totalhealth’s Special Report
Obesity, Weight Loss and Glucose Control
How to Make Sense of the Low Carb Diet Craze
by Steven Rosenblatt, M.D., Ph.D.
Low carbing, the latest diet craze of the
new millennium, has certainly swept
America. With nearly two-thirds of all
Americans overweight and with increasingly
dire warnings from every medical
expert who can get on CNN, we Americans
are finally beginning to pay closer attention
to what we eat.
More than half of all Americans have
tried a low carb diet. The most popular
(Atkins, South Beach and The Zone) have
inspired millions and have also helped
people lose weight. Unfortunately, for
many of these people, the weight loss is
temporary.
Americans seem to be quicker on the
uptake about the problems related to low
carb diets than they were about the hazards
of the low fat diet. There are several
excellent scientific reasons why low carb
diets will help you lose weight, but they
won't help you keep it off—and they can
harm your health in the long-term.
Before your brain shuts down and you
say to yourself, "I've heard this before and
it's all bunk," take a few minutes to consider
the following:
The simplest reason why low carb
diets don't work in the long run is that
they're like every other diet: They're
boring. After a while, people get tired of
them and quit the diet. Unfortunately,
after they fall off the diet, former Atkins
followers are likely to start eating lots of
carbs, yet they keep eating the high levels
of protein they've become accustomed
to. When they add the buns and fries to
those bacon double cheeseburgers, you
know what happens: rapid regain of
weight.
Many doctors are reporting increasing
instances of this startling phenomenon.
"It seems like they start binging on
both protein and carbs, perhaps in
response to some primal need to fuel
their bodies," one colleague told me.
What happens when you're low carbing?
I think my colleague is right on the mark.
There's also a complex physiological
chain of events that is triggered when
someone begins an extreme low carbohydrate
diet like the Atkins diet.
In the induction phase of this diet,
when fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrates
are consumed per day, the body is
forced to use stored carbohydrates
(known as glycogen) as fuel. This
glycogen is located mainly in the liver and
the muscles.
When those stored carbs have been
used up, the body enters a starvation
mode called ketosis, in which protein,
instead of carbs, is used for energy.
Ketosis causes loss of muscle mass.
Since metabolism (the rate at which calories
are burned) is directly related to the
amount of muscle mass, in simple terms
the more muscle mass you have, the
more efficiently your body burns calories.
So with an extremely low carbohydrate
diet, as you lose weight, your body burns
calories more slowly and weight loss
slows.
In addition, an ancient self preservation
mechanism sets in and, in response
to your body's perceived semi-starvation,
does every thing it can to conserve its use
of calories, primarily by slowing metabolism
even further.
Returning to eating carbohydrates,
even in modest amounts of 100 to 150
grams a day, will cause weight regain
because the slowed metabolism can't
handle the incoming calories. So, like all
excess calories, they're stored as fat.
Negative effects of ketosis
What's more, intentionally placing your
body in a state of ketosis has other physiological
effects that can be harmful in the
short and long term.
Among the harmful effects of ketosis:
- Insufficient glucose to fuel the brain;
- Your body's attempts to eliminate ketones (by-products of ketosis) puts a strain on the kidneys;
- Diets high in protein can increase calcium loss from the body, increasing the risk of osteoporosis;
- Diets high in animal protein are usually high in saturated fats, which increase the risk of heart diseases;
- Diets low in carbohydrates are usually extremely low in fiber, since carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables and grains provide most of the fiber in our diets. Low fiber diets have been associated with increased risk of type II diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.
We love carbs
All of us need and want carbs. They are
essential for energy. High quality carbohydrates,
like whole grains, legumes, and
fruits and vegetables, have been part of
the human diet since the beginning of
time. They give us a feeling of satisfaction
and fullness, probably because they are
linked to increased levels of the feel good
brain chemical serotonin.
Eating complex carbs is also intertwined
with hormonal function in women,
which is probably why low carb diets are
much harder for women and less successful
for them in the long term.
Fortunately, there is an answer for
those who want to eat their carbs and lose
weight, too. Phase 2, a starch neutralizer
extracted from white kidney beans, has
been proven in clinical trials to block the
absorption of carbohydrates. This is
accomplished by Phase 2's unique ability
to inhibit amylase, the enzyme that
digests complex carbohydrates. In simple
terms, this means that a portion of the
complex carbohydrates you eat (up to 66
percent, according to a University of
Scranton study) passes harmlessly
through your digestive tract. These carbohydrates
are not broken down into simple
sugars, and they actually act as a quasidietary
fiber as they pass through the
digestive tract, providing all the benefits
of fiber.
In research involving 50 obese adults,
we found that subjects who took Phase 2
(available in capsule, sprinkle or chewable
form) before meals rich in carbohydrates,
lost an average of 3.79 pounds in eight
weeks without other adjustments to their
diet or exercise regimens. As a pleasant
side effect, we found that triglyceride
levels decreased 17.2 percent in those
eight weeks, which may be attributable to
the fiber-like action of the undigested carbohydrates.
I recommend the use of Phase 2,
which is an ingredient in numerous
brands of supplements and will soon be
available in specially formulated breads
and other bakery products. In my experience,
it's a sensible means of cutting
the calories from complex carbohydrates
without the risk of the serious
long-term consequences of extreme low
carb diets.
Steven Rosenblatt, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician
with additional degrees in psychology
and oriental medicine.
Board-certified in Family Practice, he is a
leading authority on complementary
medicine and has served as director of
the complementary medicine program at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
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