What Diet Is Right For You? Part 3. Low Carb

Is Low Carb Diet Right For You?

If you eat carbs and you are putting on more and more weight then low carb will work for you. Let’s face the facts this diet only exists a consequent of our addition to carbohydrates. A high carb intake of > 200 grams per day increase weight gain.

In Australia 6 out of every 10 people are overweight or obese. The low carb diet has gained wide popularity in recent times from government and health care professionals as it addresses one possible solutions to the obesity epidemic.

So What Is A Low Carb Diet?

A Low Carb diet restricts the amount of daily carbohydrates you consume.

Carbs are classified into two categories:

Sugars; fructose, glucose, and lactose. (like sweets, fruit, milk)
Starches; are in foods such as starchy vegetables (potatoes or corn), grains, rice, bread, and cereals

The Rules

Restricts foods made from sugar, grains including pasta, bread.
Replace the gap by increasing protein, fat and low glycemic vegetables
Daily carbohydrate limits, the amounts will depend on your build, health and level of activity of each individual, on low carb reduce carbs to 50 to 100 grams per day to get into weight loss.

The reasoning behind the low carb diets is that by restricting carbs it lower insulin levels, which consequently turns the body to burn stored fat for energy and ultimately leads to weight loss.

History

The low carb diet was first introduced by Dr Stillman Diet in 1967. It became popular in the 1970s when Dr Atkins published his book “Dr Atkins Diet Revolution”. Today low carb diet is back in favour.

What Does The Diet Consist Of?

Here is a list of what to eat and avoid on the low carb diet.

Eat:

- Vegetables
- Beans
- Legumes
- Fish
- Lean Poultry
- Lean Meat
- Eggs
- Nuts (limited amount)
- Healthy oils
- Water
- Yoghurt
- Dairy
- fruit (limit to one piece per day)

Avoid:

- Sugar
- HFCS
- Wheat (bread, donuts, pizza, pasta)
- Potato
- Rice
- Low-fat products
- Refined food highly processed foods
- All sweets

Diet Guidelines

Always check with your health care professional before starting a new diet. Food and herb-drug interactions do happen. With that in mind, this diet is recommended for the prevention of:

Cardiovascular disease
High blood pressure
Obesity
Metabolic syndrome
Insulin resistance

The key point of this diet is to restrict the carbs for long enough to lose the weight. Side effects like constipation can occur if dietary fibre intake is not adequate.

If there are any aspects of your diet, you would like to discuss or clarify, please feel free to contact me through this web site or if it is of a more private nature contact me through my direct email. My goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on what diet best supports your health needs.