The Carb Conundrum

All calories are not created equally. In fact, which types of carbs we eat has a big impact on our weight and long-term health, according to a new study published last week from the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center of Boston Children’s Hospital.

The study was relatively small, following 21 overweight and obese young adults. The participants lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight before taking up one of three diets for four weeks.

not considered a serving of veggies...

The three diets were the conventional low-fat diet (60 percent carbs, 20 percent fat, 20 percent protein), a very low-carb diet (10 percent carbs, 60 percent fat, 30 percent protein) and a low-glycemic diet (40 percent carbs, 40 percent fat, 20 percent). 

The low-fat diet emphasized carbs from fruits, vegetables and both processed and unprocessed whole grains. The low glycemic diet emphasized carbs from minimally processed grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.  

The study results were pretty interesting. Those on the low-carb diet burned 350 calories more per day than those on the low-fat diet. Those on the low glycemic diet burned 150 calories more per day than the low-fat diet. Meaning where we get our calories does matter.

It also appears that the low-carb diet is the best for burning calories. And the low-fat diet, which has been the conventional choice, is actually the worst. But not so fast, the researchers said.

The low-carb diet raised levels of CRP (c-reactive protein), which is a measure of chronic inflammation, and cortisol, a hormone that controls stress, both of which are tightly linked to long-term heart disease risk and mortality, noted David Ludwig, study author and director of the obesity prevention center.

Furthermore, according to a New York Times blog:

[Ludwig's] conclusion, then? “The ‘Atkins’ diet gives you the biggest metabolic benefit initially, but there are long-term downsides, and in practice, people have trouble sticking to low-carb diets. Over the long term, the low-glycemic diet appears to work the best, because you don’t have to eliminate an entire class of nutrients, which our research suggests is not only hard from a psychological perspective but may be wrong from a biological perspective.”

Almost every diet, from the radical no-carb-at-all notions to the tame (and sane) “Healthy Eating Plate” from Harvard, agrees on at least this notion: reduce, or even come close to eliminating, the amount of hyper-processed carbohydrates in your diet, because, quite simply, they’re bad for you. And if you look at statistics, at least a quarter of our calories come from added sugars (seven percent from beverages alone), white flour, white rice, white pasta … are you seeing a pattern here? (Oh, and white potatoes. And beer.)

So what’s Ludwig’s overall advice? “It’s time to reacquaint ourselves with minimally processed carbs. If you take three servings of refined carbohydrates and substitute one of fruit, one of beans and one of nuts, you could eliminate 50 percent of diet-related disease in the United States. These relatively modest changes can provide great benefit.”

try some whole grains
(preferably unprocessed)

So what does this mean? If you're trying to lose weight and keep it off, watch the processed foods. Choose unprocessed whole foods, you know, things that don't come in shiny packages with labels on them. Cook your own food from fresh ingredients and -- for crying out loud -- cut the sugar and watch those empty calories! And yes, this includes pizza, sausage, hot dogs, cheese, soda, ice cream and pastries. 

I obviously will stick to veganism, extra fresh fruits and veggies plus good carbs please.

One last tidbit: The glycemic index measures how much carbs affect blood sugar levels. A low-fat diet has a high glycemic load. A low-glycemic diet has a moderate glycemic load. And a very low-carb diet carries a low glycemic load.