… is meant for individuals who want to lose weight, but do not have time to work out. There are three types of carbohydrates including fibers, starch, and sugars which work to provide your body with energy. Even though carbohydrates work perfectly with other nutrients to ensure the body is functioning normally, not all carbohydrates are good for your body. High blood sugar is detrimental to the body as it may cause kidney failure, cardiovascular diseases and also waken your immune system. These low carb diet plans can be designed to treat various diseases like polycystic ovarian syndrome, epilepsy, diabetes and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Is A Low Carb Diet Right For Me?
The Science Behind A Low Carb Diet Plan
Carbohydrates in food provide energy to your body. Carbohydrates can be simple or complex. Simple carbohydrates easily break down into sugar and reach the bloodstream faster. These are found in simple sugars, rice, flour, sweets, etc. The complex carbohydrates take longer to break down. They are found in the vegetables and fruits. The sugar is used by the different cells for energy production with the help of insulin. The extra glucose or sugar is stored in muscles, your liver, and other cells for later use as fat.
A low carb diet plan keeps the levels of insulin low in the blood and allow the body to use stored fat for energy requirements. This helps you to shed weight. The low blood insulin levels also decrease insulin resistance that cells can eventually develop with consistently high levels. This reduces risk of metabolic syndrome and associated health risks that can occur.
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Low Carb Explained
Dr. Mary Vernon, MD
Low Carb Diet Plan: Historical perspective.
Low carb diet plans are not a new thing, as they have been around for quite a while now. The first diet plan was used by Dr John Rollo who reported the results of treating two solders who were diabetic using a low carb diet plan plus their medication in 1797.
The most influential man was William Banting, who is considered as the father of low carbohydrates diet programs. In 1863, the obese English coffin maker and undertaker under the supervision of Dr Harvey William, wrote and published the “letter of corpulence” in which he described the plan he used to lose 50 pounds. He described a diet plan on how giving up potatoes, beer, milk, sugar, milk, butter and bread in your diet will help you loss weight. This publication also included an outline of a four meals of fruits, greens, proteins and dry wine. He also talked about his past experiences on trying to loss weight.
The first low carb diet plan to become popular in the US is the “Stillman diet” created by Dr Irwin stillman. In 1967, he published a weight loss diet plan which involved low carbohydrates, low fats and high protein diet. Various diet plans came up in the 1960’s like the air force diet and the Austrian publication by Dr Wolfgang Lutz called life without bread (leben ohne brot).
The Atkin’s low carbohydrates diet plan is one of the most famous and highly low carb diet plan used in the US. This plan was developed in 1960 by Dr Robert Atkins and published in 1972 in his book “the diet revolution”. This book brought controversy as it was against the accepted American diet which involved serving protein and carbohydrates together in every meal. Various doctors argued that He had not done enough research and that it his theories were based on anecdotal evidence.
Later in 1978 the Scarsdale diet plan was developed, This two-weeks fast low carb weight loss plan gained a huge success but it was not long lived. It was Dr Jenkins concept of glycemic index that gave low carb diet plan a fighting chance. This concept was developed in 1981 and it took into account the variance in carbohydrates digestion speed. He classified food according to their effect on the level of blood sugar. According to Dr Jenkins, carbohydrates caused a sharper increase of blood sugar as well complex carbohydrates like whole grains being the slowest when it came to digestion.
Low carb diets since 1990
Dr Atkins did not gain the recognition he deserved until in 1990 when he published “The New Diet Revolution” which caused other doctors to start publishing their own diet books based on Atkins theory. This marked as the year when the Low carb diet plan gained global recognition and acceptance. Approximately 18% of the US population was using the carbohydrates diet programs during the 1990s & early 2000s. Various manufacturers and restaurant owners noted this was affecting their businesses and were against it, while other mainstream medical communities still claimed this diet plan as being dangerous. These same doctors quietly altered their theories making it almost similar to Dr Atkins diet theory.
Other low carbohydrates diet programs which gain popularity during the 1990’s includes The Zone which proposed that fats and proteins should make up 60% of your diet while carbohydrates make up the remaining 40%. Another was “The South Beach Diet” which was very similar to Atkins diet plan but proposed only consumption of lean proteins in your diet.
