I’m curious how many of you on T-Nation would respond to people who bash/hate on low-carb diets. How would you respond to a scientist who comes up to you and tries to point out that your views on diet/nutrition are wrong.
Any one have any links on hand to solid counter references? Not that I’m asking you to go out and do research, but if you know of X study or Y trial that revolved around low-carb diets.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1354
Didn’t marketing and media go off promoting high carb/low fat diets, despite scientific evidence showing that low carb/high fat could actually promote weight loss?
[quote]My quick summary of this complex literature is as follows:
- The evidence strongly supports the conclusion that weight loss and control is dominantly (if not completely) determined by caloric intake. All diets that result in weight loss do so by reducing calories, and the macronutrient make up of those calories is irrelevant (to weight loss). Apparent advantages of low-carb diets are likely related to decreased hunger, which results in decreased caloric intake â?? but this effect is short term (3-6 months at most) and there is no long term advantage[/quote]
I Thought that a calorie isn’t a calorie. That carbs and fats have different metabolic effects on the body, and that understanding the results of those effects, we can then create a nutritional ‘guide’ of sorts to help us achieve a desired body composition. Fats regulate hormones, are integral to cell membranes, etc. Insulin regulates fat cells, carbs regulate insuline levels (to a degree, via blood glucose levels), etc.
I think to claim that a calorie is a calorie is erroneous. I also remember reading an article here about how in the early 70s, most nutritional information in western society was controlled mainly by a handful of guys. These guys believed that fat makes you fat (to put it in wild simplistic terms), and that people were fat because they ate to many calories. Quantity over quality.
And then there is the tons of information on omega 3 fatty acids, and how they directly can have an effect on heart health, as well as having a diet that is to high in it’s fatty acid ratios between 6 and 3.
I dunno. I haven’t really found anything compelling to point out to me that low carb shouldn’t be the way to go. That fats are bad. That high fat diets will screw with your cholesterol profile. etc.
And from personal experience, the only thing I found high carb diets good for was trying to put on weight. Which seems to be in compliance with what I’ve read on this site.
What do you guys think? And what do you say when some one in “authority” (ie, an MD or other doctor, or nutritionist) claims that what you are doing is actually going to screw you up? Or do you even respond at all (perhaps just roll your eyes and walk away)?