Benefits of low-carb diets -
Dietary fibre also supports our gut health. We need carbs because they provide the body with glucose, which fuels our muscles and organs, including our brain. The amount of carbs we need depends on our age, sex, gender and activity levels.
As a guide, the Reference Intake , which is based on a moderately active adult female, is currently g of carbohydrates a day. There is no official definition for a low-carb diet , although some researchers suggest a diet supplying less than g of carbs per day would qualify.
Other means of defining low-carb involves assessing the percentage of carbs in your total daily macronutrient intake. There are numerous programmes that adopt this approach, including the Atkins diet and the Dukan diet.
The theory behind a low-carb diet is that by restricting the carbs you eat you trigger the body to burn fat. This is because under normal circumstances our body uses glucose from the carbs we eat to fuel our activity, keep us warm and support essential organs.
When we deprive the body of its preferred source of energy, it turns to an alternative source instead. After days with limited carbs in your diet, your carb reserves in the form of glycogen in muscle become exhausted, and the body turns to stored fat. How quickly you reach ketosis depends on a number of factors including your body mass index BMI , your body fat percentage and your resting metabolic rate.
In order to trigger ketosis, the carbs you eat need to be heavily restricted — with some suggesting no more than g per day. To put this in perspective, an average banana contains 20g and a medium baked potato 41g, so clearly this is a diet that demands very careful planning and rigid compliance.
A low-carb diet focuses on foods that provide predominantly protein and fat. There are numerous low-carb programmes, including Atkins, Dukan and the Banting diet , each with varying limits on the type and amount of carbs permitted. The best way to understand and track the carbs you are eating is with a nutrition app that provides the carb values for different foods.
If you embark on a low-carb diet, think carefully about the fats and proteins you choose, and aim to limit foods high in trans fats. Be sure to include plenty of non-starchy vegetables, such as kale and watercress, which are very low in carbs but contribute valuable vitamins and minerals.
Anyone familiar with a low-carb diet will have come across net carbs — it refers to the amount of carbs that are absorbed by the body and contribute to calories. The figure is calculated by subtracting the amount of indigestible carbs in the form of insoluble fibre and some sugar alcohols from total carbs.
It is worth bearing in mind that this calculation is rarely reliable or an exact science. Broadly speaking, a low-carb diet focuses on protein, fat and non-starchy vegetables. Foods to enjoy include meat, fish, oils, butter, dairy such as cheese, and low-carb vegetables such as leafy greens, as well as specific fruits such as avocado and olives.
Unsurprisingly, you will need to restrict all bread, pasta, rice, cereals and most conventional baked goods. You will also need to watch what you drink — fruit juices, fizzy drinks, cordials and even milk-based drinks may need to be limited. By limiting carbs and including more protein in your diet, you may help suppress your appetite hormones and better manage your hunger after you have eaten.
For these reasons, research suggests that a low-carb diet may lead to weight loss. Some studies also look at ketones and the role they play in reducing inflammations in the body. In the short term , weight loss may be achieved at a relatively fast rate when carbs are heavily restricted.
However, over the longer term beyond 12 months , there is no evidence that low-carb diets are any more effective than a standard calorie-restricted weight loss plan. Cutting carbs may be a useful weight-loss strategy in specific situations. For example, if you need to achieve weight loss prior to surgery and as long as your doctor has agreed that it will be safe for you to adopt this style of eating.
Minimising carbs also helps to reduce insulin levels and increase a hormone called glucagon which triggers the body to burn fat.
However, with this comes side effects including nausea, headache and fatigue as well as possible electrolyte imbalance , which makes this form of diet difficult to stick to and potentially dangerous.
It's also worth remembering that much of the initial weight loss is actually water as the body uses it to store glucose. As the glucose becomes depleted, it releases the water.
Hence why some people regain the weight once they resume a more balanced way of eating. Without this knowledge, it may be difficult to achieve your 5-a-day. Eating a wide range of fruit and veg not only allows us to get plenty of vitamins and fibre but also means we benefit from protective plant compounds including flavonoids and carotenoids which may help fight heart disease, prevent certain cancers and may slow the signs of aging.
Increasing evidence suggests that fibre is important not just for digestion but for other reasons, too. For example, beneficial gut bacteria break down fibre in the gut to produce short-chain fatty acids SCFAs which keep your gut healthy and have wider implications for insulin management, weight and immune function.
For this reason, more long-term clinical trials are needed to assess changes in nutritional status and body composition, and to evaluate cardiovascular risk factors as well as the impact on the gut microbiota.
There have been a number of media headlines suggesting that a low-carb diet may help to manage, or even reverse, type 2 diabetes.
Studies support low-carb diets, which are also not high in saturated fats, as a useful tool for managing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes UK cites there is evidence to suggest low-carb diets may be safe and effective for people with type 2 diabetes. They believe that adopting such a diet may help weight loss and glucose management , as well as reducing risk of cardiovascular disease.
However, they also say it may not be appropriate in the long term or for those with type 1 diabetes. It should be noted that there have been reports of adverse effects of low-carb diets adopted by children with diabetes including poor growth, a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and psychological problems.
This reinforces the fact that no child should follow a restrictive diet. All diabetics and anyone with a blood sugar management issue should discuss the potential implications of a low carb diet with their GP and healthcare team before embarking on such a regime.
Similarly, anyone who meets one or more of these criteria:. If your goal is weight loss and you have a lot of weight to lose, you should seek the advice and guidance of a dietitian to ensure that the diet you follow provides all the necessary nutrients you need, including adequate fibre.
Very restrictive diets are not proven to be conducive for long-term health and should be discussed with your GP or health professional before you start. What is the keto diet? What is the Dukan diet? What is the Atkins diet?
What is a ketogenic diet? How many calories to lose weight? How much fibre should I eat per day? She is a member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy BANT and a member of the Guild of Food Writers.
Over the last 15 years she has been a contributing author to a number of nutritional and cookery publications including BBC Good Food. All health content on bbcgoodfood. com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional.
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Finding the best low-carb diet plan for weight loss or better health all comes down to deciding what works best for you. Generally speaking, people who are not intentionally controlling their protein take usually get about 15 percent to 25 percent of their daily calories from protein foods.
If you choose to follow a low-carb, high-protein diet, your diet will be roughly distributed as 30 percent to 35 percent protein, 20 percent or less carbohydrates and about 45 percent to 50 percent fat. The main difference between high-fat and high-protein diets is the amount of protein — in the form of meat, fish, eggs, etc.
Higher-fat diets like the keto diet call for more healthy fats in the form of butter, oil and fattier cuts of meat, while higher-protein diets still include fats but less of them. Similarly, carb cycling is a type of diet plan that involves eating more carbohydrates on certain days of the week, but doing the opposite on the other days: cutting carbs very low in order to achieve easier weight loss.
Ketogenic diets have been used by doctors to treat patients with epilepsy and metabolic conditions since the s. They have well-documented benefits, including helping treat epilepsy and promote rapid weight loss. Some research has also found that a very low-carb diet for diabetics could also be useful for stabilizing blood sugar levels and reducing diabetes risk.
Plus, not only have studies over the past century shown that the keto diet can reduce the amount of seizures patients suffer from, but it can also have positive effects on body fat, blood sugar, cholesterol levels, hunger and neurological health.
In general, ketogenic diets typically limit daily net carb intake to just 20—30 grams, which is calculated by subtracting the number of grams of fiber from the total number of carbs. While the low-carb keto diet is a great fit for the right type of person, many people still experience great results when eating a modified keto diet that is a bit higher in carbs.
Many people think that you need to follow a low-carb, low-fat diet to lose weight and improve your health.
In fact, although dietary fat is often associated with body fat, filling up on healthy fats can actually be incredibly beneficial for overall health.
Monounsaturated fats from foods like olive oil, in particular, have been linked to reductions in body weight , blood sugar levels, triglycerides and blood pressure.
Meanwhile, polyunsaturated fats found in ingredients like nuts, seeds and fish may help improve several aspects of heart health. Ideally, you should get a good amount of healthy fats in your diet from foods like fatty fish, olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds.
These foods can help amplify the results of the low-carb diet plan to promote better health. Just like on a low-carb diet, a low-carb, low-sugar diet minimizes consumption of starches and sugars to propel the body into fat-burning mode.
Both diets focus on reducing added sugars from foods like candies, sweetened beverages, refined grains and processed foods. Instead, these diets emphasize healthy fats and high-quality proteins from nutritious whole foods rich in essential vitamins and minerals.
Related: Intuitive Eating: The Anti-Dieting Approach to Losing Weight. When it comes to losing weight, calorie counting is crazy, but shifting your attention to the types of foods you eat and focusing on mindful eating can make all the difference.
Low-carb diets have a reputation for producing fast weight loss without feeling hungry or needing to count calories. A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that after comparing the two in overweight adults, low-carb diets were more effective for weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor reduction compared to low-fat diets, as demonstrated by participants following both types of dietary plans over 12 months.
Why are low-carb diets, especially the keto diet, so effective for shedding excess pounds, even in people who normally struggle to lose weight? When we eat foods with sugar and carbohydrates, the hormone insulin is released as a reaction in order to elevate blood glucose sugar.
Less insulin circulating around our bloodstream means that the body is forced to use up all of its glycogen stores, then reach into fat stores tucked away in our adipose tissue body fat for ongoing fuel. Most people keep protein intake somewhat steady, but normally the more carbs and sugar people eat, the less healthy fats they consume.
This is problematic because we need healthy fats for proper brain function, mood control and hormone regulation. Sugar is addictive and has dramatic effects on the brain, especially when it comes to increasing cravings, anxiety and fatigue.
On the other hand, certain kinds of healthy fats, including cholesterol, act like antioxidants and precursors to some important brain-supporting molecules and neurotransmitters that control learning, memory, mood and energy.
Your brain is largely made up of fatty acids and requires a steady stream of fats from your diet in order to perform optimally. Recently, a report published in The Journal of Physiology found evidence of strong metabolic consequences of a high-sugar diet coupled with a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids on cognitive abilities.
These effects were due to the association of consuming high amounts of glucose and insulin action, which control brain-signaling mediators. As one might expect, the unhealthy diet that was high in sugar but low in healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids was associated with lower cognitive scores and insulin resistance.
Research suggests the ketogenic diet is especially therapeutic when it comes to protecting cognitive health. Researchers believe that people with the highest insulin resistance might demonstrate a lower cerebral blood flow and, therefore, less brain plasticity.
This vasodilator function is stopped when someone develops insulin resistance over time from a high-sugar and high-carb intake, resulting in a decrease in perfusion of brain tissues and activity. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that low-carbohydrate diets are more effective at reducing certain metabolic and heart disease risk factors than low-fat diets are, plus at least equally effective at reducing weight and other factors.
Twenty-three trials from multiple countries with a total of 2, participants were included in the analyses. The results showed that both low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets lowered weight and improved metabolic risk factors.
They also experienced a lower reduction in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol than the low-fat diet group. However, keep in mind that higher cholesterol levels have not been proven to contribute to heart disease!
These findings were true despite that reductions in body weight, waist circumference and other metabolic risk factors were not significantly different between the two diet groups. They suggest that satisfying lower-carb diets, which are higher in fat, can help beat heart disease factors just as well as diets that are harder to stick with and prone to leaving people hungry.
Researchers from the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at SUNY University of Brooklyn point out that a high-carbohydrate diet raises postprandial plasma glucose and insulin secretion, thereby increasing risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity.
Many studies have shown that a low-carb diet is a natural diabetes treatment and effective tool in the prevention of patients with type 2 diabetes. It can also help lower risks for diabetes complications and related risk factors like obesity or heart disease.
In a study published in the Upsala Journal of Medical Science , for two groups of obese patients with type 2 diabetes, the effects of two different diet compositions were tested with regard to glycemic control and body weight.
A group of 16 obese patients with type 2 diabetes was put on a low-carb diet 1, calories for men and 1, calories for women that consisted of 20 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 50 percent fat.
Fifteen obese diabetes patients were put on a high-carbohydrate diet to serve as the control group. Their diet consisting of the same calories for men and women included approximately 60 percent carbohydrates, 15 percent protein and 25 percent fat.
Positive effects on the glucose levels were seen very quickly in the group following the low-carb plan. After six months, a marked reduction in body weight of patients in the low-carb diet group was also observed, and this remained one year later.
Research shows that a diet high in refined carbohydrates and sugar contributes to free radical damage and actually feeds cancer cells, possibly helping them proliferate faster.
Because low-carb diets dramatically cut down sugar and lower intake of grains and processed foods, they might act like a natural cancer treatment , causing immunity to improve as oxidative stress goes down.
Studies indicate that carbohydrate intake influences prostate cancer biology, as demonstrated through mice that have been fed a no-carbohydrate ketogenic diet NCKD experiencing significantly smaller tumors and longer survival times than mice fed a Western diet.
The mice fed the equivalent of the standard human Western diet had higher serum insulin, which was associated with significantly higher blood glucose and tumor tissue growth.
Cancer cells, on the other hand, thrive off of glucose and cannot metabolically shift to use fat. According to studies, insulin negatively regulates ghrelin, and high-density lipoprotein may be a carrier particle for increasing circulating ghrelin.
In other words, carbs spike insulin quickly, which leads to cravings for more food later on as blood sugar drops and ghrelin increases.
According to a report published in the Journal of International Studies of Obesity:. Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones that have been recognized to have a major influence on energy balance.
Leptin is a mediator of long-term regulation of energy balance, suppressing food intake and thereby inducing weight loss. Ghrelin on the other hand is a fast-acting hormone, seemingly playing a role in meal initiation.
New research shows Benefits of low-carb diets Beneits of infection from prostate biopsies. Diet at work is linked to high blood pressure. Icy fingers and toes: Poor circulation or Raynaud's phenomenon? Recently, many of my patients have been asking about a ketogenic diet. Is a ketogenic diet safe? Would you recommend it? Mayo Clinic offers Benefits of low-carb diets in Difts, Florida and Minnesota and at Mayo Clinic Siets System locations. A low-carb diet dietx carbohydrates, often called carbs — such as those found in grains, starchy vegetables and fruit. A low-carb diet focuses on foods high in protein and fat. Many types of low-carb diets exist. Each diet has varying limits on the type and amount of carbs you can eat.
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