Part 1 - Drop The Carbs Improve Health - Benefits of Change
While I long ago stopped frequenting doctor's waiting rooms, a friend recently gave me a copy of the “New Glucose Revolution” booklet that is currently being handed out to diabetic patients. This booklet emphasised the importance of high or moderate carbohydrate intake in controlling blood sugar levels. Now as any one that has been reading this web site for a while will know, we emphasise a ketogenic diet, one that is low carbohydrate, high in protein, high in fat and contains lots of fibre from green leafy vegetables. In fact, one of the more common reasons people come to see us is to learn how to better control their blood sugar levels. A fortnightly dietary analysis of what they ate before following our preferred diet shows that they are following the diet outlined in the “New Glucose Revolution” with no success.
In this short series of articles we will look at- switching from carbs and what makes this so beneficial for health today;
- preparation to making the swap, things to know and things to prepare;
- your first two weeks carb free or carb reduced;
- myth busting, some common myths about the ketogenic lifestyle.
So, what’s so healthy about removing carbs?
The first health benefit from eliminating carbs in the diet is loss of excess fat.
Most people know that removing carbohydrates from the diet is very effective for weight loss. In fact studies show that for weight loss a low carbohydrate diet led to an average of 6.56kg greater loss of body mass over a 12 week period with far better preservation of muscle mass. Increasing the carbs saw a direct drop in overall weight loss with an increasing percentage of that loss coming from muscle tissue. Just how does this work?
- Replacing much of the carbohydrate in each meal with good quality, lean proteins results in feeling fuller, for longer reducing snacking and overeating;
- A higher protein intake at each meal leads to higher post meal thermogenesis increasing calories consumed and reducing calorie storage;
- The cost of converting protein to a suitable form for storage is about 5.5 times that of carbohydrates.
The second health benefit of eliminating carbs in the diet is reduction in blood pressure.
Who doesn’t know someone on with high blood pressure these days? Despite what conventional medical wisdom and the DASH Diet may say, a low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet may reduce blood pressure. In one recent study comparing a low carbohydrate and standard diet, systolic blood pressure dropped an average of 5.9 points for those on the lower carbohydrate diet. There are a number of reasons for this phenomena:
- A low carbohydrate diet emphasises the use of good fats which have been shown to have protective effects on the vessels of the cardiovascular system allowing better expansion and contraction to compensate for blood volumes;
- elevated levels of insulin in response to carbohydrate digestion can lead to increased tension in the arterial walls and hence increased blood pressure.
The third health benefit of eliminating carbs in the diet is an alkaline internal environment.
An overly acidic internal environment is one of the warning lights that tissue and cellular breakdown is not too far behind. You might remember the pH food charts that books like “Alkalise or Die” made famous? Net Endogenous Acid Production, or NEAP for short, is a formula that calculates the relative pH of a food based on it’s constituent amino acids and minerals. It allows for a far more accurate method of assessing dietary pH than food tables. Moving from a standard diet to a low carbohydrate diet based on protein, fat and plant sources of fibre results in a dramatic overall improvement in the bodies internal pH balance.
So what are you waiting for?
Talk to our nutritionist today to discover how dietary revision can make a dramatic improvement in your life, and stay tuned for part two of this series with some hints for how to prepare for a healthier lifestyle.