The diet fad that began in the 1970’s preaches against carbohydrates and tells us that carbs are bad. The fact is there are good carbs and bad carbs.
Beginning nearly thirty years ago, Dr. Atkins espoused the doctrine that a high protein diet was the best for everyone. He stated that carbohydrates were the cause of people being obese and having weight control problems. Many scientists and doctors labeled him a quack until recently when it was determined there was some validity to his arguments and that a high protein low carbohydrate diet could help you lose weight.
The problem with the style of diet that most Atkin’s followers eat is that they include very high fat items like steaks, bacon, butter, cheese and other items that are loaded with unhealthy saturated fat.
The reason that the Atkin’s program works for many people is that it gives you a feeling of fullness. It is the constant feeling of being hungry that causes many people to fail in their diets. Another thing with the low carbohydrates is that they help you avoid the big ups and downs in blood sugar.
The big issue with the high protein and low carb is that there is no long term evidence to support the theory nor to show whether there are long term detriments to following such a diet. Short term studies have supported the use of these programs for a short period of time but the weight loss attained seems to be mostly from reduced caloric intake. This same thing can be accomplished with a balanced diet reducing calories.
Besides the fact that the efficiency of these low carb diets in maintaining long term weight loss is questionable the other issue is that they may cause you long term health problems. Because these diets are high on red meats, cheese and other saturated fats and low in vitamins and minerals they may increase the chances that you may get heart disease and certain types of cancer such as colon cancer. In women these high protein diets can even cause osteoporosis because of the leaching of calcium from the bones to deal with the acids that come from the body working to deal with trying to digest large amounts of protein.
You should keep you protein consumption in moderate amounts of about 4 grams per ten pounds of body weight. Try to get the majority of this from vegetable proteins instead of animal sources. Also eat balanced carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables.
Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off.
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