Low fat and Low Carb pros & cons ...

Today's post: Thursday, 6-5-2008

Low fat diets were & still are promoted as a way to lose excess fat & prevent heart disease.

Low carb diets have been promoted as a way to lose fat but attacked as sometimes increasing heart disease risk.

There are three kinds of fats your health will be better if they are very low or even zero in what you eat.:

1. We now know that trans fats & all kinds of hydrogenated vegetable oils are basically heart & cardiovascular disease fertilizer. A diet low in these in unsafe. A diet higher than low is frighteningly unsafe. For these fats, low isn’t low enough. Zero is the right amount of them to eat. That’s right absolutely none if you can possibly arrange it.

Unfortunately, you have to read labels on every food that has one to be sure to avoid these as they are still in thousands of food & processed foods in stores. And, at this writing, you have to be very careful of restaurant food & ask what kinds of oils they use.

And, you have to simply avoid virtually all commercial baked goods to avoid these oils. As I’ll cover in today’s post & tomorrow’s, since the other ingredients of commercial baked goods tend to be sugar, high fructose corn syrup, & refined grain flour, which are the exact carbs that are the WORST for your health & waistline, avoiding commercial baked goods is likely a very good idea, healthwise.

2. Saturated fat in your diet in large enough quantities will increase the amount of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood & increase your risk of heart disease. However, that effect is dramatically increased if you eat too many high glycemic, high carb foods. (I’ll have more to say on this subject in tomorrow’s post.)

3. Most animal fat from most commercially raised meat animals is fed grain that has been raised using pesticides & herbicides. That means the meat you get is high in pesticide & herbicides, higher by far than animals that are pasture fed or grass fed only. And, it’s even higher than in produce raised using pesticides & herbicides !! These animals bioconcentrate the pesticides & herbicides in their fat. It’s also too high in omega 6 oils than is Ok for good health & too low in omega 3 oils. Farmed fish, unfortunately, is even worse.

So, it’s clear that there ARE 3 kinds of fat it’s very desirable to avoid: Transfats, excessive saturated fat, & fat from unnaturally raised animals. Since the majority of high protein foods in stores now is this third kind, this makes it a bit difficult to follow a high protein, low carb diet.

Today I’m posting two articles suggesting that low carb diets are actually better for you than low fat diets. As I’ll discuss tomorrow, there is some truth to this. But there are some complicating factors as well that are not in these articles.

Given the above info, I think the second article is a good bit more helpful than the first. But they are both a good example of what much of the current thinking is on the subject now.

(I’ll have more to say in tomorrow’s post.)

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

When Will Low Fat Diets Go Away?

By James LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND

For the average person, the changes we've seen as to how diet contributes to heart disease have been interesting, but for many people they have also been exhausting and confusing.
For two decades we were taught that diets high in fat and cholesterol contribute to heart disease; this teaching has been dubbed the "diet-heart hypothesis." Low fat diets were recommended by every large health organization, and people adopted the low fat way of life. There was only one problem -- heart disease rates did not drop. They continued to climb.

Over the years, the diet-heart hypothesis has been crumbling one wall at a time. First, we learned that only one type of fat clearly contributes to heart disease, and that some oils even have health benefits. So trans-fats are out and olive oil is in.

Then, newer studies showed that eating dietary cholesterol does not have a significant impact on raising cholesterol in the blood, which is still considered a risk factor for heart disease.1 So we are "allowed" to eat eggs and shrimp again. So far, most of you are still on board and rolling with the punches.

In the meantime, low-carb diets held some serious surprises. People did not want to believe it at first, but low-carb diets showed they do indeed lower risks of heart disease and diabetes. Longer-term studies have even shown no deleterious effects from them, despite the higher animal protein, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake.

In fact, low-carb diets are the primary reason that the whole saturated fat and cholesterol ideas have pretty much collapsed. Low-carb diets have been studied now from nearly every angle, and what is consistently seen is that low carb diets -- even though they are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol -- lower risk of heart disease and even diabetes, a disease that greatly increases risk of heart disease.

What concerns me however, is that despite evidence to the contrary, and despite the urging of the most prominent researchers in this area, the American Heart Association (AHA) still has not changed its dietary guidelines; they still recommend lowering one's intake of saturated fat and cholesterol to lower risk of heart disease.5
Because we have not yet had a paradigm change on this by the AHA, most practitioners hold back from recommending a low-carb diet and continue to instead recommend a low-fat diet. And this creates a lot of confusion for the average person who is just trying to decide what they should really be doing.

While all of this may be tiring for you to keep track of, the progression of information has actually been extremely helpful in defining what REALLY causes heart disease -- and that is inflammation. Therefore, anything that increases inflammation in the body, like insulin, caused by high-carb diets is the real risk factor for heart disease.

When it comes to diet and heart disease, consumers need to rest assured in the fact that the best diet for prevention of heart disease is one that is lower in carbs, but high in dietary antioxidants. The only fat to concern yourself with, is trans-fat. I no longer advise lowering intake of cholesterol.

But what about saturated fat? I can tell you that clinically, I do not find saturated fat to be a factor in elevated cholesterol, even "bad" LDL cholesterol. In fact, almost all of my clients experience improved lipid profiles by lowering carb intake, not saturated fat.
Over the past few years, I have seen conflicting headlines and messages about saturated fat. As the one remaining factor in the debate on diet and heart disease, saturated fat deserves our time and attention.

In my next article I will discuss where the science is now, and what we will need to keep our eye on when it comes to saturated fat.

Getting Over Fear of Fat

By Laura LaValle, RD, LD

We've noticed an interesting phenomenon in our practice -- many people are still afraid to eat fat. Even those who are experiencing the benefits of a low-carb, higher-fat diet can't seem to make the change without having some guilt or concern about the butter on their sautéed vegetables or the cholesterol in their steamed shrimp.

I appreciate the concern very much. People should take seriously the tsunami of diabetes and heart disease that can result from a poor diet unless they take quick and serious action. A preventive diet is right up there with not smoking and getting enough exercise in avoiding these life-threatening health risks.

In implementing a healthier diet, the problem of course is that the message from the medical establishment has changed so many times over the years, that people are not sure what to believe.

Fortunately, the new recommendations are now soundly in the low-carb camp.1 In fact, let's just sum it all up. The latest research shows that the best diet for heart disease and diabetes prevention restricts the intake of trans fats and starchy and sugary foods. It is rich in non-starchy vegetables and salads, includes a little daily fruit but not too much, and offers a variety of healthy proteins and fats. High antioxidant foods like red wine and low sugar dark chocolate can also be enjoyed.

This diet naturally contains higher amounts of cholesterol, saturated fat, and overall fat than has been recommended in the past. But despite that fact, study after study has shown it improves all the factors that will help avoid diabetes and heart disease. So it is now being urgently promoted by leading health professionals as the recommended diet to replace the old low-fat dietary guidelines.

So how can we get over our fear of fat? All some people will need to do is remember what it was like eating very low-fat diets. Meals lacked full rich flavor. We got dry skin and hair, were fatigued, felt depressed, had achy joints and menstrual cramps, or even had deficiencies of essential fatty acids.

But the most noticeable side effect was that we often did not feel full and satisfied with our meals. And the increased carbohydrate intake we adopted during that time led to a rebound in our weight and lipids anyway.

So if you're not yet convinced to include more fat in your diet, keep these facts in mind:

" Each and every cell in our body is surrounded by cell membranes that need healthy fats as part of their structure.

" Without the flexibility of healthy fats, nutrients can't enter cells and waste products can't be disposed of as efficiently.

" Neurotransmitters can't send and receive as well.

" You may not be consuming enough cholesterol for healthy cell membranes and the production of bile, sex hormones, adrenal hormones, and vitamin D.

" Your diet may be lacking omega-3 fats to fight inflammation in the body, help with healthy brain function, raise "good" cholesterol levels, lower triglycerides, and reduce blood pressure.

" If you do not eat coconut oil and butter, you may be deficient in butyric acid that improves digestion, and lacking in enough healthy dietary fat for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

The best way to get over your fear of fat is to try the lower carb, antioxidant rich higher fat and protein diet, and see what happens in your body. Besides getting a smaller waist and losing a percentage of body fat, you should feel better and more satisfied with the food you can eat.

And most importantly, if your blood glucose, insulin, and lipid profiles all improve, you can trust that your body is thanking you for the change.