The sales pitch for low-carb diets can be likened to those of men selling knockoff hand-bags and watches out of the back of their car. Certainly, they sound good, they look good, but they are not quality merchandise. The watches may work and look like the real thing -- until the gold paint starts to chip off and the cheap parts begin to wear out. The purses may hold together and catch admiring glances on the street -- until the faux leather begins to peel and the poor stitching unravels.
A low-carb diet will make you lose weight, but not through healthy means and it is not a long term weight loss solution. Weight lost through the restriction of carbohydrates is largely water weight. About every gram of carbohydrate is accompanied by 2 to 3 grams of water. When you do begin eating carbohydrates again your body may go into rebound mode, holding on to water, and causing you to gain weight back even more quickly than it was lost.
The low-carb diet could cause your body to become even more carb sensitive. After being starved for carbs, when you finally provide your body with them it can hold onto them with a vengeance. Your body will store up and save all the new carbohydrates you are eating once you try to resume a normal diet.
Starving your body of any essential nutrient is not part of a healthy everyday diet. Our bodies need carbohydrates for energy and to regulate metabolism. Your brain needs at least 130 grams of carbohydrate power to function at an optimum level. Common sense (and every major non-profit health origination) tells us to eat more fruits and vegetables every day, not less. The low-carb diet also leads to deficits of fiber in the body which contribute to digestive problems.
Most seriously, a carbohydrate starvation diet contributes to great stress on the kidneys and increased risk of liver disorders, gout, coronary heart disease, stroke, and several types of cancer. Does any of this sound like a healthy solution to weight loss? Your body requires a balance of many important nutrients to function properly; cutting or restricting the intake of any one of these will only throw your body’s natural rhythm out of sync and leave you feeling and operating poorly. |
