A new client of ours whose 12-year-old son has been battling obesity sent me a link to the Mayo Clinic position stand on low-carbohydrate diets. It is written by two nurses who clearly have not educated themselves on the facts surrounding low-carbohydrate diets. These are the sorts of position stands that are keeping people sick, fat and diabetic.
My client has tried many approaches to help his son. All have failed. And they have failed because refined carbohydrates are everywhere. They are like cockroaches. You can't kill them and they keep multiplying, especially in schools.
Let's take a look at the incredible misinformation the Mayo Clinic experts spout about low-carb diets.
#1: Low-carb diets limit carbohydrates -- for example, bread, grains, rice, starchy vegetables and fruit -- and emphasize sources of protein and fat. Many types of low-carb diets exist, each with varying restrictions on the types and amounts of carbohydrates. Examples of low-carb diets include Atkins diet, Zone diet and Protein Power.
Well they are right about this one. And this is because all of the above mentioned foods can skyrocket blood sugar levels causing insulin levels to soar. Insulin's main job is to store body fat and keep it there.
#2: Low-carb diets are generally used to lose weight. You might choose this type of diet because you enjoy the types and amounts of food featured in the diet. Or, you may believe that a low-carb diet will help you lose weight quickly and easily.
"Or you may believe...?" Virtually every study that has come down the pike has shown that low-carbohydrate diets are superior for weight loss, specifically fat loss. The snarkiness begins...
#3: Premise: Carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels, which then kicks in insulin. The theory behind low-carb diets is that insulin drives blood sugar into the cells and prevents fat breakdown in the body. This means you won't burn excess fat and lose weight.
They word this in this way to make it sound as if it is not known if the mechanism described is true or not. But this is essentially how it works. So here they state the facts pretty much as they are and cannot see that they shoot themselves in the foot. This is why low-carb diets trump low-fat diets of the same caloric level.
#4: Proponents of low-carb diets take this one step further. They say that if carbohydrates raise blood sugar and insulin levels and cause weight gain, a decrease in carbs will result in lower blood sugar and insulin levels, leading to weight loss. And because you're not eating the carbs, your body breaks down fat to provide needed energy. Some people do lose weight on low-carb diets, but the weight loss probably isn't related to blood sugar and insulin levels.
Really? What then does the Mayo Clinic speculate the fat loss does come from? Insulin's main job is to store body fat. The more insulin you secrete, the greater the percentage of calories you store as fat. They seem to not know that for nearly 140 years doctors have been putting people on low carb diets as the best method to reduce fat and diabetes. Only in the last 20-30 years has that changed due in large part to low fat dogma. The Mayo Clinic needs to brush up on their nutritional facts. This book would be a good start.
#5: In general, low-carb diets focus on meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs and some nonstarchy vegetables. The diet excludes or limits most grains, beans, fruits, breads, sweets, pastas and starchy vegetables. Some low-carb diet plans allow fruits, vegetables and whole-grains.
What's the point here exactly?
#6: Initially, when you follow a low-carb diet you may lose more weight than if you followed a low-fat, low-calorie diet. This increased weight loss may or may not continue long term depending on your commitment to following the eating plan.
So they admit that low carb diets are better than low-fat, low-calorie diets but then toss in the caveat that fat loss may not continue if you don't stay committed to the low carb diet. Hmn. That's a "duh." A Harvard education isn't worth much if you drop out I suppose.
#7: A low-carb diet may provide some health benefits, such as possibly lowering blood cholesterol levels. However, the benefits depend on what foods you eat as part of the diet. Foods high in saturated fat, which technically fit the criteria of a low-carb diet, reduce the health-benefit potential.
Possibly improving blood cholesterol levels? (And there is no such thing as a blood cholesterol level by the by but we'll let that go for now). This is a boldfaced lie. For shame Mayo Clinic bad people. For shame. Here is the abstract of but one of the dozens of studies the Mayo Clinic seeks to hide form you or extinguish in a blaze of a carbohydrate bonfire:
Effect of 6-month adherence to a very low carbohydrate diet program.
Westman EC, Yancy WS, Edman JS, Tomlin KF, Perkins CE.
Division of General Internal Medicine, Duke University, 2200 West Main Street, Durham, NC 27705, USA. ewestman~duke.edu
To determine the effect of a 6-month very low carbohydrate diet program on body weight and other metabolic parameters, fifty-one overweight or obese healthy volunteers who wanted to lose weight were placed on a very low carbohydrate diet (
As for saturated fat, this is another big old fib the MC tells. To quote Dr. Mary Enig:
New research continues to show that the saturated fats are not a problem, that the trans fatty acids found in partially hydrogenated vegetable fats and oils really are a problem, and that the lack of appropriate balance in the diet of the polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids is also a problem. Even the mono-unsaturates have been taken to task by some of the recent research. And lowfat diets are being shown to be counterproductive.
Saturated fat intake improves scores of internal health markers. It increases HDL levels markedly. Visit the Nutrition and Metabolism's site for more info on fat in the diet.
They summarize:
Four factors contribute to weight loss with low-carb diets:
* Loss of water weight. When you initially decrease your carbohydrate intake, your body burns glycogen. Glycogen contains large amounts of water, so burning glycogen leads to the release of water and increased urination, causing weight loss.
Yes, part of the weight loss is some initial water weight. So what?
* Decreased appetite. Studies suggest that a low-carb diet decreases appetite, but why this occurs isn't clear.
Well they answer their own question with their next point:
* Increased feeling of fullness. Low-carb diets are higher in fat and protein. Fat and protein take longer to digest, which makes you feel fuller longer.
Do they not read their own material?
* Reduced calories. Most low-carb diets reduce your overall calorie intake because they strictly limit the variety of foods you can eat. Carbohydrates -- including bread, pasta, rice, cereals, milk, most fruit and any sweets -- usually provide over half of people's daily calories.
They sure do - and look at obesity levels in America.
On a low-carb diet, however, carbohydrates are limited or avoided, thus leading to a significant reduction in calorie intake.
Not so fast, rabbit. If you do eat less it's because a low carb diet allows the release of fatty acids from the fat cells into the blood stream which your body uses for fuel. So you are 'eating' as much it's just not going through the gullet. And this fat release does not happen nearly as well on a low calorie diet. And, by the by, a low calories diet is, ipsofacto, a lower carbohydrate diet. EX: If a person is eating 2500 calories a day and lowers their intake to 1600, the total amount of carbs eaten will go down dramatically.
Theoretically, in order to maintain weight loss if you do lose weight,
Oooo...very, very snarky...
you need to continue the program. But a low-carb diet doesn't appear to be easier to maintain than any other diet. Studies comparing low-carb diets and low-fat diets found that after a year, people dropped out of both diets at similar rates. This suggests that the low-carb diet, like so many diets, is no easier to stick to long term.
Neither is quitting smoking easy to stick to long or short term. But this is entirely beside the point MC. What works best is what people should be told. If ALL diets are equally hard to follow, who gives a hoot about the difficulty of adherence.
And now, drum roll please...
Risks: No one knows the long-term health effects of low-carb diets. Though some studies have looked at the benefits and risks, none has been conducted over a long enough period to show whether these diets increase the risk of health conditions that develop over many years, such as heart disease, cancer, and kidney or bone problems.
The same can be said for high-carbohydrate diets -- wait, strike that. High-carb diets actually metabolic matters worse, in some cases much worse. High-carbohydrate diets that do not restrict calories almost always elevate triglyceride levels, lower HDL (aka good cholesterol even though it is not a cholesterol), increase blood sugar levels, insulin levels, inflammatory markers and promote fat storage.
They don't call it a "beer belly" for nothing, ya know. Beer, as many of you know, is mainly carbohydrate. No fat in beer.
Have you ever heard anyone say "Hey -- you got a steak belly!"
Hat tip to Valerie Berkowitz, R.D., co-author along with her husband Keith Berkowitz M.D. of The Stubborn Fat Fix for the quote from Dr. Enig.