Diet confusion: low carbs or low fat
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Diet Confusion: Low Carb or Low Fat
Many times choosing low fat products leads to much higher carbs for instance low fat confectionary items, ice cream and yogurt have added sugar.
For many reasons the best choice is low carb (carbohydrate) and not low fat.
But there are good carbs as well as very bad carbs. Carbohydrates are digested and absorbed into the body as simple sugars. It is the speed at which they enter the body that is so important. This is the glycemic index of foods. The fast digesting carbs are high glycemic and the slow digesting ones are low glycemic. These are just other words for how they affect the blood glucose levels. High blood glucose dominates carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body, by causing inflammation as well as fat production and storage in mainly belly fat. It sounds counterintuitive but eating carbs cause much more belly fat than eating fat itself.
More evidence is appearing to support a low carb diet as not only the most beneficial for weight control but also to prevent all of the degenerative conditions of aging including serious issues of heart attacks, strokes and dementia. A recent study compared an unrestricted very low carb diet with a low carb diet. While both resulted in weight loss over a year the ultra low carb dieters lost more weight, almost twice as much while consuming more calories per day, 20% more. What was even more surprising was the lipid profile and markers of inflammation were healthier in the ultra low carb dieters as well even though they consumed more fat.
Another study involving 50,000 people in England found that increasing blood sugar levels even in non diabetics were associated with increasing death from all causes.
The take home message here is that it is much more important to eat food that keeps blood sugar low (these are low glycemic whole plant based foods) and not to chose low fat products if they have increased amounts of sugar.
There are detailed references to these studies and more under Health Bytes at www.lonjevity.net
Posted by Dr. Gerry Davies
Diet Confusion: Low Carb or Low Fat
Many times choosing low fat products leads to much higher carbs for instance low fat confectionary items, ice cream and yogurt have added sugar.
For many reasons the best choice is low carb (carbohydrate) and not low fat.
But there are good carbs as well as very bad carbs. Carbohydrates are digested and absorbed into the body as simple sugars. It is the speed at which they enter the body that is so important. This is the glycemic index of foods. The fast digesting carbs are high glycemic and the slow digesting ones are low glycemic. These are just other words for how they affect the blood glucose levels. High blood glucose dominates carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body, by causing inflammation as well as fat production and storage in mainly belly fat. It sounds counterintuitive but eating carbs cause much more belly fat than eating fat itself.
More evidence is appearing to support a low carb diet as not only the most beneficial for weight control but also to prevent all of the degenerative conditions of aging including serious issues of heart attacks, strokes and dementia. A recent study compared an unrestricted very low carb diet with a low carb diet. While both resulted in weight loss over a year the ultra low carb dieters lost more weight, almost twice as much while consuming more calories per day, 20% more. What was even more surprising was the lipid profile and markers of inflammation were healthier in the ultra low carb dieters as well even though they consumed more fat.
Another study involving 50,000 people in England found that increasing blood sugar levels even in non diabetics were associated with increasing death from all causes.
The take home message here is that it is much more important to eat food that keeps blood sugar low (these are low glycemic whole plant based foods) and not to chose low fat products if they have increased amounts of sugar.
There are detailed references to these studies and more under Health Bytes at www.lonjevity.net
Posted by Dr. Gerry Davies
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie Trigg on
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Love the food at Lonjevity and the bread pudding is unbelievable!
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