What Is a "Low or No Carb" Diet?

For the second time, I worked out with my daughter. This time, it was better. There were more women who had curves in the right places. They not only work out, but they also drove carbohydrates out from their diet.

Ordinarily, for a healthy adult, eating within the bounds of the USDA food pyramid will work fine. But the real world is a different picture. First, we have people finding satisfaction by living outside the norms and, second, we have people with obesity problems, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and Type 2 diabetes. Low or no carb diet is a matter of choice for the former; it is a matter of survival for the latter.

While there are several versions of low-carb diets, they have one thing in common - a very strict reduction in carbohydrate consumption. People on low or no carb diets replace carbohydrates with fats and proteins. They take at least 60 or 70% of their daily calorie intake from fat, with carbohydrate not more than 10%.

Yes, you can still eat until you are full. Provided these are composed of meats, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese and a limited amount of green vegetables.

How does it reduce weight?
My previous article touched on "carbohydrates" and what it does to the body, i.e., it increases blood sugar which prompts the pancreas to make insulin to feed the body cells. Excessive intake of carbohydrates proportionately increases the blood sugar production and the insulin levels way beyond what the body needs, resulting to the conversion of this excess quantity into fat which is deposited in areas of the body making it look ugly and ungainly.

Lowering carbohydrate intake reverses the process. When insulin levels go down, it triggers the increase in the manufacture of a hormone that causes the burning of body fat and removal of cholesterol deposits from the arteries. Severely restricting carbohydrate intake stabilizes blood sugar level, drops insulin level, makes your body burn fat faster, hence, you lose weight.

What are its benefits?
It is a healthy way to lose weight. You can eat all you want to stave off hunger. Remember, satisfying an appetite is different from satisfying a hunger. It is the former that causes people to gain weight by eating more than what they should. And since you are eating fats and oils, instead of carbohydrates, you can keep your appetite under control while satisfying your hunger at the same time. Eating a high level of fat causes you to lose, not gain, weight.

Though eating fat is healthy, limit your consumption of margarine. Go for olive oil, flax seed oil, canola, oils in nuts, real butter and, of course, the essential omega-3 fatty acids in some fish.

But you must really think deeply if you want to go into it. It requires a complete life-style change

Joseph Dabon

My Serve, joespulpbits.com joespulpbits.com is for those wanting to stay young and healthy.