by Michael Szecki
[I:http://lbf.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/MichaelSzecki4.jpg] The expression low-carbohydrate diet today is most strongly associated with the Atkins Diet. However, there is an array of other diets that assign to varying degrees the matching principles (e.g. the online dating, the Protein Power Lifeplan, the Go Lower Diet and the South Beach Diet. So, there is no widely accepted explanation of what precisely constitutes a low-carbohydrate diet. It is imperative to note that the quantity of carbohydrate use defined as low-carbohydrate by medical experts may be diverse than the level of carbohydrate defined by diet advisors. For the purposes of this discussion, we concentrate on diets that reduce (nutritive) carbohydrate intake adequately to radically reduce or eradicate insulin production in the body and to encourage ketosis (making of ketones to be utilised as energy in place of glucose).
Even though originally a low carb diet formed based on anecdotal facts of their success, today there is a a lot larger theoretical basis on which these diets rest. The vital scientific principle which forms the foundation for these diets is the liaison between consumption of carbohydrates and the subsequent effect on blood sugar (i.e. blood glucose) and on production of some hormones. Blood sugar levels in the human body should be maintained in a rather fine range to uphold health. The two primary hormones linked to maintaining blood sugar levels, produced in the pancreas, are insulin, that lowers blood sugar levels (in the midst of numerous other effects, most of substantial consequence metabolically), and glucagon, which raises blood sugar levels. In general, mainly western diets (and various others) are suitably high in nutritive carbohydrates that nearly all meals suggest insulin emission from the beta cells in the pancreas; carbohydrates that are digested to deliver glucose in the blood stream are the first control for insulin secretion. A further aspect of insulin secretion is control of ketosis; in the non-ketotic state, the human body stores dietary fat in fat cells (ie, adipose tissue) an preferentially utilises glucose as cellular energy. No glucose is converted to fat and then stored in fat cells; animals, with humans, require the necessary enzymatic machinery necessary to do this whilst plants generally do have the basic machinery. By comparison, low-carbohydrate diets, or more correctly, diets that are exceedingly low in nutritive carbohydrates, evoke less insulin (to cover the consumed glucose in the blood stream), leading to longer and more regular episodes of ketosis. Several researchers suggest that this causes body fat to be eliminated from the body though this speculation remains, at best, notorious, if it refers to emission of lipids (ie, fat and oil) and not to fat metabolism during ketosis.
Low carb diet advocates in general recommend reducing nutritive carbohydrates (generally referred to as “net carbs,” i.e. grams of total carbohydrates condensed by the non-nutritive carbohydrates) to incredibly low levels. This means sharply falling intake of desserts, breads, pastas, potatoes, rice, and further sweet or starchy foods. A few suggest levels as low as 20-30 grams of “net carbs” per day, at least in the early steps of dieting (for comparison, a single slice of white bread usually contains 15 grams of carbohydrate, approximately entirely starch). By contrast, the recommended minimum ingestion of 130 grams of carbohydrate per day.
Low-carbohydrate diets frequently fluctuate in the specific quantity of carbohydrates permitted, whether particular types of foods are favored, whether occasional exceptions are permitted, etc. Commonly they all approve that processed sugar must be eliminated, or at the very least seriously reduced, and equally generally keep back heavily processed grains (white bread, etc.). They fluctuate importantly in their recommendations as to the quantity of fat allowable in the diet although the most accepted versions today (including Atkins) commonly recommend at most a moderate fat intake.
Even though low-carbohydrate diets are generally usually discussed as a weight-loss method some experts have anticipated by means of low-carbohydrate diets to moderate or prevent diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer to epilepsy. Indeed, it has been argued by various low-carbohydrate proponents and others that it is the rise in carbohydrate ingestion, particularly refined carbohydrates, that has caused the outbreak levels of many diseases in modern society.
As a related note, there is a collection of diets identified as low-glycemic-index diets (low-GI diets) or low-glycemic-load diets (low-GL diets), specifically the Low GI Diet. Really, low-carbohydrate diets are, literally speaking, low-GL diets (and vice versa) in that they exclusively limit what contributes to the glycemic load in foods. In practice, however, “low-GI”/”low-GL” diets vary from “low-carb” diets in the subsequent behavior. Firstly, low-carbohydrate diets take care of all nutritive carbohydrates as having the matching result on metabolism and generally think that their effect is independent of other nutrients in food. Low-GI/low-GL diets base their recommendations on the real measured metabolic (glycemic) effects of the foods eaten. Secondly, on a realistic matter, low-GI/low-GL diets normally do not suggest diets with glycemic loads low enough to minimize insulin creation and cause ketosis, where low-carbohydrate diets normally do.
One more related diet type, the low-insulin-index diet, is very similar except that it is based on measurements of undeviating insulemic responses (i.e. the quantity of insulin in the bloodstream) to food somewhat than glycemic reaction (the total of glucose in the bloodstream). Even though the diet recommendations as a rule entail lowering nutritive carbohydrates, there are some low-carbohydrate foods that are dejected in addition (e.g. beef).