making another comeback with not only its good results in blood glucose and weight loss, but also good results in blood cholesterol parameters. Media headlines questioned the honesty of the low-fat diet, and nutrition scientists were accused of waffling on their nutrition advice. Obesity was worse than ever, now at epidemic proportions; cancer was also just as bad as ever, accompanied by increases in diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, and heartburn. Heartburn became more sophisticated and was renamed gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). And a “new” disease phenomena appeared on the scene dastardly labeled at first as Syndrome X and later as metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is actually the manifestation of insulin resistance and is considered a strong risk factor for heart disease. (Check out Chapter 4 for more information on metabolic syndrome.) Accusers pointed directly at carbohydrate as the villain. The low-fat diet, which recommended carbohydrate as a substitute for fat, was dealt a blow. Even the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Pyramid was included as an enabler and was eventually eliminated.
So, where is the truth? Is it the very-low-fat diet? No. Is it the very-low-carb diet? No. Do people need to eat less fat? Yes. Do people need to eat less carbohydrate? Yes. In fact, people need to eat less of just about everything. In the era of the very-low-fat-diet or very-low-carb diet, eating was relegated to math. You were allowed 20 grams of fat or 30 grams of carbohydrate depending on which plan you followed. So, the only important thing was how many grams of fat or carbohydrate were in the food. The quality of the food didn’t matter.
Two other factors played a role in this nutritional thinking:
Scientists discovered the glycemic index to evaluate carbohydrate quality. The glycemic index measures equal quantities of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels. Refer to Chapter 3 and Appendix A for more information.
Healthcare providers now use not only total cholesterol value to assess heart disease risk, but also a lipid profile to evaluate other cholesterol factors in the blood. A lipid profile includes the following:Total cholesterolLow density cholesterol (LDL)High density cholesterol (HDL)Triglycerides (TG)
Flip to Chapter 4 for more about cholesterol and triglycerides. The following sections discuss the fallacies in the low-fat and low-carb dietary approaches. They encourage you to start looking at the quality of the food you eat and not just how many grams of fat or carb the food contains.
The low-fat, high-carb diet
Americans are heavier than ever before, despite the fact that they’re reducing the percentage of calories consumed from fat. Popular diet books and the media immediately targeted carbohydrates as the bad guys and labeled them fattening. What was ignored is the fact that the average American consumes 40,000 calories more (over the course of a year) than they did previously. The real message should be that excess calories from any source will result in increased body weight. High-carbohydrate diets recommend that the carbohydrate comes from fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, and dairy, but high-carb diets also impose a tight restriction on fat, which leads to a higher consumption of fat-free and reduced-fat snack foods.
One thing the advocates of the low-fat diet didn’t plan on was the abundance of fat-free foods that would become available. The low-fat message became distorted into counting fat grams. Therefore, fat-free foods just became free foods in people’s minds. The fat in sweet rolls, cookies, cake, and crackers was replaced with sugar or other refined sweeteners. Intake of fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains, the preferred replacement for fat, increased some, but it still fell short of the recommended goals.
THE HISTORY OF THE LOW-CARB DIET
The low-carb diet isn’t new. In fact, a London coffin maker and undertaker named William Banting devised it to treat his own obesity. He had become so obese that he had to walk downstairs backwards to keep from falling. He lost 50 pounds on the diet and published a pamphlet, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, in 1864. Banting declared the diet a “cure for extreme corpulence.”
His cure became so popular that the word banting became a synonym for dieting in the English language. The diet also caught the interest of Americans in the late 1800s and became popular. However, in the next century, it was labeled the “Banting Scheme” because it was full of unproven medical lingo and followers of the plan often developed gout. Since those early days, the low-carb diet approach has resurfaced about every 25 years and is always controversial.
The low-carb, high-protein diet
With carbohydrate at an all-time high and the health of the country as bad as ever, the low-carb diet rose in favor. People following the low-carb diet attest to its effectiveness and proudly proclaim the number of pounds lost. So if it’s effective in losing weight as so many contend, then what’s the problem?
Most low-carb diets count grams of carbohydrate regardless of the food source. So “good” carbs, such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and dairy, are eliminated solely because they contain carbohydrate. If you follow these restrictions, you’re eliminating vital nutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber (see Chapter 3). Certainly, everyone needs to eat less carbohydrate, but the decrease needs to come mainly from refined flour and sugar products. You must take into consideration the quality of the carbohydrate you eat.
Another problem is that low-carb diets tend to be high in fat and protein. Many interpret the low-carb diet as a license to load up on bun-less burgers, steaks, sausages, eggs, and bacon. Unfortunately, this approach can have potentially negative health effects.
Whether you count grams of fat or count grams of carbohydrate, you’re still using a calculator to make your food choices. Give me a break! Who wants to eat a calculator? Counting all fats the same and counting all carbohydrates the same is misleading. You should definitely include some fats in your diet and you should definitely include some carbohydrates. For the full story on fats, take a peek at Chapter 8. For the lowdown on quality carbs, see Chapters 5 and 6.
Deconstructing the Typical (Bad) Diet
The modern western diet includes more calories, larger portion sizes, and increased frequency of eating. The modern western diet is characterized by all the following:
More soft drinks and sweeteners
More salty snacks
More cookies and snack foods
Eating out more often, especially in fast-food restaurants
Larger portion sizes, especially of soft drinks and french fries
Increased convenience, microwaveable, and processed foods
Instead of the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, which was in use at the time, the modern diet turned the Pyramid upside-down with refined grains, potatoes and sweets, and meats in greater quantity than fruits and vegetables. Today pyramid guides to depict healthy eating have been abandoned completely. Although some evidence suggests that the Food Guide Pyramid enhanced nutrition knowledge, it did nothing to change people’s eating habits. The USDA replaced the pyramid with a plate diagram (MyPlate.gov) with a glass of milk set off to the side. Even though the USDA feels the plate diagram better reflects their recommendations