Protect your heart and the ones you love
The big problem with fad diets is that most people, even doctors, either ignore nutrition or never take the time to fully understand their importance to overall good health. I have already mentioned “tapeworm therapy” and its effects on that overall good health, but what about popular low-carb or high-protein diets? No matter what name they go by, low-carb and high-protein diets are pretty much the same, and, in the long term, may not healthy for anyone.
The basic concept behind these fad diets is that by restricting carbohydrate consumption, (the body’s main energy source), dieters can put their bodies into a state of ketosis where ketones are burned for energy instead of carbohydrate. To a certain point, it can work, but there is no evidence that this diet alone has any long term benefit while the list of health risks is large.
One big risk is kidney failure. It is a proven fact that over-consumption of protein strains the liver and kidneys and will, over time, cause them to fail. Another health problem is heart disease. A low-carb diet is inherently high in cholesterol and high blood cholesterol is a proven threat to heart health. Additionally, while over-consuming protein, the body must do something with the leftovers and it handles that problem through excretion. This excretion leads to kidney stones and can lead to osteoporosis since the excretion of protein will take calcium as well.
If that is not enough to get convince you to get back to a more, well-rounded diet, consider the cancer risk. High-protein, low-carbohydrate diets tend to lack the vitamins, minerals, fiber and anti-oxidants needed in cancer defense. Not only are high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets virtually unproven, the metabolic state, ketosis, is not only an unhealthy state, it causes bad breath. Research shows time and again that to achieve healthy, sustainable weight loss, it is better to eat a well-rounded diet, limit caloric intake, and exercise more.
Your life is your own, and what you do with it is ultimately your own decision, but, before you make important diet decisions, take the time to learn all the facts. As with any diet, there are some good, short-term effects in a variety of areas, but the long-term effects may not be worth the risk. It is easy to believe and trust in people who tell us what we want to hear, but it is better to explore both sides of the story and decide for ourselves before following any Pied Piper. A good place to start your research is Web MD, any college level nutrition text, Ask.com, or the American Cancer Society. No matter what you ultimately decide, at least you will have solid information to support your point of view.
(Author's note: There are many people on both sides of the fence who claim the same data as their proof. To help you with your decsion, the list below provides links to arguments from both sides)
Comments
Can you by chance, post one instance of someone on a low carb diet suffering from kidney damage? Liver damage? And how about heart disease caused by low carb diets? No... you can't.
You wrote this article with a certain ideological position in mind. Unfortunately, it is short on facts. Now I know you could have found the studies that show a huge improvement in lipid profiles on low carb diets if you really wanted to make that point. But you didn't so you ignore them. You could also find a plethora of information on the damage caused to your liver by high carb diets but again, it didn't suit your agenda.
Hi Evelyn! Thank you for reading and commenting on my article. I respect your point of view and that of all my readers. My agenda, however, and the point of this article is clearly stated in the first sentence of the last paragraph; your life, your body and your decisions are your own. As for me, I stand 100% by everything I say in this and every article I write. If you have qualified evidence that supports the idea that people should not do the research before engaging in fad diets I invite you to produce it and I will retract my statement.
Also, I have never come across any research stating that the consumption of complex carbohydrates is in any way harmful to any normal, healthy human being. Will you please send me the links to your studies? Thank you!
While I agree that everyone should research their own diet plan, especially in light of new and fad diets, the assumptions the author makes that low-carb diets are somehow a "fad" make this article unbelievable.
It would behoove the author to do a little research, himself, because numerous studies have not only vindicated low-carb diets for weight loss - but also for increased overall health benefits.
And that's the bottom line - what makes humans healthier.
Further study by the author might enlighten him and anyone who reads his articles.
Start here:
consumersearch.com/weight-loss-programs/reviews
Thank you, Angela McMartin for reading and commenting on my article, but I get a sense of antagonism in your tone that is not warranted. The only purpose of my article is to encourage people to make better choices when considering their diets. I do, however, agree with you about my perception of the low-carb/high protein choice. Any diet promoting unhealthy choices is, in my opinion, a fad. I suppose the simple fact that we disagree is the source of your anger, but I still can see nothing wrong with my logic and I still can find nothing convincing in your reference. I consider the benefits and drawbacks of all fads, but they all seem to favor the tried and true methods of maintaining good health in the long term. My biggest objection to fad diets is that most of the focus remains on the diet more than on the heredity, the bad habits, and the lifestyles that brought people to the point where they find themselves looking for diet "magic". No quick fix can ever completely patch a job done poorly to begin with.
While we are on the subject and checking each other's sources, did you bother to take the time to read through mine? I list three, valuable and respected resources. You list one. If you want more evidence and proof, I can provide that as well as rebuke any evidence you can come up with for your point of view. But, in the end, what would that accomplish? Would it do either of us any good? Would it do anyone any good? We, as have most people, have done our research and made up our minds. Now, we have to let our diet and health chips fall where they may. For your sake, I hope you are right, but, personally, I like my odds better.
Stan,
While claiming to have done your research you are also clearly showing a prejudicial bent towards the current dogma of a low fat diet as being 'well rounded'. Had you truly done your homework you would know that the oft repeated 'danger' of kidney failure has never been shown as a side effect of a low-carb diet. You would also know that a low carb diet is truly the most well rounded around, rife with vitamins and minerals. Low carb eating is the most healthful way for you body to eat.
Here are some facts that you can confirm in any basic physiology text for first year medical students:
Fact: The body does not need dietary carbohydrate to function. Period. There are no known carbohydrate deficiency diseases or side effects. There is however a disease of excess carbohydrate consumption - hyperinsulimia.
Fact: The body requires dietary protein and fat to function on fundamental level. Without dietary protein the body cannot build or repair muscle and bone. In the absence of adequate protein the body will consume muscle mass to repair itself. Without fat the body cannot metabolize essential vitamins minerals properly, with adverse side effects.
The low-carb dietary practice is gaining popularity every day, much to the chagrin of the processed carbohydrate food producers who despise it for lack of profit incentive, and the radical vegan organizations who despise it for moral reasons. But despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the last decade to try and prove that low carb eating is not healthy, not one study has shown that result. In fact the data from every study show the low carb diet to be superior or at least equally healthy as any other diet it is compared in every single measure.
As to a study showing that carbohydrate consumption is dangerous, we need look no further than the USDA dietary pyramid of the last 30 years, which has lent governmental authority to the hypothesis that lowering the fat in the diet and offsetting those calories with carbohydrates is a healthier way of eating. The result is the current epidemic of obesity and diabetes now so prevalent in western society.
I don't hope to convince you, as you are so obviously entrenched in your biases and will simply say we have to agree to disagree. But I hope perhaps the readers of your post will peruse the following links and make up their own mind instead of repeating the same dogma you are regurgitating:
Low carb discussion from both sides - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet
Info on hyperinsulimia - www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA94119
Good, accurate low-carb information: www.atkins.com, www.proteinpower.com, www.paleodiet.com
And for a richly detailed analysis of the history and science (or lack thereof) in dietary recommendations in western society today, read Gary Taubes book: Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease, Knopf (2007), ISBN 978-1400040780.
Thanks for the info, Dusty, and your information is sort of correct, but you leave a lot of gaping holes.
Yes, it is true, the body can exist without dietary carboyhdrate, but this is not a natural condition. We are not carnivores by nature and do not have the system for that kind of diet. The body only resorts to making its own carbohydrate,(gluconeogenesis),when adequate supplies of carbohydrate are not consumed, as in anorexics and bulimics. Using ketones for energy is why the breath of these people smells like nail polish.
It is also true that the body needs protein to thrive. In fact, there is an RDA for protein set at .8 grams per kilogram of body weight. That figures out to only 15% of the normal diet. Low carb/high protein diets generally are around 40%, 50% or higher. If you consume that much protein, you need to know that there is also a recommendation not to exceed twice the RDA since levels that high have been shown to cause hypertrophy in both the liver and the kidneys. Additionally, excessive protein consumption is linked to excessive calcium excretion which can lead to osteoporsis, kidney stones and other ailments.
I am not trying to tell anyone how to live their lives. There is some benefit to the low carb/high protein diet in the short term. In the long term, however, there are significant dangers. I am just trying to convince people to use better judgment and get better information than what is passed along to them from friends and family, just as I would for anyone considering any dietary change. In a way, I actually admire your conviction, but I compel you to listen more closely to the voice of reason before it is too late to undo the damage you are doing to your body.
Sorry Stan, but it is your information that is 'sort of' correct, only in that you are simply repeating the same lies and misinformation of so many other sources. Granted, most of those sources are simply repeating things they heard elsewhere as well, and so don't know that they are ignorant of the nutritional science. I must assume that you fall into the latter category as well.
There are no gaping holes in my information. Anyone who refers to the links I posted before will find plenty of studies with hard data to refute your assertions. A normal low carb diet consists of roughly 30-35% protein and is perfectly healthy with no adverse effects and many beneficial ones. All of the kidney and/or liver problems you keep repeating are drawn from extreme examples taken during animal studies and are merely hypothesized in humans. Show me the study that demonstrates the link in normal humans and I might listen - but you can save your time looking, because it doesn't exist.
Your assertion that ketosis is an unnatural state is just nonsense. Ketosis is simply the process of burning fat for fuel. If the body were not meant to burn fat for fuel, then why would the body be so darn good at storing it for later use? Any person who does any form of extended or aerobic exercise should be familiar with the process, and I doubt many of them are any worse for the experience afterward (albeit somewhat lighter on the bathroom scale). The human body easily burns fat for fuel because that is what it was designed by 4 million years of evolution to do. It is only in the last few thousand years that humans got lazy and started eating carbs as a main source of calories. And for the record it is precisely at that point that anthropologists can tell the difference between hunter-gatherers and 'civilized' peoples - because as soon as we invented grain agriculture is when tooth decay and osteoporsis become marked in the fossil record.
Unlike you, I AM trying to tell people how to live their lives. The low-fat high carb dogma of the last 35 years is what got us into the mess we are in today. Excess carbohydrate consumption, 'complex' or not, is what is responsible for the dramatic increase in obesity, diabetes, and cancer in the last 35 years.
As a service to your readers I will say that it is my belief that all of your statements regarding the 'dangers' of low carb diets are flat out lies, even if you got them from sources you trusted. You too appear to have strong convictions Stan, but it is my assertion that you simply haven't done your homework thoroughly. I beg you to do so for your readers sake.
The science is staring us all in the face. Low carb nutrition is the most healthy way to eat. Every time another few million is spent on trying to show the harm of low carb in the short term it fails - and the authors resort to the same hollow warning you do - that 'there must be long term harm, we just didn't study it long enough'.
Well, Dusty, it sure seems I hit a nerve with you, and I am sorry about that, but I have to reply and again reaffirm that I stand behind my information and my research 100%
When you talk about the "mess" this country is in, I assume you are talking about obesity and other health problems. I hope I am not the only one who finds it peculiar that anyone would blame all that on a "non" low carb diet alone. Others might conclude that fast food, (high in fat), super sizes, reduced activity, and a sedentary lifestyle might have something to do with it. The low carb/high protein diet is no magic pill, and I'm not swallowing it.
Given that a person is otherwise healthy both mentally and physically, a good, well-balanced diet at an adequate but not excessive level of caloric intake combined with regular exercise and plenty of rest makes more sense for overall health in the long term.
Ketosis is not natural. It is an innate system of self-preservation programmed into our brains after years of on again off again famine. Vomiting is a natural response too, but not when we bring it on unnaturally by putting fingers down our throats. The body stores fat in times of surplus to help it survive in times of minimal food. In that sense, it is as natural as "fight or flight", and, by your logic, it would be perfectly natural to respond to any threat by either running or swinging a clenched fist.
The more I read what you write and the more I consider your logic, the more common sense sounds better to me. To anyone reading any of this, I implore you to skip the information produced by people making big bucks selling their books and go straight to the college level texts, the government websites like www.nutrition.gov, and any other source with no agenda and no designs on profit. Again, as I said in my article and as I have responded to all these readers, don't listen either to me or to anyone else. Listen to your own good sense and your own ability to think rationally. Find the unbiased sources and decide for yourself. If, after doing thorough research, you want to jump on the low carb/high protein, that is your choice. As for me, I'm not placing my money and my life on the long shot. I'm going for the sure thing.
The RDA is a good place to start. I believe that a low-fat, high fiber vegetarian diet and some form of exercise every day is a common-sense approach to good health. The beauty of living in America is that we all get to make our own decisions. Let's leave it at that, shall we?
>>>To anyone reading any of this, I implore you to skip the information produced by people making big bucks selling their books and go straight to the college level texts, the government websites like www.nutrition.gov, and any other source with no agenda and no designs on profit.
No agenda? LOL! Ever heard of ADM, Stan?
Actually... it's NOT proven that eating a lot of protein damages the liver OR the kidneys. If you already have kidney disease eating protein causes problems, but only because the kidneys can't do their usual job. With healthy kidneys, though, that's not an issue.
You must know that (1) there are indigenous people who eat only meat or just about only meat in their traditional diets. Why weren't they dropping dead of heart disease, kidney failure and diabetes? Those who didn't die in accidents did live into old age for the most part; (2) Human beings lived through at least one major ice age that we know of. How in the world did they do that if we have to have carbohydrate foods to survive? Nothing can grow in snow and ice. For that matter, how did we used to survive the winter, ice age or not?
You toss out the term "complex carbohydrate," but it's meaningless. I have had access to older books and materials giving dietary advice to the layperson. Before the nineties complex carbs were defined as starches. Now all of a sudden it's come out that starches are broken down into sugars (oops), so now a complex carb is one containing fiber. Of course, nutritional gurus still aren't all on the same page about whether carb foods are grains only or whether they include fruits and veggies, which is how some people can say with a straight face that the Atkins diet prohibits all carbs. (It doesn't.)
By the way, I've also heard the argument about calcium being leached from the body. However, it is not the only available buffering agent in the human body. Another one is the amino acid glutamine. Guess where that comes from? Animal foods.
I've already done my own research, thanks... and even beyond that, have paid attention to how my body responds. It's happy on fats and, to a lesser extent, proteins. It's not so happy on grains. It's kind of neutral about fruits and veggies. I don't need a bunch of hokey lowest-common-denominator advice sites to tell me the exact opposite of what I already know.
Oh, and one more thing. This claim that we're vegetarian animals. I'd like to know where my gizzard, my four stomachs, and my protozoa are located. Or when I'm going to get the overwhelming urge to eat my soft pellets so I can digest my food one more time, as rabbits do.
At best we're omnivores. We may even be non-obligate carnivores. Dogs can eat plant food too, even exclusively for long periods, though I wouldn't recommend it because eventually they have problems. But we do too--our teeth rot, we get osteoporosis (yes, we do), we get diabetes, and so on. I watched a guy do raw low-fat vegan for thirty days on his blog last year and at the end of it his hands were cracked and bleeding. He decided he must be detoxing. My God.
Hmm Mr. Dyer,
I read as much of your low carb segment and I found it to be quite misleading...my way to say that this information is fals. Stop guessing and fantasizing at what low carb does and leanr about what it really does. The world of obesity, neurology, insulinemia to start with need to know the truth. We deserve the truth. If you want the truth and desire to print the truth contact someone with that knowledge such as the small amount of physicians that know the truth. Or you could contact me and request how my low carb lifestyle, not only helped me to lose weight, it cured my migraines and joint pain. It enabled me to achieve a total cholesterol of 149 and triglycerides of 49 and it freed me from itchy skin.I have been doing this for 6 years. Too bad you didn't mention how many patients with Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, Alzheimers etcetera, were helped emensely from low carb diets. You sacrificed a Pulitzer Prize just so you could demonstrate a popular opinion.Oh well, it really doesn't matter...I suspect that there is something on the horizon that will allow the mainstream to actually use their brains.
Take Care,
Mary
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