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.
Following a low carb diet can help stabilize your blood sugar levels so your body has to rely on fat, not sugar, for energy. But just like there are healthy fats and unhealthy fats, some carbs are better than others.
The Glycemic Index
All carbs are measured by the glycemic index (GI), which is a ranking system of 0 to 100 used to measure the effect of carbohydrate on blood sugar levels. Fast-burning carbs like simple sugars that rank high on the GI (70+) get into your blood stream faster and can be used for energy more quickly than carbs that are medium GI (56 to 69) or low GI (55 or lower). Carbs that rank low on the GI tend to be complex carbohydrates, like those you find in whole grains.
When you eat high GI carbs, your blood sugar tends to spike and then dip dramatically after your insulin response. The result? You'll get hungry sooner than if you chose a low GI carb, and your energy will plummet because your insulin response will overcompensate for the spike in your blood sugar.
If you choose to eat low-GI carbs, sugar enters your blood stream more slowly, thus keeping your energy levels balanced-and you'll feel fuller for longer between meals. Low carb diets recommend that most of your carbohydrate intake low-GI carbs for those very reasons: the less sugar in your blood, the more body uses fat for energy and the less likely you are to overeat.
Health Benefits of Low Carb Diets
As their widespread popularity implies, low carb diets have proven to be an effective approach to weight loss. Losing weight quickly however, isn't the only benefit of choosing a low carb diet.
While it's true that most people who begin following a low carb diet may lose approximately four to eight pounds during the first week (most of which is water weight that results from burning glycogen), studies have shown that diabetics are able to reduce their blood sugar levels by about 9%, in contrast to a 2% reduction for those following low-fat diets. When these people combined a low carb diet and exercise, they were able to decrease their insulin intake and other medications used to stabilize blood sugar.
Research also shows that when you're following a low carb diet where saturated fat consumption is kept within a reasonable level, cholesterol and triglycerides levels improve, lowering your risk for heart disease.
Other Health Considerations
Eating a well-balanced diet is important regardless of what plan you are following. Use tools like the Glycemic Index and MyPyramid to help track how balanced your diet is and consider taking a multivitamin or other supplements to ensure you're getting the most nutrients.
With respect to low carb diets, there are a few key health considerations to keep in mind. As with any diet, consult with your doctor before beginning a low carb diet and for help in choosing the plan that's right for you.
First, be aware of your heart. While the South Beach Diet promotes choosing unsaturated fats over saturated, most low carb diets don't distinguish between them. Low carb diets like Atkins encourage dieters to eat more animal products, which can be high in saturated fats, something the American Heart Association recommends against to protect you from heart disease.
Also, when you cut carbs from your diet, your muscle tissue decreases as well. Strength-building exercise can help to reduce this muscle loss. Muscle tissue is a main component in burning calories, so when the tissue deteriorates, it is harder to burn calories. If your primary motivation for following a low carb diet is weight loss, you'll have better results if you're building muscle as part of your fitness routine.
Last, but by no means least, following a low carb diet may find you increasing your protein intake to higher levels. The body can't store excess protein and any that's left over is processed by liver and kidneys and eliminated as metabolic waste. If you have kidney disease or decreased kidney function, your kidneys may feel the strain from dramatic increases in protein.
 | If you keep a list of low carb foods handy, you'll be able to satisfy hunger pangs with smart food choices. |
 | Low carb vegetables will help to fill you up without throwing your blood sugar levels out of whack. |
Eating plans like South Beach and the Ab Diet can help you lose weight, improve your cardiovascular health and ward off health conditions like diabetes. |
Many people curious about starting a low carb diet wonder if there are side effects they need to be aware of before getting started. Many also wonder if there are harmful low carb diet side effects too, so let's look at the most common side effects of low carb dieting, and talk about whether any of these are harmful. |
All low carb diets operate on the premise that if you reduce the number of carbohydrates you consume, you will lose weight quickly. |
