Low Carb Diets Fad Or Fiction

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Last night, (Thursday 13 November 2014) Australia’s ABC’s Catalyst show screened an episode titled, Low Carb Diet – Fad or Fiction.

In particular, those interviewed on the show stated that “CARB LOADING” for sports people was a waste of time, except for a small portion of athletes looking for highly explosive bursts of speed.

Today I fielded a number of queries from my followers asking me for my opinion, not only on the episode but also on the actual diet, so here is my take.

Before I share with you what I think about all this, it’s probably best that you understand where I gained my personal nutritional influences from.

I discovered a few years ago when I was an up and coming referee within the Australian Rugby’s elite program in the early 2000’s, that the nutritional advice I received from an accredited sports dietitian did me more harm than good.

At the time, I was struggling to shed a few excess kilos of body fat and no matter how hard I trained (to the point of vomiting) I just couldn’t achieve the magical 12.5 in the beep test.

However, I blindly followed her advice which included increasing my consumption of carbohydrates, because she believed I was struggling during my training sessions because I was under fuelled, cut out all salt and fat from my diet, because this was contributing to my then high blood pressure.  Suffice to say, I never achieved that magical number and didn’t shed those excess kilos.

Fast forward a few years and I am now a fit pro, with some qualifications and experience behind me and I’ve discovered that the advice I was given (and is still preached by mainstream medicine, mainstream dietitians and even the Heart Foundation) was not only wrong FOR ME, but probably wrong for most of you reading this.

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Over the past 9 years as a fit pro, this is what I’ve learned about food and nutrition:

1. The western food pyramid that promotes a high carbohydrate diet works, but only for a small percentage of the population.  Healthy vegetarians and some ethnic Indian tribes (again predominantly vegetarians) are included in this. (CARB TYPE)
2. Others, especially ethnic races like Maori, Pacific Islanders, Inuit Eskimos, American Indians, Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders should avoid all carbohydrates like the plague, including starchy grains, cereals & breads.  Foods like leafy green vegetables, in ground vegetables, fruit (but not fruit juice) are permitted, but only when in season.  Ethnic races should be getting the bulk of their macronutrients from animal and seafood protein nuts and fruit. (PROTEIN TYPE)
3. Most Europeans cope reasonably well with carbohydrates in their diet, including starchy foods, rice, breads, grains and cereals.  (MIXED TYPE)
4. Sugar is the real culprit because we consume way too much of it in the processed carbohydrates that we’ve been pre-programmed to eat.  Such things include fruit juice, soft drinks, energy drinks, cakes, donuts, chips, lollies and ice cream, just to name a few.
5. Fat, especially saturated fat was never the issue and that the whole low fat message sold to us in the early 50’s and 60’s was not only a lie but an evil lie at that.
6. Regardless of whether you should be eating a small amount of protein or a massive amount, the quality of your food source is going to be a factor.  Here in Australia, we are lucky as most of our animal protein is sourced from animals that still roam reasonably free and eat the food that they were supposed to.  Unlike places like the USA where the bulk supply of their beef comes from cattle that are raised in pens and fed corn.

If you’ve worked with me then you’ll be well aware that I prescribe to Metabolic Typing which by default tends to classify people into one of the three categories, (PROTEIN, CARB or MIXED TYPE) that I’ve described above.

The whole low carb diet isn’t new.  It’s been around for a few years now but has just reared itself under different labels.  The Atkins Diet was my first experience of it.

The Atkins Diet, officially called the Atkins Nutritional Approach, is a low-carbohydrate diet promoted by Robert Atkins from a research paper he read in The Journal of the American Medical Association published by Alfred W. Pennington, titled “Weight Reduction”, published in 1958. Since then there have been a few similar but slightly different takes on this.

Lately, the Paleo Diet has received some severe criticism from mainstream dietitians for the same reason as the low carb diet this show discussed.

So, what’s my take?

If you want to lose excess body fat in today’s society, the best way to do that is to reduce the amount of processed carbohydrates you eat and replace them with fat and more protein.

One thing people don’t realize is that carbs and protein have the same number of calories per gram. (4 in case you were wondering)  The reason why this method works for people looking at losing excess body fat is because when you eat more protein and fat, you get fuller, FOR LONGER.

Unlike people who eat a high carbohydrate diet and often feel hungry within an hour or 2 of eating, people who eat a higher protein and fat ratio diet tend to not get hungry and as a result they end up eating less.

However, if you’ve not been assessed as a protein TYPE, then remaining on a low carb diet will not suit you and you’ll have to re-introduce some carbs into your eating regime to get back to eating right for your metabolic type.

Some mainstream dietitians have claimed that a low carb diet is too restrictive and removes some vital nutrients that the body must consume. While I agree that this style of eating can be restrictive I don’t subscribe to the claim that you would be missing out on vital nutrients by eliminating these foods.

A large number of the foods these same people believe we should be consuming did not even exist prior to WWII.  How can breakfast cereals be a required healthy food?  The bloody things have only been around since the whole low fat lie was created.

Yes low carb diets eliminate a large number of carbohydrate foods.  Foods like, bread, cereals, grains and the list of processed carbs I listed above in point 4.  But my belief is that people struggle to remain off these types of foods because THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.

Mostly hidden in plain site.  Imagine a cocaine addict trying to remain cocaine free while cocaine was freely available to them on the streets?

As for carb loading, I’ve never subscribed to that theory and so it’s not something I’ve encouraged my clients to do, regardless of what their sport is.  We have around 90 mins worth of stored energy (in the form of glucose) in our muscles and liver so this rules out the need for energy drinks for all of the footy codes.

SUMMARY:

The low car diet is NOT new.  It just changes it’s name depending on who is pushing it.  Atkins and Paleo are similar versions of the same thing, a reduction in calories from carbohydrates, especially processed ones.

The low carb diet works as a quick fat loss solution for everyone, regardless of what metabolic type you are because you feel fuller, FOR LONGER, thereby you end up actually eating less.  However, if you’re a carb type or a mixed type, you’ll need to increase your carbohydrate intake to suit you and your metabolic type.  If you’re a Protein Type (like most ethnic races, Maori, Polynesians etc) bingo, you’ve found your nutritional plan.

My main piece of advice for anyone looking at a nutritional plan is work out if you’re meant to eat a large amount of protein, carbohydrate or a combination of both.

Oh and by the way, now that I eat right for my metabolic type (if you haven’t guessed, I’m a PROTEIN TYPE) I lost those excess kilos and lowered my blood pressure so I no longer have to take medicine.  I eat fat all the time, put butter in my coffee, use celtic sea salt on everything, cook with coconut oil and butter, but hardly drink alcohol, and never drink soft drinks, energy drinks or fruit juice.

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