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It has been said that a third of the population is on a diet, one-third just finished a diet, and one-third is thinking about their next diet. In truth, obesity is epidemic in North America. In the US, where 55 per cent of all adults are overweight, an estimated $30 billion US is spent annually on diet products, books and programs. Canada is only slightly behind, with 48 per cent of our adults overweight. Our food choices are increasingly swayed by media hype and the current bestseller list, instead of sound nutrition.
Interest in fad diets ripples through our places of work and leisure, and many people have tried several. Do you remember the Cabbage Soup Diet? This magic fat-burning soup was made with a head of cabbage, onions, celery, green peppers, tomatoes, onion soup mix and water. You could eat all the soup you wanted, and on certain days you could eat small amounts of fruit, rice and potatoes. Many did realize the claim of losing ten pounds in seven days.
This starvation diet filled you up on watery vegetables. Weight loss was due to calorie restriction and water loss, not the magic fat-burning soup. The grapefruit diet, also called the Hollywood diet, followed. This version claimed that grapefruit’s special fat-burning enzyme slimmed you down quickly. Rather, it was the calorie restriction (usually only 900 calories a day) and not what was eaten that led to weight loss.
So many restrictive and strange food combination diets exist! Still, there is no magical food combination or special ingredient that results in weight loss. In fad diets, like all diets, weight loss results from decreased calories.
Weight loss or weight gain is a simple equation. Calories eaten minus calories used through activity result in weight loss or gain. You may wonder why you have gained weight when you have not changed what you are eating. Consider that a 300-calorie decline in daily activity translates to a weight gain of 34 pounds in a year if you do not also lower your calorie intake. In contrast, you could lower your daily food intake by just 150 calories per day (a 355 [12 ounce] can of regular cola) while doing the same activities every day for one year. In theory, you would lose 55,000 calories worth of stored energy or 17 pounds of fat.
Experts agree that a slow steady weight loss of one-half to two pounds per week is the key to permanent weight loss. In fact, studies show that faster weight loss is associated with faster weight regain once the diet is stopped.
For the last 30 years, variations on the Atkins diet have been produced. Dr. Atkins sold over 427 million books on the subject of severely limiting carbohydrate intake and eating all the protein and fatty food you want without regard for calories. Today there are hundreds of diet books, many with different versions of this same low-carbohydrate, high-protein philosophy. Many scientific sounding reasons are given for why the diets work. However, there is often no real science to back the claims.
We are bombarded with the idea that carbohydrates are bad for us and have made us fat. At the grocery store, low-carbohydrate claims jump out at us in every aisle. Fancy and fast food restaurants are getting in the act, offering low-carbohydrate choices on the menus.
What should we believe? What is the truth? As a nation we are getting fatter every year. We do not want to believe our weight gain is due to a decrease in activity, more TV and computer time, or from 670-calorie cinnamon buns, 600-calorie mochas, and super-sized meals.
For years, health professionals have urged us to eat less of the refined carbohydrates like white flour foods, crackers, noodles, chips, sugary snacks and cereals. They suggest choosing whole grain products more often, eating five to ten servings of fruits and vegetables daily, limiting fat intake and increasing daily activities. These actions ensure we get good nutrition from our food, maintain healthy weight and help prevent disease. But, as with quick weight loss, we keep looking for something external on which to blame our weight gain. The popular press is trying to make all carbohydrates take the blame.
What do we know about low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets? When carbohydrate is severely restricted, the body is forced into ketosis where it burns fat instead of glucose for energy. Substances called ketones, the byproducts of fat metabolism, can be harmful to us. They may cause dehydration, gout, kidney stones, and bone loss. In a person with type 1 diabetes, they can cause a dangerous state called diabetic ketoacidosis. The body needs at least 100 daily grams of carbohydrate to prevent ketosis.
Rapid weight loss at the beginning of a high-protein diet is actually water lost as the body uses up stored carbohydrate. The dieter has bad breath due to ketone production, constipation due to lack of fiber, and often a headache.
Glucose is the only fuel the brain uses. On a low-carbohydrate diet, the body makes glucose from the protein in our muscles. Part of the weight loss comes from the breakdown of muscle tissue to feed the brain.
Eating high amounts of protein does make you feel full sooner. A low-carbohydrate dieter will eat an average of 450 calories less per day while feeling full – perhaps part of the reason for the popularity of this type of diet.
Analyzing the calorie content of various low-carbohydrate diets shows that weight loss is actually due to calorie restriction, not the lower carbohydrate content. A study comparing low-carbohydrate diets to a conventional low-fat diet of equal calories found greater weight loss in the low-carbohydrate dieters after six months.
However, after a year on either diet there was no difference in weight loss between the two groups. It is calorie restriction, not the makeup of the diet, that is responsible for weight loss.
Before choosing a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diet, consider the health implications. After six weeks of eating a high-protein diet, the risk of kidney stones and of bone loss due to the acid load on the kidneys is increased. Staying on the diet for longer than three months may increase cholesterol levels along with the chance of having a stroke or heart attack.
Eating large amounts of meat has been linked to an increased risk of colon and prostate cancers. Restricting whole food groups and eating fewer healthy fruits and vegetables may increase the risk for various cancers. Adequate nutrition, vitamins and protective phytochemicals (plant elements containing anti-cancer properties) can all be compromised.
Before starting on any diet, check with a doctor to make sure you have no health problems that could be made worse by a diet. For instance, kidney problems can become much more severe on a high-protein diet. A diet with a high fat content and little fiber, micronutrients, phytochemicals and antioxidants can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease. People on diuretic medicines (that increase the flow of urine) must be checked to see if the diuretic should be stopped.
There are many concerns for those with diabetes. Since diabetes increases the risk for heart and kidney disease, a high-protein, high-fat diet is probably not suiable. Decreasing carbohydrate content when a person has diabetes will make blood glucose fall rapidly.
If you use insulin or take medication to control your blood sugar, talk to your health care team before beginning a high-protein diet. Feeling full sooner with a high-protein diet can be a weight loss advantage to an otherwise healthy person. However, problems related to high-protein, high-fat diets should be considered, especially for those with or at risk of certain medical conditions.
With any diet, the key to weight loss is reducing calorie intake while burning more energy with activity. This is true whether you follow a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet or a mixed low-fat diet. If you cut down on calories, you want to get the best nutrition you can with those you do eat. Check with your health care professional before considering any diet, and good luck with your weight loss.
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