Proof For Low-carb Diets?
I’ve been trying to prove to my buddies that low-carb diets are much more superior than the typical low-calorie/low-fat diets. They say I don’t know what I’m talking about and that I’m crazy for not counting calories and eating as much meat, eggs, and fat as I want. If anyone could provide me with some scientific studies that could help me prove what’s right, that’d be great
Do you know what “superior” means?
No, they’re not better. They might work, but they’re very unhealthy. So might be superior depending on your definition.
It’s not so much “low fat” or “counting calories” that’s superior, but a well-balanced diet, which you’re lacking. The human body needs carbohydrates. The low-carb craze is just ridiculous.
Even bodybuilders, who live on a high-protein diet, will still consume about double the protein in natural carbs (vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fruits). Only some will go to a low/no-carb diet right before a competition, and even then they go right back to eating a high carb diet either the day of the show or immediately after (depends on their body’s response). The reason is that our energy comes from carbohydrates, with some of it also coming from fat in times of famine or lack of carbs to supply it. While that may sound ideal, it hardly is. The body hates doing this and will much rather convert your muscle into a fuel, but this is typically if you aren’t consuming enough calories, and it sounds like you probably are.
Low carb diets also work on the principle that protein is difficult for the body to digest and clogs the digestive system rather easily, which reduces your urge to eat. In this sense, it is very much a low-cal diet.
Hi,
After reading your question I saw you were interested in optimizing your nutrition [(-:] so even though I may not be able to answer your question exactly as you may have wanted it answered, I thought I would take the time to pass on some pointers I have learned the hard way from my own bad ‘uninformed’ choices, so you could learn about good advice and bad advice about good nutritional choices.
I am always impressed that there is oftentimes some good advice and good links from people helping others through Yahoo_Answers.
A good ‘reference’ high_nutrition low cost diet plan is given below in PS1 that I have found to have been the best possible nutrition for me to cure my heart disease problem from too many carbs for too long. It is also the best diet to help with my present health issues – that I know are cholesterol and calcium related because these foods are triggers for me now.
I used to be an old advocate of the Atkin’s meat and fat diet before I knew what I now know, so nowadays I do not recommend Atkins high protein and fat diet for long term but would always recommend a “high- nutrition” 96% VEGAN diet replacing most meat with lentils – but many people will not do this. Sooo even though I give a diet plan in PS1 below, let me share a little first to help you understand how losing and gaining weight can best be done to be stronger and healthier for the long term.
You may already know this but if not let me first explain that keeping to a plan that fights against bad habits that might be on the verge of seriously tearing down your body is sometimes pretty tough – but being fit and strong versus being overweight and/or sickly is all about (1) how many calories you eat versus how many you burn and (2) IF your calories are primarily the BEST QUALITY PROTEINS or primarily junk sugar-carbs.
Please consider that it is not just how few carbs and fats and how much lean protein you eat in order to become ’stronger,’ but how many absorbable non-toxic vitamin and minerals are obtained from the protein or fats you would eat.
For instance, egg whites have 89% protein, but egg whites are similar in its nutrition per calorie as to eating sweet corn that usually has only about 15% protein. So even though the higher protein egg whites ‘look’ good IF ALL you look at is the protein content, it is really not much better for you than sweet corn.
Not good if you understand that they identified the pellagra problem in the 1930’s south was the result of the high calories and minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals caused by a diet of primarily sweet corn. [See: <> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra <>] This disease has identical long term health effects as the scurvy and beriberi problems that are also a result of eating too many calories with not enough nutrients. They cured pellagra in dogs by giving them liver and brewers yeast, but the problem with these are the long term effects of cholesterol in the liver and the short term toxic effects of elemental copper in the brewers yeast that is the rust residue from the vats the yeast is grown in.
A similar lesser nutrition choice would be when eating tenderloin versus spinach. Boiled spinach has about 56% protein to beef tenderloin’s 61% protein, but spinach has almost 700%, or seven times, the vitamin and minerals of tenderloin calorie per calorie. The problem with spinach is that the spinach calories would cost about ten times the cost of beef calories. Spending $50 per day to eat several pounds of spinach may make any animal as strong as an elite triple-crown race horse, but few people can afford to spend that much for their food – so meat protein is what people typically consume. Even so, many longevity experts like Roy L. Walford, M.D. and Joel Fuhrman M. D. encourage their clients to eat 200 calories of leafy greens a day – which ‘might’ cost about $10 per day but it is a small price to pay when considering the strength, longevity, and good health it would promote. Dr. T. Colin Campbell would also agree with this regimen.
Take a few minutes to understand ‘good’ nutritional advice versus poor advice and I hope you will have learned something from my ‘mistakes’ that will soon help you along your way.
<>< My best to you and for your good health,
A1
[(-:]
PS1 – This is my diet plan since I became a 96% VEGAN:
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Your body's fat with no water in it has 9 calories per gram which is about 4091 calories per pound of fat. The number usually used for body fat is 3500 calories which ‘assumes’ 14.4% water in an average person’s fat, but this would depend upon if you ate salty or spicy foods a-lot before you would start a new regimen. Protein is 4 calories per gram whether you eat it or burn it from your own body. So after burning up all your body’s fat stores and you would then occasionally burn up your own muscles as a source for your vitamins and minerals, your muscles will then never have a-lot of cells that are decades old ‘if’ you stay active. I would choose to lose 2 pounds a week of fat by reducing 500 calories a day and adding exercise five times a week. Walking at 3 mph is 85 cal/mile for a 160 pound person and for 200 pounds is 106 cal/mile or 145 cal/mile at 5mph. Also, you will lose a lot of water weight when you eliminate salt and spicy foods, probably about four to five to ten pounds the first two weeks.
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To minimize the meat-cholesterol in my own diet I have seen that the requirements of B12 can only be obtained from eating 6 ounces of beef heart every week for 16% Cholesterol, or 11 oz of beef round steak every week for 11% Cholesterol, or 1 oz of beef liver every week for 4% Cholesterol and never chicken since for B12 it would require a whopping 175 ozs per week and a whopping 201% cholesterol a day. Soo I suppose I am a 96% VEGAN in order to satisfy the USDA’s B12 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) that ‘they’ recommend be obtained directly from food sources.
I am still researching this topic because the Schilling test for B12 anemia seems skewed against VEGANS and people that may actually have an abundance of B12, and so would dump any excess from a test into their stools, as would be normal when a healthy person’s body would automatically dump excess nutrition or toxins their body could never adequately assimilate. [SEE:<> http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/… <>] Also, consuming a VEGAN B12 supplement that is linked with cyanide as a ‘preservative’ might provide a quick buzz or temporary stimulant, but my liver might not ever heal from the ‘upper’ it would be causing. [SEE:<> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanocobala… <>]
I am always seeking for researchers who might have done more research than I, so please feel free to email me. [(-:]
Even so, for today I still crock pot for 12 hours ground up beef heart and am eating one ounce a day with lentils and spinach in one meal to improve the meats passage through my gut to the stool, and to buffer my digestion/elimination since eating meat alone ‘used_to’ cause reddish stools for me. One day a week instead of beef heart I eat one ounce of beef liver, which adds up to ~200+% the B12 recommended by the USDA with only 20% of the maximum recommended cholesterol.
For a highly nutritional 1200 calories in a day I eat 100 calories of squeeze drained spinach with a light_sugar_vinaigrette, 500 cals from 16 ozs of organic lentils w/ 50 cals of tomato marinara, or since I might be allergic in my gut to nightshade tomatoes I recently began using onion flake-powder instead of tomatoes, [SEE<>http://www.tomatocasual.com/2008/03/01/t… <>], 50 calories of boiled celery, 175 calories of boiled broccoli, and never more than 200 calories of ‘meat’ which is about 4 ozs, and never boiled chicken, since chicken has only ~68% the nutrition per calorie of properly grown lentils and only 7% the B12 for the equal calories from beef round steak. Beef heart has ~127% the nutrition per calorie of ‘organically’ grown lentils and organic spinach has ~500%, five times per calorie of lentils.
Again, I hope this helps you or others to understand good choices.
A1
PS2 – I posted ‘my_story’ and why I know what I know at:
You cant prove them superior. Not other diet can compare to a balanced diet. Your diet should always be the same, just make it larger or smaller if you want to gain or lose weight.
There are some studies that have come out proving the metabolic advantage of a low carb diet since Dr. Atkins death. If you are doing it yourself, wouldn’t them seeing it in action be much better “proof” than paperwork??
You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter – add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)
Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.
The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger insulin which can store the calories eaten into fat. The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released. The more carbohydrate the more the fat storage hormone insulin is released.
Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want “something” – have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese – pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad – steaks – a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & you can start making healthy choices.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise. Any exercise will greatly increase muscle mass with high HGH levels.
Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 minutes. Suggested for daily fiber needs.
As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories. Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar & maintain weight or health.