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Tag: low carb diet

  • Low-Carb Diets: What Are The Best Low-Carb Foods?

    Low-carb diets are all the rage these days, and rightfully so.

    Studies have shown that a low-carb diet is a great way to shed excess weight. Though some dieters opt for a low-fat plan, recent research indicates that a low-carb diet isn’t just better for overall weight loss.

    It may also significantly curb your risk of heart disease.

    These are definitely good reasons to at least give a low-carb lifestyle a try.

    For those new to the concept of cutting carbs, there is probably some confusion as to which food items are best.

    These foods represent some of the best options you can enjoy during a low-carb diet.

    Proteins

    If you thought a low-carb diet meant no more meat ever, you were wrong. You can enjoy meals that consist of meats like chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, beef, and even pork. Eggs are considered one of the best sources of protein.

    Just remember that the leaner the meat, the better.

    Can you get protein from non-meat sources? Certainly.

    Legumes are a great source of non-meat protein. So are nuts, beans, and chickpeas.

    Dairy

    Dairy foods like cheese, milk, and yogurt are often staples of a low-carb diet. In fact, many cheeses contain less than a one carb.

    Nice huh?

    It’s important to note that even though a low-carb diet is the focus, you still want to be on the lookout for less than healthy food items. Some dairy products should be avoided because they are high in fat and sodium!

    This means butter is a go, but consider buying a salt-free version and manually adding salt.

    Fruits And Vegetables

    Before you go dashing towards the produce aisle, you may want to stop and consider exactly WHICH fruits and veggies you load up on. Because some items aren’t as good for your low-carb diet as you’d like to think.

    The best fruit choices include watermelons, apricots, lemons and various berries. Meanwhile the best low-carb vegetables include cucumbers, celery, mushrooms, radishes and broccoli.

    Some high carb options to cut back on significantly include bananas, apples, pears.

    Please remember that low-carb doesn’t mean NO carbs!

    To meet your daily carb needs, it’s better to get carbs from fruits and vegetables than from unhealthy sources!

  • Low-Carb Diet: 4 Myths That Can Hurt You

    It’s true that low-carb dieting can have positive effects on your body. You’ll lose weight, feel more energized and probably find it easier to meet long-term fitness goals.

    However, there are some beliefs that low-carb fans swear by that aren’t necessarily true. And in some cases, this false information may do far more harm than good.

    Here’s four myths often associated with the low-carb craze that should be more carefully examined.

    You’re Fat Because You Eat Carbs!

    The truth is that not all carbs are equal. It is the refined carbs that are more likely to contribute to someone’s unwanted weight gain.

    Eating too many of these type of carbs can contribute to diabetes and heart disease.

    Instead, be sure to eat good carbs like quinoa and bananas.

    The Best Low-Carb Diet Is A NO-Carb Diet!

    Carbs give you energy to do things like exercise, or simply get from Point A to Point B without falling on your face.

    Good carbs also play a vital role in protecting your body from disease.

    If you want to cut back on carbs because you’re eating too many or eating the wrong kind, that’s fine.

    Just avoid taking it to an unhealthy extreme!

    Some Fruit And Vegetables Are To Be Avoided Because They Are Carbs

    Carrots may be carbs, but they also contain some VITAL nutrients. They provide you with 210% of your daily vitamin A needs. They also contain the antioxidant beta carotene and various other vitamins and minerals.

    Some fruits and veggies are given a bad wrap because they are carbs when the truth is they are far more healthy than you think.

    Wheat Is An Awful Food And All Grains Should Be Avoided!

    And this is the part where I put on my bullet-proof vest because this is probably one of THE most hotly contested health topics right now.

    Brace yourselves, because the truth is you should only go out of your way to COMPLETELY eliminate wheat if you are allergic to it and or suffer from celiac disease.

    After that, you should try cutting wheat from your diet only if you suspect it contributes negatively to your overall health.

    Just be sure to avoid refined wheats and grains A.K.A. refined carbs, and you should be fine.

    If you enjoy certain whole wheat products and have noticed no particular negative side effects, then there’s no harm in having them as a part of your diet. Don’t be goaded to remove something from your diet based on someone else’s fear without any proof that it’s harmful to you personally.

    What other low-carb myths are you aware of? Share in the comments below!

  • Low-Carb Diet Better Than Low-Fat Diet?

    Low-Carb Diet Better Than Low-Fat Diet?

    Low-carb diets are all the rage right now. With options like the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, and Paleo on the table, there is no shortage of routes to take to lose those few extra pounds by cutting carbs.

    Not that long ago, everyone was doing a low-fat diet. Ornish or Rosemary Conley diets were all the talk at the soccer games and play dates.

    Now, the eternal question of whether a low-carb diet or low-fat diet is better for weight loss has been answered.

    The answer is: it doesn’t matter.

    A new study suggests that either route will produce very similar results.

    48 previous studies on low-carb and low fat-diets, that included a total of 7,286 overweight and obese adults, were scoured by researchers led by Bradley Johnston, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

    They found that after six months of dieting, participants on low-carb diets, as well as low-fat diets, all lost an average of 18 pounds.

    So what should be taken away from this? Johnson says it’s more important to go with the diet that you will have an easier time sticking to, rather than what the latest trend may be.

    “There may be important differences to some individual clinicians or some individual dieters, but overall the differences are minimal,” Johnston said.

    Linda Van Horn of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who wrote an editorial that was attached to the study, says that severely limiting either carbs or fat can be hazardous.

    She says going solely with a low-carb diet or low-fat diet, which eliminates those important macronutrients like fat, carbs, and protein, risks missing out on good foods that “actually have a host of nutrients to them”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv2ryk6JYUY

    Of course, this new study doens’t mean the debate is over. Lauri Wright, registered dietitian nutritionist and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics said, “With the obesity epidemic, everyone is really interested in the best way, the easiest way to lose weight,”

    “For every one study that shows the low-carb is better, then there’s a counter-study that shows that low-fat is better. And it’s very confusing.”

    Yes. Yes it is confusing.

    She stresses nutrition over weight-loss.

    “We’re not only trying to lose weight, but we’re also trying to prevent diseases, too. We want to make sure the diet is not only low in calories, but it has really high-quality nutrition value.”

    Good luck to all of you dieters out there! Do you prefer a low-carb diet or a low-fat diet?

  • Low Carb-Diets: Better Than Low-Fat Diets?

    It’s January and the nation has noticed those jeans fitting a bit tighter, and the scale tipping away from where it should be sitting. It was the holidays that did it, and now it is time to seriously consider getting those “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” holiday pounds off.

    But which diet to choose – there are so many that are extremely popular, it can really be confusing trying to figure out what one is best. A diet that keeps you full, but allows you to eat out. It also doesn’t require a whole lot of measuring, and specialized foods.

    So, narrowing it down to whether it is best to cut out carbs and sugar, or carbs and fat was the experiment of the month for twin doctors.

    The 35 year old identical twins, Chris and Alexander van Tullekin, both physicians, took on the task of finding out just which promoted the best success.

    Chris, a physician at University College Hospital in London tried the low-fat, high carb diet, while his brother Alexander, who is the director of the Institute of Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University in New York, went on a high-fat, low-carb diet.

    According to an article Alexander wrote for The Daily Mail both brothers lost weight. Alexander lost the most, at nine pounds in one month.

    The brothers found that eliminating a single macronutrient like fat or sugar is not a solution to weight loss, nor is fad diets.

    “It is about building an environment in your life where you could easily eat a cheap and healthy diet and get enough exercise. It is amazing that we are not all fat and I come away with a sense that I know enough about diet and nutrition and I should be reducing the calories and building an environment where I can do that rather than looking for one toxic ingredient,” Chris said.

    After the experiment ended, the British twins also concluded that the real villains when it comes to weight gain are processed foods that contained a combination of high fat and high sugar.

    Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford, agreed with their conclusion.

    “Processed foods pack calories in and are unbelievably attractive and delicious,” she told the Daily Express. “They are temptations for all of us and it is astonishing that any of us stay slim.”

    The brothers concluded, any diet that eliminates fat or sugar will be unpalatable, hard to sustain and probably be bad for your health, too.

    Image via YouTube

  • Health Institute Study: Cut Carbs, Burn More Calories

    According to a new study funded by the National Institute of Health, eating a diet low in carbohydrates helps the body burn calories faster.

    Scientists on the study took 21 participants classified as obese, challenged them to lose between 10% and 20% of their body weight, then, after the weight was lost, put them one of three different diets to see how well they could maintain their current weight.

    USA Today Listed the three different diets as follows:

    •A low-fat diet which was about 20% of calories from fat and emphasized whole-grain products and fruits and vegetables.

    •A low-glycemic index diet, similar to a Mediterranean diet, made up of vegetables, fruit, beans, healthy fats (olive oil, nuts) and mostly healthy grains (old-fashioned oats, brown rice). These foods digest more slowly, helping to keep blood sugar and hormones stable after the meal.

    •A low-carb diet, similar to the Atkins diet, with only 10% of calories from carbohydrates. It emphasized fish, chicken, beef, eggs, cheese, some vegetables and fruits while eliminating foods such as breads, pasta, potatoes and starchy vegetables.

    Participants burned about 300 calories more a day on a low-carb diet than they did on a low-fat diet, and they burned 150 more calories on the low-glycemic index diet than the low-fat diet.

    So, participants were getting better results, not by exercising more, but by choosing foods low in carbohydrates. David Ludwig, lead author on the study believes the extra calorie burn from the low carb diet is due to a more stable blood sugar level and hormone secretion, consistent with low carb diet.

    The downside of a low carb diet is the increased risk of heart disease that comes with consuming fattier meals. However, the decreased metabolic activity combined with increased insulin resistance, makes the low-fat diet less than desirable as well. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

    The findings are only preliminary, but what we always find in nutrition, despite trendy studies or shocking finding, balance is almost always the conclusion. If you load up on carbs for breakfast, it’s a good idea to take it easy on carbs for the rest of your meals that day.

    Of course, all these dietary factors are effected by your lifestyle too. If you don’t move around very much, you wont burn that many calories, if you’re always on the run, you need more calories to produce the energy you need. Either way, balance is usually the answer.

    (Lead image Courtesy of Richardsimmonsdvds.com)