For years doctors and nutritionists recommended that we eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet to lose weight, protect our hearts and reduce the risk of certain cancers and other diseases. In the early 1990s, the US government developed the Food Guide Pyramid—which has since been restructured and renamed MyPyramid—making low-fat, high carb diets America’s way.

When it comes to weight gain however, research now shows that fat alone isn’t the only culprit: it has help in the form of some carbohydrates. Low carb diet plans continue to make headlines as an effective way to shed extra pounds, but before you begin a low carb diet, you should understand how low carb diets work, their benefits, and yes, their risks.

What is a Low Carb Diet?
Practically speaking, a low carb diet amounts to limiting your intake of carbohydrates while increasing your consumption of protein sources like meat and poultry, fish, beans and other legumes. Why?

Carbohydrates turn into glucose once they enter your bloodstream. Your blood sugar level increases and in response, the pancreas releases insulin to remove that sugar from your blood stream to return your blood sugar to normal. Some of this sugar is used for immediate energy, some is stored in muscles and the excess is stored as fat.

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