“HIGH CARBS” versus “HIGH PROTEIN”: Which one should you follow to
gain muscle / burn fat???..........Part 2
The Second Phase of Weight Loss
People who manage to stay on high-protein diets also lose weight
because these diets restrict carbohydrate calories such as fruits,
vegetables, breads, cereals, and legumes.
By eliminating so many foods from your diet, you automatically
reduce your calorie intake, resulting in a negative calorie balance
and therefore weight loss. Doris Bosnyack of San Bernardino says,
"I stayed on it about 3 weeks. After a while I couldn't eat; the
taste of the food was terrible. I didn't enjoy it -- just meat,
meat, meat. I wasn't a big meat eater to begin with. I got
constipated and lethargic. I looked terrible. I looked like someone
ran over me. My eyes got sunken in and blackened. I just felt sick."
Major professional health organizations, including the American
Heart Association, the National Cholesterol Education Program, and
the American Cancer Society endorse a diet that is composed of 10%
to 15% protein, 55% to 60% carbohydrates, and 25% to 30% fat. The
Atkins Diet can be more than 80% protein or fat, and less than 6%
carbohydrate depending upon the low-carbohydrate foods selected.
High-fat, high-protein diets are believed to be the underlying
cause of our major diseases, including heart disease, strokes,
adult-type diabetes, and obesity.
In a report in the October 9,
2001 issue of the journal Circulation, the Nutrition Committee of
the American Heart Association wrote "High-protein diets may also
be associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease due to
intakes of saturated fat, cholesterol, and other associated dietary
factors" (Circulation 104:1869, 2001). "High-protein diets are not
recommended because they restrict healthful foods that provide
essential nutrients and do not provide the variety of foods needed
to adequately meet nutritional needs. Individuals who follow these
diets are therefore at risk for compromised vitamin and mineral
intake, as well as potential cardiac, renal, bone, and liver
abnormalities overall."
Dr. Atkins recommends you eat all you can eat of roast rack of
lamb, lobster dripping in butter, and bacon and eggs. He believes
human beings are carnivores -- an observation contradicted by all
aspects of our anatomy and physiology. Our teeth are not like a
cat's, we have no claws for tearing apart meat, our intestine is
designed for digesting plant foods, not meat, and our livers have a
limited capacity to metabolize cholesterol, which is one big reason
our cholesterol levels rise on the Western diet.
Food-restricting High-protein Diets
The second form of high-protein diets employs stringent rules for
choosing foods in order to limit calorie intake. For example, The
Zone Diet asks you to limit your protein intake to about 100 grams
a day of protein, then distribute the rest of the calories as 30%
protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrate. Following these rules a man
would be eating about 1300 calories a day, when in fact your
particular body may need more, depending on whether you are trying
to gain muscle or burn fat, and on your own particular metabolism.
The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet reduces your calorie intake by asking
you to eat two severely carbohydrate-restricted meals and one
well-balanced "Reward Meal" containing carbohydrates (limited to
one hour of eating). The carbohydrate-restricted meals severely
limit your food choices to meats, poultry, fish, oils and most
high-fat dairy products; as a result you take in fewer calories.
Osteoporosis and kidney stones are caused primarily by a diet rich
in animal foods. Such a diet provides an abundance of acid that
must be neutralized in order for the body to function properly and
health to be maintained. The body's primary buffering system is its
bones. The bones dissolve as the first step to osteoporosis. The
second step involves changes in the kidneys' physiology caused by
animal foods that results in the loss of this bone material into
the urinary system. During its passage through the ureters some of
the calcium solidifies into calcium kidney stones and the rest is
lost from the body, leaving the bones porous (J Nutr 128:1051,
1998; J Pedriatr 117.743, 1990).
Mental Function Impaired by Ketosis
Mental health seems to be impaired by ketosis. Performance on the
"Trail-making Task," a neuropsychological test which requires
higher order mental processing and flexibility was found to be
adversely affected by the ketogenic diet (Int J Obes Relat Metab
Disord 19:811, 1995). Maybe this reduced mental capacity is one
reason some people on the Atkins Diet profess to feeling so great.
Val Johnson of Lakeland, Florida, summarizes his experiences on a
ketogenic diet: "Our family doctor recommended the Atkins Diet to
us. We got on it and we got sick, especially when we followed the
bacon recommendation, where he says you can eat all the bacon you
want. We stayed on the diet a week and a half. I believe the diet
affected my thinking. I made some real bad mistakes on the job. One
of them cost me a considerable amount of money. The most costly was
when I ordered ¾ inch pipe when the customer wanted 1 ½ pipe, and
it was a large order. It did cloud my thinking. I felt lethargic
and slow and wasn't mentally alert on my job."
Lowering Risk Factors by Not Eating
So how do authors of ketogenic diets claim their diet will improve
your health? This is based mostly on the observation that
hyperinsulinism is corrected and that this condition is associated
with atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Hyperinsulinism is a risk factor, like blood sugar, cholesterol,
triglycerides, blood pressure, and body weight. The important word
here is "risk factor." The actual disease these risk factors are
predicting is rotten arteries (atherosclerosis). On a ketogenic
diet, blood cholesterol, sugar, and triglycerides may be reduced
because dieters are eating much less, as a result of loss of
appetite and sometimes nausea caused by the ketosis. This only
proves you can cause your risk factors to decrease by harmful
treatment of your body. Here is a similar example: cancer
chemotherapy will cause a loss of appetite, decrease in food
intake, with resulting weight loss, lowered cholesterol and
triglycerides (Biochem Int 24:1015, 1991). No one would consider
these toxic drugs a healthful approach to lowered risk factors and
fat loss.
Lowering Risk Factors by Not Eating
So how do authors of ketogenic diets claim their diet will improve
your health? This is based mostly on the observation that
hyperinsulinism is corrected and that this condition is associated
with atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Hyperinsulinism is a risk factor, like blood sugar, cholesterol,
triglycerides, blood pressure, and body weight. The important word
here is "risk factor." The actual disease these risk factors are
predicting is rotten arteries (atherosclerosis). On a ketogenic
diet, blood cholesterol, sugar, and triglycerides may be reduced
because dieters are eating much less, as a result of loss of
appetite and sometimes nausea caused by the ketosis. This only
proves you can cause your risk factors to decrease by harmful
treatment of your body. Here is a similar example: cancer
chemotherapy will cause a loss of appetite, decrease in food
intake, with resulting weight loss, lowered cholesterol and
triglycerides (Biochem Int 24:1015, 1991). No one would consider
these toxic drugs a healthful approach to lowered risk factors and
fat loss.
Reply With Quote
