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Volume 18: Number 1: Article 6
Low-Carbohydrate Diets
Joel M. Kauffman , University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, 600 South 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104
For about the past 50 years, most government agencies in many countries and many non-governmental associations have recommended highcarbohydrate diets, and restricted intake of fats, especially animal fats, because of their content of saturated fats and cholesterol, as well as plant oils high in saturates. This campaign was intensified in the past 20 years, coinciding with a massive increase in the proportion of people in the USA and UK who are overweight, obese, or diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes. The simple rationales and supposedly scientific evidence for such advice is shown to be flawed and, at no time in the past 50 years, have diet experts had a consensus. Reasoned objections to high-carbohydrate low-fat diets co-existed for the entire period; but these were overwhelmed by the financial power of the high-carbohydrate advocates.
Conversely, other sources from the medical and nutritional literature, based on studies and trials, show benefits of low-carbohydrate diets, both in weight loss and in improved values in conventional tests for hypertension, "hyperlipidemia," and inflammation. This is often found to be the case in the actual data, even in papers on studies designed to provide evidence of the opposite. The conclusions in the abstracts of many such papers often do not match their actual data. Many studies also show that adherence to low-carbohydrate diets is better than for other types of diet.
The 20 authors of the 12 books reviewed herein have recommended lowcarbohydrate diets, some with no restrictions on intakes of fat and/or protein. Not only do all of the books have a plausible biochemical rationale for their advice, but they present histories of extremely long adherence to low-carbohydrate diets by individuals, many with medical degrees, with good health being the result. Clinical observations by 9 of the authors who have extensive experience treating obese and diabetic patients support the value of low-carbohydrate diets. Many other advantages of low-carbohydrate diets are shown by improvements in a diverse area of afflictions, from Crohn's and celiac diseases, to cancer, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. Even the performance of athletes who believed they were better served by high-carbohydrate diets was improved with low-carbohydrate diets. However, many other aspects of diet advice in these books are not in agreement, and a majority of them contain technical errors.
This review essay also shows that the energy content of specific foods, as determined by burning them, has little relation to their varied levels of digestibility and actual energy content as foods. The misguided diet stance of agencies and foundations is shown to have led to food labels which are misleading.
Low-carbohydrate diets, even if maintained for decades, have been demonstrated to be safe and effective. Nevertheless, they are still considered to be alternative, and thus targets of attack by certain associations and governmental agencies.
Keywords: diet, calories, carbohydrate, fat, lipids, cholesterol, protein, obesity, diabetes, insulin, atherosclerosis, stroke, cancer, arthritis, gluten, celiac disease
FULL TEXT:
Low-Carbohydrate Diets
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