Carb Conundrum - Low Carb

Coming To Grips With The Low Carb Craziness

Is A Low Carb Diet Good For You?

That all depends. Anytime you can lose at least 10% of your body weight it's going to make you healthier. But some of the low carb diets that are very strict can damage your health if you don't follow them to the letter. Most low carb diets restrict your intake of carbs so that you only get 20-40 a day for the first two weeks and maybe only 60 a day after that. Our bodies need 130 grams a day minimum to function properly. Anything less than that for any length of time will cause bad side effects.

First of all, cutting all fruits and most vegetables from your diet means you're cutting out a lot of fiber, vitamins and minerals. This can leave you constipated and lower your immune system. In addition, fruits and vegetables have important cancer-fighting antioxidants. Of course, you can take fiber supplements and multivitamins, but there's not a supplement to replace antioxidants.

What about you? Let's talk about you? Are you low carb and lovin' it?
Lots of people are. While going low carb might be a good idea, going practically no carb isn't.

Second, since your body uses carbs for fuel, it will start burning fat and protein in the absence of carbs. When it starts burning fat, ketones are released your bloodstream and excreted through urine. This is a process known as ketosis, and its side effects include bad breath, headaches, nausea, depression and a lack of energy--which can be terribly inconvenient on the low carb diets that encourage exercise. And when your body is burning protein for fuel, it can cause calcium to leach from your bones, putting you at risk for osteoporosis. Again, a calcium supplement can help this, but why would you want to do something to yourself that will cause you to lose calcium (especially if you're a woman)? You also risk kidney damage from the uric acid in your bloodstream when your body is burning protein for fuel.

Finally, since some of these low carb diets don't discourage saturated fat intake, you put yourself at risk for heart disease. You could counter this by choosing lean meats, but the lower fat versions of other products have more carbs.

"Safer" Low Carb Diets

Diets like the South Beach diet, the Zone and Sugar Busters focus on getting you to eat limited amounts of complex carbohydrates. These take longer for your body to break down, so you feel full longer and don't experience blood sugar swings that can cause excess insulin production that makes you gain weight. These diets encourage you to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein. Some of the specifics are different, and some might limit your carb intake for the first couple of weeks, but once you learn which carbs to eat (and in what amounts) you'll be healthier.