Low Carb diets - Not as healthy as you might think.

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Avalonis
Avalonis Posts: 1,540 Member
in Food and Nutrition
"It may be a speedy way to slim down, but the Atkins diet can also raise your cholesterol and harm your heart just as quickly.

When researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine put 18 adults on the Atkins diet, Ornish, or South Beach Diet, those on the Atkins diet increased their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels by 16 points and experienced hardening of the arteries in only 1 month. Those in the Ornish Diet group lowered bad cholesterol by 25 points, while those in the South Beach Diet group lowered it by 10 points.

The people on Ornish and South Beach Diet experienced improved flexibility in their arteries. Instead of cutting carbs to lose weight, reach for a balance of good carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats."

http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/diets/cholesterol-atkins-diet-vs-south-beach-diet
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Replies

  • Jeeenjohnson19
    Jeeenjohnson19 Posts: 54 Member
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    I'm glad someone has posted something like this. Get so annoyed when its said on here and tv that I need to eat less carbs, or i'm not allowed a potato, ridiculous. I was taught when I was younger you need a healthy balance, around a third veggies/fruits, quarter carbs, quarter meat and then the rest is either fat/dairy. I always though you got most of your energy from carbs anyway! :)
  • AnnaPixie
    AnnaPixie Posts: 7,439 Member
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    I love you for posting this :heart: Been saying for years that cutting out a macro can't possibly be healthy, they all have their place in a balanced diet.

    :flowerforyou:
  • Bubs05
    Bubs05 Posts: 182 Member
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    I know some people swear by this "diet" but I don't trust anything that lets me eat a pound of bacon at one sitting but not an apple!
  • alliesun53
    alliesun53 Posts: 160 Member
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    There's a difference between "low carb" and "no carb". I'm on a low carb diet. Meaning I pretty much dont eat white bread or white flower products. I still have carbs from fruits and veggies and other sources, but I don't sit there now and eat a bagel for breakfast, a hero for lunch and pasta or pizza for dinner. It's a bit ridiculous to say that you can eat a lb of bacon but not an apple...no healthy diet would allow a full lb of bacon to be eaten in one sitting anyway...and if you're doing that then if the carbs dont make you gain weight the fat will.
  • Bubs05
    Bubs05 Posts: 182 Member
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    There's a difference between "low carb" and "no carb". I'm on a low carb diet. Meaning I pretty much dont eat white bread or white flower products. I still have carbs from fruits and veggies and other sources, but I don't sit there now and eat a bagel for breakfast, a hero for lunch and pasta or pizza for dinner. It's a bit ridiculous to say that you can eat a lb of bacon but not an apple...no healthy diet would allow a full lb of bacon to be eaten in one sitting anyway...and if you're doing that then if the carbs dont make you gain weight the fat will.
    Maybe I exaggerated a bit but when my roommate was on South Beach her meal plan specified that she could eat as much red meat as she wanted (in one meal) but most fruit was on the No list. My point was that although it may work for some people, I wouldn't call South Beach a healthy diet.
    And I agree, Low Carb is different than No Carb.
  • jahnlaw
    jahnlaw Posts: 95 Member
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    Bubs05,

    To clarify about South Beach, your roomie likely was following phase 1, which lasts no longer than two weeks. The main purpose of phase 1 is to rids ones addictions to sugars. Sugars includes items with a high glycymic index such as fruits and breads that digest quickly in the body. More protein is encouraged to avoid hunger and veggies are the carbs of choice but red meats alone aren't the staple. Phase 2 is after the sugar addiction and when complex carbs are reintroduced. I hope this helps.
  • Bailey543
    Bailey543 Posts: 375
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    First off, carbs are in lots of food. I'm not sure a person can have NO carbs. That's not what Atkins is in the first place. I'm not on Atkins, by the way. Different diets work for different people. I have heard of many people's cholesterol going down on low carb diets. There's no diet out there that is perfect for every person on earth. Everybody needs to find what works for their own personal body. Don't knock other people's diets, just do your own and be happy. What's the point in telling people that what they are doing is wrong or won't work, when it IS working for THEM?
  • DQMD
    DQMD Posts: 193
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    I do lower carb. Medifast has us eat between 80-100 carbs. I loose best when I stay around 80 carbs. I haven't been doing as well because I have been fighting a HORRIBLE fight with whipped ceam in the can. IT is stay OUT of my house!!
  • mgmlap
    mgmlap Posts: 1,377 Member
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    I think low carb depends on the person. I have insulin resistance..so any type of processed carb I eat..(grains) instead of turning to energy..has a tendency of turning to fat..cause my body thinks it needs it. I have been doing low carb since November..and doing quite well.

    Thats not to say I dont have my days where I will have a sandwich or something..but as a whole..I stay within the 100 carb range every day..
  • carolann_22
    carolann_22 Posts: 364 Member
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    Actually if you look at the study and not just the abstract NONE of the diets were low carb. They were all placed on the MAINTENANCE levels of carbs/protein/fat for theses diets, and surprise surprise, if you eat a lot of fat, protein AND carbs, your health markers deteriorate. Even Atkins himself said you can't do it halfway - if you eat high fat and protein AND don't watch your carbs, you are a health disaster waiting to happen.
  • issyfit
    issyfit Posts: 1,077 Member
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    There's a difference between "low carb" and "no carb". I'm on a low carb diet. Meaning I pretty much dont eat white bread or white flower products. I still have carbs from fruits and veggies and other sources, but I don't sit there now and eat a bagel for breakfast, a hero for lunch and pasta or pizza for dinner. It's a bit ridiculous to say that you can eat a lb of bacon but not an apple...no healthy diet would allow a full lb of bacon to be eaten in one sitting anyway...and if you're doing that then if the carbs dont make you gain weight the fat will.
    Maybe I exaggerated a bit but when my roommate was on South Beach her meal plan specified that she could eat as much red meat as she wanted (in one meal) but most fruit was on the No list. My point was that although it may work for some people, I wouldn't call South Beach a healthy diet.
    And I agree, Low Carb is different than No Carb.

    If that's what your roommate was eating they weren't following South Beach. Recommended protein on SB is 2 oz at breakfast, 3-4 oz at lunch and dinner., all lean protein. Fruit amd whole grains are reintroduced after the first 2 weeks. South Beach is not low carb, I eat around 100-150 carbs a day, but avoid products with refined carbs and added sugar.
  • wendyc122005
    wendyc122005 Posts: 123
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    I maintain a low carb diet while working for weightloss because I am seriously addicted to carbs. I guess it is partly my body and partly my lack of discipline, but if I eat a bit of my favorites I just crave them more. I would rather not eat them during weight loss then crave them all the time. It only takes a few days of eliminating them for me to kick the habit. I stick with lean protein including fish, turkey, chicken, pork, and very little red meat. I also stick to lower fat option simply because it is healthier. I don't eat "all I can eat" anything. I stay within my calorie allocation.

    I started my weightloss program in June 2011. My blood work has improved significantly since then. Well on my way to healthy.
  • carolann_22
    carolann_22 Posts: 364 Member
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    An actual PEER REVIEWED study on a true LOW CARB diet showing that lipids and cardiovascular makers IMPROVE on low carb diets;

    http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n11s/full/oby2004276a.html
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    Actually if you look at the study and not just the abstract NONE of the diets were low carb. They were all placed on the MAINTENANCE levels of carbs/protein/fat for theses diets, and surprise surprise, if you eat a lot of fat, protein AND carbs, your health markers deteriorate. Even Atkins himself said you can't do it halfway - if you eat high fat and protein AND don't watch your carbs, you are a health disaster waiting to happen.

    It was an isocaloric comparison using 3 different macronutrient distributions. The maintenance phase was not high pro AND high cho AND high fat, that doesn't make sense unless you're claiming that it was higher kcal, which it wasn't by definition of the study being isocaloric.
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    You can find the original study here, I believe:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693202/
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    An actual PEER REVIEWED study on a true LOW CARB diet showing that lipids and cardiovascular makers IMPROVE on low carb diets;

    http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n11s/full/oby2004276a.html

    Now was it the low carbs that improved blood markers of health or was it losing weight that improved them?
  • raiderrodney
    raiderrodney Posts: 617 Member
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    An actual PEER REVIEWED study on a true LOW CARB diet showing that lipids and cardiovascular makers IMPROVE on low carb diets;

    http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n11s/full/oby2004276a.html

    This was my experience on the low carb/atkins type diet as well. I dropped bad and raised good cholesterol levels when on it. It CAN be a very dangerous diet though. If you do it right and can do so without packing away all the processed meats it can be a very healthy lifestyle.

    But, if you do it not knowing what has carbs it can do some real damage. When you low carb it, your body is taking in more cholesterol and fat but when you're under 100 carbs a day your body doesn't create any because your pancreas isn't shooting out insulin all day from the carbs ;)
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    I don't care what this study says, I think it's crap.

    Now you're just sounding like me. Stop that.

    =)
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    Now was it the low carbs that improved blood markers of health or was it losing weight that improved them?

    ^ That's the tricky part IMO. In the first of those several studies, subjects dropped an average of .5kg/week for the duration of the experiment.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    Now was it the low carbs that improved blood markers of health or was it losing weight that improved them?

    ^ That's the tricky part IMO. In the first of those several studies, subjects dropped an average of .5kg/week for the duration of the experiment.

    Yet, you'll notice there was no control group to compare if the low carb diets were either better or worse at improving markers of health

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