet consisting mainly of high-protein foods like meat but from simple carbohydrates to whole foods, while reducing your intake of high-protein animal foods.

Simple carbohydrates -- sugar and other concentrated sweeteners, and alcohol, which your body converts to sugar -- are absorbed quickly, causing your blood sugar to rapidly increase. White flour (including foods like white flour pasta) and white rice are also absorbed quickly, because the fiber and bran have been removed. In response, your body secretes insulin to lower your blood sugar levels to normal. However, chronically elevated insulin levels also accelerate the conversion of calories into fat, raise your cholesterol level, and have other harmful effects. Over time, like the boy who cried "wolf," the insulin receptors say, "Oh, not more insulin!" and become less sensitive to its effects, causing your body to secrete even more insulin in a vicious cycle.

The high-protein authors advise us to avoid all carbohydrates and eat high-protein foods because these are less likely to provoke an insulin response. This is not smart.

Whole foods (complex carbohydrates) -- such as whole wheat, brown rice, and fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and soy products in their natural form -- are rich in fiber, which slows their absorption. Because they are absorbed slowly, your blood sugar does not spike and so your body does not need to produce elevated levels of insulin. Instead of the rapid swings in blood sugar, you experience a more constant feeling of energy throughout the day. You become more sensitive to insulin rather than resistant to it; diabetics often are able to reduce or discontinue insulin under their doctor's supervision when they eat a low-fat, whole foods diet. Even white flour pasta is OK in moderation if you eat it with lots of veggies or legumes on top, as the fiber from these foods will slow their absorption. A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association clearly documented that high-fiber diets lower insulin levels. In contrast, meat has virtually no dietary fiber.

So why do some people lose weight on the high protein diets? Most people in this country eat a lot of simple carbohydrates. A recent study showed that one-third of the vegetables eaten in the United States are either French fries or potato chips. And consumption of sugar, white flour, and processed foods has increased significantly in the past two decades, along with obesity. Eating a lot of meat instead of all those simple carbohydrates will help lower their insulin response, causing them to lose weight. But they're mortgaging their health in the process.

There is a better way. If you switch from simple carbohydrates to a whole-foods, low-fat, plant-based diet, then you don't provoke an insulin response -- so you get the insulin benefit similar to being on a diet high in animal protein without the many harmful effects. Also, you are eating whole foods that are much lower in fat and cholesterol, so you lose even more weight than on a high-protein diet and your cholesterol levels come down even further. In our studies, for example, we found a 40% average reduction in LDL-cholesterol without using drugs. And you're getting thousands of substances that are protective rather than harmful.

You can lose weight on just about any diet. Keeping it off is a lot harder. A few years ago, the government reviewed all of the different weight loss plans. They found that two-thirds of people gained back all of the weight they'd lost within a year, and 97% gained it all back within five years.

However, we found in our research that the average person lost 24 pounds in the first year and kept off more than half that weight five years later, even though they were eating more food, and more frequently, than before. Without hunger or deprivation. Simply. Safely. Easily. They not only felt better, they were better. We also found that they had even more reversal of heart disease after five years than after one year, and 2.5 times fewer cardiac events such as heart attack, stroke, bypass surgery, and angioplasty. The more closely people followed the program, the better they were. Clearly, if you can reverse heart disease by eating this way, then you can help prevent it.

Most weight-loss plans are based on deprivation: counting calories, restricting portion sizes, and eating less food. Sooner or later, people get tired of feeling hungry, so they get off the diet, regain the weight, and usually blame themselves for not having enough discipline, willpower, or motivation, when the real problem is that they were going about it in the wrong way.

Here's a better way: if you change the type of food, you don't have to reduce the amount of food. Fat has nine calories per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. So if you go from a 40% fat diet to a 10% fat diet, even if you eat the same amount of food, you consume far fewer calories. You feel better and you become healthier. You really can eat more and weigh less if you know what to eat.

In short, when you switch from a diet based on animal protein and simple carbohydrates to a whole foods, plant-based diet, you get a quadruple benefit:

• the high fiber content of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans reduces insulin levels, so you lose weight and lower cholesterol levels;
• when you eat less fat, you eat fewer calories without eating less food;
• you avoid the animal-based products rich in substances that cause illnesses;
• you get thousands of other substances that are protective.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the high-protein diet authors have ever published any studies in any peer-reviewed journals documenting that their approach can help people lose weight safely and keep it off. In contrast, my colleagues and I at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute have published our findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association and other well-respected peer-reviewed journals. Part of the value of science is to help you sort out conflicting claims, to distinguish fact from fancy, what sounds good from what is real. I'm not trying to tell you what to eat; just to provide scientifically based information so that you can make more informed and intelligent choices.

If you eat a low-fat diet based on whole foods, you are likely to lose even more weight than on a high-protein diet, your cholesterol levels may come down even more, and you will feel better, look better, love better, taste better, and smell better. It's not all or nothing -- the more you move in this direction, the more benefits you receive. And you will significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses rather than increasing it. You can lose weight and gain health.

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Low-Carb, No Sugar? Many Fad Diets Are Mostly Just Low in Sense

The Palm Beach Post

Jan Norris Palm Beach Post Food Editor

January 12, 2001

From the logical to the ridiculous, we've seen them all: the grapefruit diet, the chocolate diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Zone, Sugar Busters, Atkins, Ornish, Pritikin, Jenny Craig and Scarsdale.

Do any of them work?

Surprise! They all work - for some people, for short-term results. It's the long-term weight-loss success stories you seldom hear.

Here's what the experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, had to say about the more popular diets making the rounds today.

High-protein diets

The Atkins diet is probably the best-known of these, but there are many similar ones. Dieters make the bulk of all meals and snacks a protein, generally from lean-meat sources, nuts and cheese. They limit or exclude complex carbohydrates such as bread, sugar, pasta and rice.

The controversy continues over the safety of these diets, but some in the medical community say there's little harm from them - if they're followed correctly.

"The quality of protein eaten is important in these diets," says Dr. William Dietz of the CDC. Most of the proteins should come from lean meat or meat alternatives to avoid the saturated fats. "We've already learned that liquid protein can cause heart problems. We also know that over time, a high-protein diet can enlarge the kidneys, which can lead to renal failure."

"The amount of saturated fat from some of these diets is unhealthy," said Christine Perry Smith, editor of the Tufts Nutrition Letter. "A lot of people forget that the fat in meat is saturated fats, and too much of it is definitely a contributor to heart disease."

Sugar-free diets

Sugar Busters Diet is one name for diets that restrict or eliminate foods that cause excess insulin in the body. They go by the medical name of glycemic index diets.

The theme is eliminating sugar, in all its forms. No refined sugar, white bread, potatoes, white rice, corn or carrots. It also restricts certain food combinations such as fruits with meats. There's no calorie counting; dieters are taught to eyeball their portions.

"The Sugar Busters Diet has such huge portions - that's my objection to that. They say that calories don't count, and that's just not true," Smith said. "They also call for unusual foods that most people just don't eat - alligator, elk, pheasant, quail - and we question their ideas about portion control. Their sauteed recipe calls for a pound of shrimp and a quarter-stick of butter per person.

"Of course, it's not a bad idea to cut back on processed foods with sugar, but their claims that sugar causes diabetes or is a risk factor for heart disease are just wrong."

Low-carbohydrate and no-carb diets

The low-carb diet is also known as the All White Diet, as dieters are restricted from eating "anything white," including bread, sugar, pasta, potatoes, milk and dairy foods. Meal plans include lots of meat and fresh vegetables of dark colors and some whole grains. It's a diet circulated largely word-of-mouth, open to much interpretation.

"People on these diets may have problems with calcium intake if dairy products are forbidden. That's a particular problem for women," Dietz said. Other than that, the overeating of protein becomes an issue just as in the high-protein diets.

The cabbage soup diet, and other 'single-food' diets

The Cabbage Soup Diet (attributed wrongly to a hospital as the creator) and the Grapefruit Diet are two popular diets that focus on one food, allegedly to help burn body fat.

On the Cabbage Soup diet, for instance, dieters make a week's worth of soup and eat it, alternately, with fruit and other water- based foods for two weeks. Then they return to a normal but low-fat diet for a week, then back on the Cabbage Soup Diet.

"You can do this for two or three days, but you're going to get bored after two weeks on these diets. And your body is going to crave calories," Smith said.

"Who wants to eat cabbage soup for two weeks, or nothing but fruit for a week? Most of us can't follow that kind of diet. Of course you're going to lose weight on it, since most of the foods you're eating are mostly water. But it's not a long-term plan; you'll just get sick of it."

Doing it the right way

Need help simplifying a weight-loss plan? Here are the common tips from all the experts.

- Think of your weight-loss program as a lifetime plan, not a temporary "diet."

- Plan on slow but steady weight loss, and don't get discouraged if you gain a few pounds here and there: Get back on your plan.

- Keep a food diary for at least a week and record everything you put in your mouth, even drinks. Determine the triggers that cause you to get into trouble with food.

- Plan on temptation, and have a sensible alternative ready.

- Make it easy for your diet to change. Do whatever it takes - from rearranging foods in the cupboards to avoiding friends who encourage bad habits - to keep up with your plan.

- Learn what's in the foods you eat and how much food constitutes a normal portion.

- Make exercise part of your overall plan - not just an occasional activity.

(C) 2001 The Palm Beach Post. via Bell&Howell Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

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