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Butler 1 Natalie Butler ENGL 130 1 May 2012 Heather Altfeld Low-Carbohydrate Diets A while ago I had lunch

with one of my best friends, whenever we have lunch together, or well, any other meal honestly, we have to have a loaf of French bread from Safeway, its the standard. Im going to have to say, more than once we have eaten a full loaf of French bread before we even start to eat our lunch. I am not quite sure how we do it, but it gets done and eventually when we are sitting on the couch feeling like we are about to explode, we start to regret it, yet, it happens every time. Then not too long ago, my friend decided that our bread frenzies were no longer going to happen, and it was not a happy day. She told me, I am on a low carb diet, and only have 20 grams of carbs per day. I just sat there thinking, What the hell is wrong with you? And when I found out that 20g of carbs is about as much as in one piece of bread, I thought she was insane. Being a student majoring in Nutrition and Food Sciences, I have always thought diets were sort of silly, first because if you just eat healthier and exercise more, you wont really need to be on a diet. And secondly because once you go off the diet, well, arent you going to regain all that weight that you just lost? I mean, unless you decided to continue your diet as a life plan. Except, most people do not decide to continue a diet for the rest of their lives, they go on them and a couple months say, Oh I lost 20 pounds! And now I can finally eat! But since she was my friend, I went along with her, what I thought was stupid, diet, and we didnt get any bread. This was probably the saddest decision that I had ever made, I love bread. Since we go to lunch a lot, her low carbohydrate diet got in the way, just about everything that I wanted to eat or cook had carbs, which eventually started to frustrate me. But then my frustration turned into curiosity.

Butler 2 And I wanted to know more about this whole low carb thing, and from there all of these questions started popping up in my head. Are low carbohydrate diets an effective way of losing weight? Why do so many people go on low carbohydrate diets? Can a low carbohydrate diet limit the types of nutrients that are getting into your body? What types of low carb diets are out there? Or is there just one? Are there a lot of benefits to low carbohydrate diets? There were just so many questions that I was interested in learning about, so, I started researching. Over the past few decades there has been an increase in the types of diets that people are on within the United States; this is partially due to the increase of easy food, such as fast food that is high in sugars and fats. This can be characterized by the graph to the left, which represents the amount of calories that Americans are consuming every day, in 2008, based on the food group it is associated with. Therefore there are many diets that people turn to in hopes of losing that weight, some of the most common are, The DASH Diet, Weight Watchers, and the Mediterranean Diet. The other day I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a book on low carbohydrate diets and I was astounded by how many different diet books there are. Why? Why cant people control themselves? Why do they need a book to help them eat? I didnt have the chance to sit down and explore all of the different types of diets there are, but if there is a whole section at Barnes and Noble, I assure you there are too many diets available. The use of low carbohydrate diets has been increasing over the years, with the creation of different low carbohydrate diets such as, The Atkins diet, The South Beach Diet, and the Paleo diet. These

Butler 3 diets live on the idea that consuming no or very low amounts of carbohydrates in your diet will help you to lose weight. A carbohydrate is a nutrient found in an assortment of our food that provides our body with energy. The most common forms of carb within our foods are sugars, starches, and fiber that we consume. Carbohydrates account for 4 kcal per gram, meaning that for every gram of a carbohydrate there is 4 kcal. In the nutrition world a kcal is 1000 calories (with a lower case c), however, one kcal is also equal to 1 Calorie (with an upper case C), and Calories are what is typically used on the package of your food. This is mainly to make labels easier for the general public to read since who wants to read that they are consuming 2,000,000 calories? Nobody, hence, they use the upper case Calorie, to express that one had 2,000 Calories. Nevertheless, it is one of the most confusing things that I have learned in my nutrition classes so far. In a typical day one is supposed to consume around 130 grams of carbohydrates per day, which equates to about 520 calories, which inturn should account for 45-65 percent of ones daily caloric intake. According to Carol Bredbenner, the primary author of Wardlaws Perspectives In Nutrition and a Registered Dietitian and a Professor in Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the leading sources of carbohydrates in the United States are bread, soft drinks, cookies, doughnuts, syrups, pasta, and potatoes. These foods obviously being many individuals go to comfort foods are pretty easy to consume on a regular basis, considering the availability of them. When you go to the store there are so many foods that are prepackaged for you to buy when youre in a hurry, many containing high amounts of carbohydrates. When you are on a low carbohydrate diet, you are removing all of these wonderful foods, what a shame. In our body carbohydrates are broken down and then stored as glucose, in the liver and the muscle tissues. This is important because glucose when broken down produces your bodys

Butler 4 primary energy source. There are four ways that glucose is converted into energy into our body, Glycolysis, Pyruvate oxidation, Krebs cycle and the Electron Transport Chain (Schneider). In all four of these steps glucose is broken down into different molecules, when this breakdown occurs ATP is released. ATP, adenosine triphosphate, this ultimately is the energy in which glucose produces, that allows a lot of the processes within our body function. Your body uses this energy in a number of different ways, through your red blood cells, central nervous system cells as well as in your muscle cells. For instance, when you are working out for extended periods of time, your body is using all of the stored glucose within your muscles in order to produce the ATP your body needs in order to perform. These glucose stores within the muscles can run out rather fast, making your liver have to secrete its stored glucose as well as produce more glucose. While in my human nutrition class this semester, Julie Schneider, a registered dietitian and professor of Nutrition at California State University, Chico, explained that, when your liver is creating its own glucose from non carbohydrate sources this is known as gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is what occurs when one is on a low carbohydrate diet, and this process can only yield a small amount of glucose, not nearly enough to power the body the way a diet high in carbohydrates would. When you are on a low carbohydrate diet, you essentially have no glucose in your system, aside from what your body is producing through gluconeogenesis; thus altering the quantity and how your body makes ATP for the reactions it needs to perform. The least amount of glucose needed for reactions in your body is 50 to 100 grams per day (Bredbenner 170). Therefore when you do not have this glucose, your body has to resort to releasing insulin. Insulin is an anabolic hormone, which is released by the pancreas (Bowden 34). Insulins primary job is to store products such as glucose and amino acids, as well as regulating your blood glucose level.

Butler 5 However, in the case of a low carbohydrate diet, insulin is released which thus releases fatty acids, in order to provide energy for your body (Bredbenner 170). These fatty acids cannot be completely broken down, which then results in the formation of ketone bodies, and this is then called Ketosis (Bredbrenner 170). Ketone bodies can be used to provide energy to your central nervous system, as well as your brain, although, this process is not optimal. Ketone bodies as energy are supposed to be used in situations of starvation, because if your body couldnt use them as energy you would have to produce glucose from proteins, which would cause the deterioration of your muscles (Bredbenner 170). Low carbohydrate diets rely on the process of ketosis, because it allows for your body to use up the fatty acids stored in your body. These fatty acids use the fat in your body as a source of energy, which is why you will lose weight since the fat stored around your waist is being burned. Low carbohydrate diets are an ongoing topic lately because there are so many people that say how great they are and how much weight they lost; although, there are the researchers behind the diets that say, yeah, you lost that weight, but, not for long. Recently while interviewing Dawn Clifford, a Registered Dietitian and professor at California State University, Chico about low carbohydrate diets, she told me that low carbohydrate diets are only good in the short term and there is not much evidence supporting the effectiveness of them in the long term. She explained to me that when you go on a low carbohydrate diet, you are removing a large portion of your diet. Based on a two thousand calorie diet, you would be removing around four hundred and fifty to six hundred and fifty calories from intake. Therefore you are not eating as many calories, which is why you tend to lose so much weight. When you consume less calories than you are expending, you will lose weight, however when you are consuming more calories than you are expending, this will create weight gain (Schneider). Knowing this, it only makes sense

Butler 6 why a low carbohydrate diet would work for weight loss, since you most likely are expending. Yet, the moment that you reintroduce those calories back into your diet, you are going to puff right back up. Thus implying that low carbohydrate diets do not do much for the long term, unless you are conscious about what you are eating and how frequently you are exercising. To help demonstrate this, Dawn explained that, There have been studies to prove that 80-95% of people will gain back weight no matter what diet you're on (Clifford). This number was interesting to hear, I mean, I am not surprised by it, but its sad that so many people have problems dealing with their weight to the point that even if they lose it, they are most likely going to gain it back. I also came across an article, Low-carb Diets in Perspective written by Stephen Holt, the founder of the Holt Institute of Medicine, and a Professor of Medicine, who also expressed that low carbohydrate diets only work in the short term. Conversely, his explanation was slightly different than Dawn Clifford had explained, he wrote, Furthermore, the reason why lowcarbohydrate diets may not work in the long-term is because the person with the weight problem often has resistance to the hormone insulin. An individual becomes insulin resistant when they are constantly taking in sugars, thus allowing insulin to store more sugar in your body, which makes you gain weight, and the more weight you gain due to this the more insulin resistant you become (Bowden 44). When an individual becomes insulin resistant, your body tends to produce more insulin, this is because your body thinks you need more to keep your blood glucose level where it should be, even if you already have a sufficient amount. Nevertheless, there is a way to become more insulin sensitive, the opposite of insulin resistant. Insulin sensitivity always improves when you lose weight (Bowden 47). This is because you have a lower level of insulin

Butler 7 production, which makes your cells need less insulin, while also reducing the amount of sugars that are being stored within your body. Through my research it has occurred to me that low carbohydrate diets surprisingly have some benefits. Dawn Clifford brought to my attention that low carbohydrate diets can lower your triglyceride amounts. Triglycerides are a form of lipids, which are present in 95% of the fat that is stored in our body and that we are consuming. It was thought that a low carbohydrate diet would increase your triglycerides; this is because while on a low carbohydrate diet some of an individuals energy is provided by lipids, also known as fat. When one is consuming a high level of fat in their diet it would make sense for your triglyceride count to increase as well. However, while on a low carbohydrate diet this can be the opposite, primarily due to the types of carbs an individual is consuming. Many people, who eat carbohydrates, consume a high amount of simple carbs, such as cookies and potato chips, typically foods that we snack on. These simple carbs will increase your triglycerides due to the high concentration of fat. When these are removed from your food consumption, your triglyceride counts will be reduced. Dawn Clifford as well as Jonny Bowden both expressed that low carbohydrate diets reduce your cholesterol levels, whereas, Stephen Holt argues that they increase your blood cholesterol levels. And there are possible explanations to both sides of these arguments. Knowing how cholesterol and fats work in the body it only makes sense to me that low carbohydrate diets can lower cholesterol, this because you are more contentious about the types of fats you are consuming, hopefully, this wouldnt work an individual is only eating bad fats. In the Atkins diet it explains what type of fat is good to eat compared to the bad types, which relates to your cholesterol levels (Holt). Saturated fats and trans fats, are known as bad fats, these increase the prevalence of LDLs (low density lipoproteins). Compared to

Butler 8 monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats which are the good guys, these will increase your HDLs (high density lipoproteins). LDLs and HDLs are phospholipids, which are a type of lipid or fat that are within our body and affect the amount of cholesterol within our body. Low density lipoproteins tend to move cholesterol from our liver back into our cells, which in turn make our cholesterol level increase, this compared to high density lipoproteins, which take cholesterol and transport it out of the body (Brenbrenner 208). When you are contentious about the foods you are eating, and trying to eat more good fats, this can help lower your blood cholesterol levels. This in comparison to Stephen Holts argument that your blood cholesterol levels increase, he expresses that this is because insulin, will stimulate the production of cholesterol. When one is insulin resistant and there is more insulin being produced by the body, this means that you are going to be producing more cholesterol, which can then increase your cholesterol levels (Holt). Low carbohydrate diets are not all positive though. Jayson Calton, known as being one of the seven Registered Orthomolecular Health Practitioners within the United States, and also holds a PhD in Nutrition explored low carbohydrate diets and their micronutrient qualities. Micronutrients are the nutrients that are essential to our functioning but we do not need them in high amounts, such as vitamins and minerals. In Caltons article, Prevalence of Micronutrient Deficiency in Popular Diet Plans, he explores the different deficiencies that these diets might have. He compared four different diets, the Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Best Life Diet, and the Dash diet. In his study he used the recommended diet plans that each diet provides and evaluated the nutrient qualities of each compared to 27 micronutrients. After conducting the initial research it is found that in order to obtain full sufficiency one would have to ingest approximately 27575 calories in a day, which is extremely unhealthy. The study then was re-

Butler 9 evaluated to only 21 micronutrients. The author findings included that each of these diets will not be healthy and would not be sufficient in micronutrients, and that a dietary supplement will still be needed for an individual on each of these diets for full sufficiency. "It was found that a typical dieter, using one of these four popular diet plans would be, on average, 56.48% deficient in obtaining RDI sufficiency, leaving them lacking in 15 out of the 27 essential micronutrients analyzed (Calton). Out of all the diets that he researched, the Atkins diet, a low carbohydrate diet, was surprisingly the least healthy of them all, it required the most calories for an individual to obtain sufficient micronutrients. Thus proving that while on a low carbohydrate diet you will not be getting all the nutrients you need, which can lead to adverse side effects. For instance, one of the vitamins that were of concern from these diets was Vitamin E, when one has a Vitamin E deficiency this can cause the breakdown of your cell membranes and nerve degeneration (this from Julies lecture). This study shows a significant prevalence of micronutrient deficiency in popular diet plans. It is the conclusion of this researcher that an individual following a popular diet plan using food alone, has a high likelihood of becoming micronutrient deficient, a condition shown to be scientifically linked to a higher risk of dangerous and debilitating diseases including cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, birth defects and overweight/obesity (Calton). Therefore it is recommended that an individual take a supplement while on a low carbohydrate diet, or any diet actually to avoid such deficiency. The inadequacy of a carbohydrate diet has also been represented in Fred Brouns article, Low-carbohydrate diets: nutritional and physiological aspects. Fred Brouns currently holds a PhD in Nutritional Physiology and has had more than 25 years in the health and nutrition field. He wrote in this publication that low-CHO diets are at great risk of being nutritionally inadequate as they enforce restriction of food choices. Brouns explains that due to the reduction

Butler 10 of the types of food you can have it limits what is available, and this stops your intake of many essential nutrients, for instance fiber. Brouns then explains that the quality of a low carbohydrate diet doesnt even compare to that of a high carbohydrate diet. In a study these diets were assessed and measured by the healthy eating index, and a low carbohydrate diet scored significantly lower than that of a high carbohydrate diet. Can you believe that? This proves that low carbohydrate diets are probably not the best idea when trying to have adequate nutrients within your body. While low carb diets are low in some possible nutrients, there are more adverse effects to being on a low carb diet. For instance, there are possible psychological side effects that can arise from having inadequate carbohydrate diets, as well as being on a diet in general. In a study by Holly Taylor, a Professor of Psychology at the Tufts University in Massachusetts, who has earned her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University, demonstrates the effects that low carbohydrate diets may have on and individuals cognition and mood. Taylor assessed 19 women who were on either a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-fat diet. At the end of the study, Taylor found that the absence of carbohydrates did in fact alter cognition in the patients. She found that individuals on low carb diets had problems on memory-related task and were also making more incorrect placements, and making up more names. However, the low-carbohydrate group did excel at placing items during short-term recall, compared to the low-calorie group. Taylor suggests that low-carbohydrates do in fact alter your mental processes, but the findings were not very significant. In relation to these findings, Dawn Clifford also explained that other side effects of a low carbohydrate diet can lead to psychological problems, Also, when you are on any type of diet you are typically limiting your caloric intake, and when this happens it results in negative psychological side effects, such as depression, because you area always wanting and

Butler 11 craving food (Clifford). This was really interesting information, because most people when they go on a diet will never think of the negative altercations that a diet might have on their mental processes, they are always just way too worried about if they are going to lose weight and be fit and thin, and like they think the world wants them to be. Diets are and will always be something that people go to in order to lose weight, but the individuals that follow these diets never tend to look at the consequences of what they are doing to their body and their mental health. After learning more about carbohydrate diets, the problems that low carbohydrate diets present have become more clear. As many of the other researchers and professors have expressed, I believe that the use of a low carbohydrate diet will be an effective way to lose weight, only when you are trying to lose weight for a few months or so, but if you are trying to lose weight by using a low carbohydrate diet for an extended period of time, it just wont work. There are too many factors that end up limiting the diet when you keep going for a long period time. And quite honestly your body needs the glucose that you can get from eating carbohydrates; it isnt efficient for you to only use ketone bodies and fat as a source of energy. In my opinion, having a low carbohydrate lifestyle in is not the healthiest option to make. There are a lot of nutrients that you will be missing that are necessary for the processes that our body goes through in order to function. To make up for this loss of nutrients any individual that is on a low carbohydrate diet should definitely be taking supplements. However, if you are on a high carbohydrate diet there is no need for a supplement and I think that is how it should be, you shouldnt have to take supplements because you cannot get sufficient nutrients in your diet. There is sufficient food for us to eat to acquire all of our nutrients, and that just isnt the case on a low carbohydrate diet, which I find is a big setback to low carbohydrate diets. Although, after my research, I think the bigger issue behind a low carbohydrate diet, or any diet

Butler 12 for that matter is the problem people have with believing that they need to lose weight. I think before any problems regarding low carbohydrate diets can be solved, we need to solve the problem of people believing that they need to be on a diet in the first place. That in itself is more unhealthy than being on a low carbohydrate diet. Researching low carbohydrate diets has given me an insight to a growing field that many individuals are completely obsessed about. People in many countries throughout the world are and will always be looking for different ways to lose weight, and low carbohydrate diets are just one of the many ways that individuals look to do that. For some people low carb diets just make sense, however for others, such as myself, could not imagine removing carbohydrates from their diet. Nevertheless I have learned a lot while exploring this fad diet, I didnt realize that there were so many different processes in your body that function in order for your body to take in your foods and then digest them. I find it fascinating that one small molecule, such as insulin can have such a major effect on your body and how it can function as a whole. For instance, if you had no insulin in your body, it would result most likely in death, who knew that? I mean, obviously I knew it was important, but unless you research it, you would probably never know that. Low carbohydrate diets have definitely been put in perspective for me; I think I have a better appreciation for the individuals who are on low carbohydrate diets. However, there are a lot of things that I cant understand just by doing the amount of research that I have done, for instance, how many individuals are going on low carbohydrate diets a year? I definitely could not find that information in my research. As well as, why do so many people want to be on a low carbohydrate diet as opposed to a low fat diet, or low sodium diet? These are definitely interesting questions that relate to low carbohydrate diets, and I feel as if one day, I will learn the answered to them.

Butler 13 Works Cited Bowden, Jonny. "Why Low Carb Diets Work." Living Low Carb. New York: Sterling, 2010. 2958. Print. Brouns, F., A. Adam-Perrot, and P. Clifton. "Low-carbohydrate Diets: Nutritional and Physiological Aspects." Obesity Reviews 7.1 (2006): 49-58. Print. Byrd-Bredbenner, Carol. "Carbohydrates." Wardlaw's Perspectives in Nutrition. 8th ed. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 152-87. Print. Clifford, Dawn. Personal interview. 23 Apr. 2012. Calton, Jayson. "Prevalence of Micronutrient Deficiency in Popular Diet Plans." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2010. 7:24.<\http://www.jissn.com/content/pdf/ 1550-2783-7-24.pdf> Holt, Stephen. "Low-carb Diets in Perspective." Better Nutrition 1 May 2004: 37. Print. Taylor, Holly A. "Low-carbohydrate Weight-loss Diets. Effects on Cognition and Mood."Appetite 52.1 (2009): 96-103. Print. Schneider, Julie. Carbohydrate Metabolism. California State University, Chico. Holt Hall 277, Chico, California. April 2012, Lecture. Schneider, Julie. Energy Balance. California State University, Chico. Holt Hall 277, Chico, California. May 2012, Lecture.

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