PDA

View Full Version : Addressing the New Protein Diets pt 1



sasha
06-21-2002, 06:40 PM
Addressing the New Protein Diets
Head On!

By Phil Kaplan

If you've heard me speak about the frustrations I've experienced with the no-carb mentality that's sweeping the already misinformed and vulnerable over-fat nation we live in, I will not apologize for the repetition of the theme. Every single day, without exception, at least a dozen people ask me about these low-carb diets. I've counseled doctors on the dangers of these diets. I've been in touch with the heads of the American Dietetic Association, of Pritikin Longevity Centers, and with nutritional experts at Tufts and Berkeley Universities, and they share similar frustrations. People are being pulled from the truth by slick marketers of fraudulent and potentially dangerous diets and the hype is so powerful Americans are getting sucked in by the millions.

I remember a line from the movie the Exorcist (the only movie that ever really scared me by the way). When the young priest, Father Karras is preparing to go meet the possessed girl face to face, the experienced exorcist, Father Merrin warns him, "do not listen to anything the demon says. He will mix lies with the truth to confuse you."

Mixing lies with the truth has become a powerful advertising technique. If an advertiser can impress you with enough actual science, if a marketer can gain your confidence with some legitimate and well founded information, it's not very challenging to sneak in a lie and establish a level of believability. Despite the fact that in some of these low carb diet books the authors do deliver some valuable information, I'm careful not to forget the fact that they're very often offering a no-carb or very low-carb diet plan as a "cure-all" weight loss solution for the masses. Regardless of the truths anyone provides for public consumption in the future, as long as they hold tight to this "carbs are the enemy" dictum, criticism by clinicians and experts is inevitable.

Many of the no/low carb diet books almost totally dismiss exercise, and we, as trainers, know that exercise is essential if any weight loss program is going to be healthful and long term. The body treats food very differently if it is well acquainted with exercise. One important area that is also often neglected is a concern for bone density. While it is true that osteoporosis is affecting our population in alarming proportions, bone density cannot be "repaired" or "protected" through nutrition or nutritional supplementation without a distinctive concern for resistance exercise. Beyond bone density, exercise affects hormonal production in such a way that many of the best selling nutritional supplements could easily be dismissed with a simple commitment to truly supportive eating and exercise.

New diet promoters use lots of new diet jargon and often relay a word, "ketosis," as some great indicator of body fat loss. I'm going to do the best I can to explain the real story behind ketosis and some of the other effects carb deprivation can bring about.

Glycogen = Fuel
When you consume a healthful and supportive diet complete with proteins, carbs, and fats, the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose. Glucose is actually blood sugar. Some of that glucose is transported and stored in muscle tissue as "glycogen." This is sort of the fuel in your fuel tank. That's important to understand. Glycogen = Fuel.

Glycogen is used to produce energy that fuels muscle contraction. ALL muscle contraction! Don't think of muscle contraction only as exercise. Any movement requires the contraction of muscle, from blinking your eye to rising from bed in the morning. Without glycogen, you don't have any fuel in the fuel tank. As long as you're consuming carbs, you continue to re-fuel. You access and burn up stored glycogen, but quickly replace it with new muscle fuel. Understanding of that simple fact -- that carbohydrates are the source of muscle fuel -- should raise an immediate red flag toward anything that suggests eliminating or seriously limiting carbs long-term. Once you understand the basic premise behind muscle glycogen, you should understand that the liver also plays a role in fuel storage.

Some of the carbs that you eat ultimately wind up stored as liver glycogen. Think of the liver as sort of a "pump" for blood sugar. The brain burns more calories than any other organ in your body, and guess what it uses as its primary source of fuel. Glucose! Carbohydrates! As the brain results in the "burning" of blood glucose, the liver accesses its glycogen stores to keep blood glucose in adequate supply. Again, as you expend glycogen, the carbs that you ingest replete your supply.

CUT BACK THE CARBS? AT FIRST YOU'LL DO FINE . . . BUT . . .

On a carb-restricted diet, at first you're doing just fine because you have glycogen stored. After a day or two, you're using up your stored glycogen and you're not replacing it. Your body shortly thereafter begins producing ketone bodies.

Ketones are intermediaries in the process of metabolizing fat that are found in abnormal amounts in the blood and urine during periods of metabolic impairment. Give up all of your stored glycogen without replacing it and you're likely going to be in such a state (Note: if you take in too many protein calories, it is possible to avoid carbs and never enter a state of ketosis rendering the low-carb ketosis theories useless). The new diet gurus lead you to believe that the presence of these ketone bodies indicates ongoing fat release and that ketones feed the brain. That is partially true. Here are just a few issues that also need to be addressed:

1. Extended periods of ketosis affect the chemical composition of the blood in such a way that you increase risk of cardiac incident (blood ketoacidosis).

2. In a state of ketoacidosis, carbon dioxide accumulates in the tissues. Oxygen delivery to the cells is impaired. This can lead to a wide range of disastrous consequences ranging from respiratory ailments to metabolic illness.

3. Toxic ammonia buildup resulting from severe cases of ketoacidosis can be lethal.

They also conveniently neglect to tell you that the liver is called into play to "filter" the abnormal chemicals building up in the blood. This leads to a residual buildup of uric acid. This uric acid accumulation can lead to formation of kidney stones!

Kidney stones may be common among low carb dieters, but don't mistake that for an indication that they're normal! If all is working optimally, uric acid levels stay quite manageable, the kidneys continue to function normally, and you will likely never have stones accumulating in your urinary tract.

BUT DON'T YOU LOSE WEIGHT?

It used to boggle my mind to watch people suffer as they attempt to lose weight. By depriving themselves of carbs and/or calories, they wind up lightheaded, spaced out, uncomfortable, irritable, and all around miserable . . .but when they get on the scale, there's a moment of emotional ecstasy! They're losing weight! Notice I said it "used to" boggle my mind. It doesn't any longer because suffering through potentially harmful weight loss alternatives has almost become more the rule than the exception, and I don't blame those who are victims. Most of the "victims" don't realize there is an alternative, one that truly works, and in the absence of that realization, they're primed to be suckered in by the "Diet Du Jour."

It's important to understand why you lose weight on these carb restrictive diets, and why the initial weight loss can be substantial.

Each gram of glycogen that you hold in muscle tissue attracts 2.4 grams of water, thus if you hold less glycogen in muscle due to carb restriction, it's a given there will be substantial water loss. Thus, that quick initial drop in weight among new carb restrictive diets is primarily water loss."

Recent promoters of this "carbs are evil" mentality sometimes make claims of improvements in cholesterol levels. Here I can only speak from my own experience based upon my consultations with low carb dieters in their post diet conditions: Residual Weight Gain greater than the weight lost during the diet and INCREASED LDL levels.