Lowcarbezine!

Is Low Carb Dead?

Surely you've seen the reports by now: Low carb is dead, or so says the media.

After all, low carb diets were just too extreme. They work short term, but they're just too hard to stick with long term. And even though the clinical research showed tremendous health benefits, low carb was surely unhealthy, because after all, we all know that fat is bad and whole grains are good. And anyway, the new, cool diets are based on good carbs.

Oh, phoo.

I have been eating low carb for nine years and five months, having started the day after Labor Day, 1995. I have had no, I repeat, no, trouble eating this way all these years, even though for much of that time there were no low carb menus in restaurants, nor low carb specialty foods in the stores. I have kept 40 pounds off, and I am healthy-healthy-healthy, not to mention super-energetic. I never have to go hungry, and can completely trust my appetite.

Contrast this with other dietary programs I have tried over the years - you know, the ones that say, "Eat anything you want, just less of it." Talk about torture! I vividly remember working in a health food store in downtown Chicago in my twenties. I'd eat a "healthy" lunch of a sandwich on whole wheat bread out of their cooler, a fruit juice spritzer, and some fruit or a whole grain, honey sweetened cookie. By two o'clock in the afternoon I would be RAVENOUS. I'd chew gum all afternoon, and try hard not to think about food - a difficult proposition when you're surrounded by the stuff. Long about four or five in the afternoon the slump would set in, and I'd feel exhausted for a couple of hours, barely able to keep my eyes open.

Now that's a dietary program it's hard to stick with! Low carb has been a breeze by comparison - again, no hunger, high energy. And as I documented just a couple of months back, it's done nothing but good for my health.

Are low carb diets too extreme? Well, sure, if by that you mean diets consisting only of meat, eggs, and cheese. That no low carb book recommends such a diet is apparently beside the point.

How about those diets that allow "good carbs?" I've read The South Beach Diet, and I just don't find it to be terribly different than Atkins or Protein Power, despite the hype. I have a feeling that the point is mainly to differentiate the diet in the eyes of the public.

Vegetables, surely the very best carbs possible, have always been fine on low carb diets. As I've pointed out time and again, most low carbers end up eating more vegetables than they ever have before. How about fruit? Are we all clear that berries, melon, grapefruit, and other fruits are fine on our low carb diets? Indeed, most fruit can be fit in, unless you're in an Induction phase - apricots, plums, peaches, cherries - all work.

How about whole grains and beans? While I don't think they're an essential part of the human diet, since they've only been eaten in any quantity for the past 10,000-odd years, the later phases of low carb diets have always allowed for some whole grains and legumes to be added back. To quote Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution, a book that seems to be very little read by its critics, regarding the maintenance diet of one of his patients:

"She also finds she can have lentils, split peas, and kasha without gaining weight. She often has the kasha with cinnamon and a few apple slices."

Sounds like the much touted "good carbs" to me.

I would like to point out that even the diets that gush "Oh, we allow good carbs" are, for the most part, limiting them strictly. South Beach allows 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast on Day One of Phase Two. Two days later it calls for 1 cup of "high fiber cereal", and two days after that an open-faced sandwich on one slice of whole grain bread. We're not talking major quantities of whole grains, here - there's still a pretty strict upper limit on concentrated carbohydrate foods, no matter how "good" they are.

I was flipping through a "good carbs" cookbook at Barnes & Noble the other day, and was interested to notice that the recipes ran from about 2 grams of those "good carbs" per serving, up to about 10 grams per serving. That's indisputably a low carb cookbook. Again, it appears that they're putting "good carbs" on the label to catch the latest trend - which looks a whole like the previous trend if you look at 'em both close up.

I worry that the hype about "good carbs" will lead people to think that they can just switch to whole grain bread from white bread, and to brown rice from white, and lose weight. This is unlikely to work for the majority, although it's certainly an improvement. (God forbid they should think that the new "whole grain" Trix and the like are "good carbs." For the record: They're not.)

A few things seem indisputable: In roughly five short years, we've gone from low fat mania, with the popular impression that all fat was bad, and that fat was far and away the worst dietary evil, to the general understanding that "the whites" - white sugar, white flour, and other refined carbs - are among the worst possible foods, and the cause of much of the nation's obesity epidemic. Too, the general public is now aware that there is such a thing as "good fat," that including good fats in the diet is beneficial. It's also sinking in that trans fats - hydrogenated oils - are the worst possible fats. Even the parenting magazines have gotten in on the act, with repeated warnings that parents shouldn't give their children unlimited juice, because of the natural sugars. All of this represents a massive shift in the public's perception of nutrition in a very short time.

Too, the research is in, and it's positive. Indeed, it's almost funny - whenever I see a headline that says something like, "Low carbohydrate diets unhealthy long-term" I can confidently predict that the article will reference no studies, but instead quote a doctor or dietician merely reciting the old charges - a low carb diet is high in saturated fat, and therefore it must be unhealthy, yadda-yadda. Conversely, if I see a headline that reads, "Low carbohydrate diet shown effective," I can count on it reading something like, "In a six month clinical trial at Duke University..." - in other words, it will be talking about real, actual science.

Let me geek out on you for a moment - here's just a sampling of the research showing that a low carb diet is effective and healthy. I warn you, all but one of these links are to medical journal abstracts:

* One-Year Study of Atkins Diet Shows Surprising Results, Penn Researchers Report

* The effects of low-carbohydrate versus conventional weight loss diets in severely obese adults: one-year follow-up of a randomized trial.

* A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia: a randomized, controlled trial.

* Comparison of high-fat and high-protein diets with a high-carbohydrate diet in insulin-resistant obese women.

* Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women.

* A low-carbohydrate diet in overweight patients undergoing stable statin therapy raises high-density lipoprotein and lowers triglycerides substantially.

* The national cholesterol education program diet vs a diet lower in carbohydrates and higher in protein and monounsaturated fat: a randomized trial.

* A randomized study comparing the effects of a low-carbohydrate diet and a conventional diet on lipoprotein subfractions and C-reactive protein levels in patients with severe obesity.

* Effect of 6-month adherence to a very low carbohydrate diet program.

* Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor in overweight adolescents.

I trust the point has been illustrated.

I think we will see less of people identifying with a particular diet - "I'm on Atkins" or "I'm on South Beach" or whatever, and more of health-conscious people simply internalizing the fact that a diet based on starch and sugar is not a good idea. But is the low carb "fad" dead? It was never a fad to begin with.

Call it, instead, a return to sanity. All that has changed is that a low carb diet is no longer weird or shocking - is, in short, no longer news. So the media has, for the most part, moved on to the next big thing. But those of us who have learned that controlling our carbohydrate intake not only leads to weight loss, but to tremendously improved health aren't going anywhere.

Posted by HoldTheToast at January 18, 2005 09:49 PM