CARBS

I cannot believe the speed with which every product on the market is suddenly “Low Carb“ and to boot “Atkins Approved”. Even some vitamins have this stamp of approval which makes me wonder how they incorporate carb reduction into vitamins. The fact is it is just another way of saying “High Protein” diet, another fad diet that we went through a few years back. If memory serves me right, that particular diet was proven to be a definite risk to your health. Some people even died . Excessive protein can permanently damage the kidneys. It is certainly amazing how people will jump at anything without investigating to lose a few pounds. One thing is certain. Weight can be lost following this regimen, but the possible health risks out-weighs the benefits. If you feel like doing the dialysis bit, be my guest.

I went to Walmart to get something to eat and staring me in the face was a sign saying: “Atkins Approved Pretzels”, unbelievable. Everybody is jumping on the band wagon at the expense of the general public´s health.

The truth is carbs are not the culprit. Excess calories are. Ingest more calories than your body can burn and the excess will be stored as fat. You require carbs for energy so when using the High Protein / Low Carb Diet the body has to convert protein into carbohydrate in order to have the necessary fuel to burn. While this is happening, more calories are being burned because there are no available carbs – result – weight loss. Again, this is dangerous and also impossible to maintain for a lengthy period of time. Once the diet is stopped the chances are a return to the former bad eating habits will be resumed. So what was gained? The famous yo-yo effect, up and down with no substancial benefits for your efforts. Feelings of failure and a whole gamut of emotional negatives follow.

To begin, the word diet is always used in the context of losing weight. Actually, a diet is just the way one eats whether it be for weight loss or just plain sustanance. To lose weight safely and in an on-going manner one must be dedicated to a “Diet” that provides less calories than a “Maintenance Diet” which you would use after the desired weight is reached. On reaching your goal then the maintenance diet should kick-in and it has to be permanent. If you waiver or lose the discipline all your efforts will be in vain and you will be back where you started.

Lose 5-10 pounds in 24 hours. That is the most recent baloney I have heard lately. I used to lose 5-7 pounds in one or 1 ½ hours when I was running 10+ miles a day, but that was just water weight. That certainly can´t be considered as weight loss since drinking a few glasses of water the original weight is right back where it was. Any such claims are just plain ridiculous as well as dangerous even if it were possible to do it in the first place.

By
Bruce Stokes

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