Chapter 2 – Is The Low Carb Diet Safe
Are low carb diets safe? Are low carb diets dangerous to your health? These are burning questions for dieters all over the world. The Low carb diet came in to existence as a solution for maintaining the calorie intake variable in precise levels. How it helps you to lose weight is simple logic. Once the caloric intake drops the body starts to make use of the stored fat to burn as energy, which then leads to weight loss. Of course it will lead to weight loss but will it be a safe process?
The answer is not a simple yes or a no. Even though the weight loss gurus emphasize the importance over and over again that it is perfectly safe long term, the nutritionists and the medical community bear a different opinion.
The established opinion is that no matter how effective the results are, unless cutting the carbohydrates are done at moderate levels the side effects will lead to disorders in bodily functions. Not only moderate but also it has to be properly chosen.
For example if you reduce the fat intake without paying attention to the type of fat it might even lead to elevated blood cholesterol levels.
You should gain adequate knowledge to determine what should be included and what shouldn't be. Here according to the example, a properly designed diet plan would have included polyunsaturated fats and mono-unsaturated fats which are considered safe.
Same theory applies to all the nutrients just like to fats. Some low carb diet plans even advise to refrain from fruits and vegetables. Such plans do more harm than good. A restriction on fruits like banana or watermelon that have a high glycaemic level might at least have logic to support it but bananas in turn are a great source of potassium. Limiting all the fruits and vegetables is a baseless advice that will deteriorate your health.
Reduced intake of calcium rich food likes could even cause serious conditions like osteoporosis. Women with calcium deficiencies tend to suffer from menstrual issues. Most low carb diet plans focus more on protein intake. Unnecessary amounts of protein makes the kidneys work harder in order to remove the excess waste produced by proteins. Accumulation of harmful waste products might cause kidney stones.
Most importantly before selecting a diet plan one should understand his or her body well. A kidney patient should pay attention to the proteins while a heart patient should concentrate more on the fats. Likewise there are numerous factors that should be taken in to account before following a low carb diet.
Changes in your lifestyle will require changes in diet plans too. If you start working out or bodybuilding the energy demand of the body is different from what it used to be. Or if you get pregnant changes should come immediately. In cases like these consulting a professional is a must.
It is clear after reviewing the subject, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are required. There just isn't a lot of satisfactory information available, especially regarding long-range effects.
However we do know, extremely "low carb" diets might not be safe. But make them "correct carb" diets (which we will cover soon) and get the lean body you always dreamed while being in good health.
Now that we’ve covered if it is safe or not, we will turn our attention towards which low carb is best for you. As we are all individuals, so too low carb diets go under many guises and have lots of different variations to suit everybody.