Metabolic Medicine: How Does a Low Carbohydrate Diet Work?



32827762600Metabolic Medicine: How Does a Low Carbohydrate Diet Work?Obesity and weight gain are mediated by hormones, not just calories.Insulin helps get glucose from the blood stream into our tissues, and is our main energy storage hormone. Insulin resistance occurs when our body has to produce more insulin for the same effect in getting glucose into our tissues. This occurs at the liver and muscle tissue, but the fat still remains sensitive to insulin and keeps storing fat. Once we are insulin resistant, all carbohydrates- including whole grains and low GI carbohydrates- are seen as simple sugar and we develop the “Metabolic Syndrome”. All the features of the metabolic syndrome are effectively treated This includes obesity and all its complications, high blood pressure , high triglycerides (dissolved fats in the blood), low HDL (the “good” cholesterol particles) and high blood sugars (i.e. pre-diabetes). This means a smaller belt size and less medications.Improvement in pain and inflammatory markersJoint pain and soft tissue injury are among the earliest signs of poor metabolic health and can be seen as an opportunity to restore health. This is why many Sports Physicians are major advocates for this diet and lifestyle; given the unique advantage of intervening prior to major adverse events like stroke or heart attack.Reversal of metabolic disease, Insulin Resistance and even DiabetesWhen we are young and healthy, we can tolerate a lot of carbohydrates. However, with ageing, time, stress, sugar intake and the development of “insulin resistance”, the body starts to see all carbohydrates as simple sugars. This perpetuates poor metabolic health.Many patients with Type 2 Diabetes can reverse their disease with the use of low carbohydrate diets. While we need fat and protein to survive, there is simply no such thing as carbohydrate deficiency.All critical measures of Cholesterol improve on a low carbohydrate dietThere is concern from patients that cholesterol will rise when more dietary fat is eaten. High quality research continues to show that a higher fat diet is safe and is not linked to heart disease. The overall effects of a low carbohydrate diet on the body’s processing of cholesterol and fat is favourable and this is consistently seen. If you are worried, your supervising doctor can order specialised lipid sub-fraction tests to assess your cholesterol.Monitoring your progress is scientificKetones are a breakdown product of fat burning. This means we can measure whether or not your body has “Fat-adapted” and is burning fat as its main fuel. If you have no ketones, you are not burning fat. A meter can allow you to find your pitfalls and personalise your carbohydrate intake. You will be empowered and in control with resources to allow life-long independenceWhy isn’t LCHF considered Mainstream?A low carbohydrate high fat diet has been recognised as an effective means of weight loss and reversal of poor metabolic health. Here are the most common FAQs.Should I follow the Australian Diet Guidelines?If you have the metabolic syndrome and are not losing weight following the recommended guidelines- it is not your fault. The current Dietary Guidelines have inherent conflicts of interest, have ignored important new evidence and clearly have not worked in the prevention of Western diseases. A well-formulated LCHF diet is replete of micro-nutrients, but some patients do take supplements.Don’t fat and cholesterol cause heart disease?Recent high quality evidence shows that dietary fat intake is not associated with stroke or heart disease. The old theory of fat being deposited in the arteries, called the “Diet-Heart hypothesis” has been debunked. Just because fat is found in plaques that block arteries, doesn’t mean the fat is the cause. All of the important markers of lipid and cholesterol health improve on a well-conducted LCHF diet. It has been shown to reverse “bad cholesterol”, or metabolic dyslipidaemia.Doesn’t red meat consumption increase bowel cancer risk?The association between red meat intake and bowel cancer is weak, and based on observational studies of very poor quality. This means that many other factors other than red meat intake are not controlled for (poor recall, concomitant alcohol intake, smoking), that could be responsible for the observed small increase in bowel cancer risk. High insulin levels and obesity are much worse than red meat intake for increasing cancer risk. Isn’t it a low fibre diet- won’t i get constipated?Fibre is undigestible food that stays in the gut. Therefore it bulks up stool and provides nutrients to gut bacteria. Contrary to popular opinion, Fibre may actually be a cause of constipation and bloating. Animal and human studies have shown that fibre can alter “transit” time for food to get through and be eliminated as faeces, but when fibre intake is studied in human subjects, lower intake has actually been shown to resolve symptoms that people complain of (bloating, constipation, bleeding, straining). Some low carb foods are actually high in fibre, and therefore a moderate fibre diet can be sustained whilst on LCHF.Is this Diet expensive?The LCHF diet can be undertaken in many different ways, and it certainly can cost more if you are eating organic produce. However, it really depends on how you want to do it. The staples of the diet are not expensive in Australia, and the value for money is always going to be better than for carbohydrate rich and sugary foods.There may be many other questions unique to you, and please feel free to ask during a consultation. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download