Truth Regarding Low Carbohydrate Diets – How it Will Affect My Lipid Panel
An estimated 50-70 million Americans go on diets each year. Many of these same people will go on a diet the next year. And again the year after that. For many, this represents a cyclical pattern of yo-yo dieting that does our physical and emotional health little good.
The lowdown on carbohydrate-restricting diets has a rationale something like this: Eating carbohydrates increases blood sugar, which increases insulin secretion that causes excess insulin in bloodstream. This causes an increase in hunger, making you eat more, and increases the conversion of carbohydrates into fat. This then increases body fat.
Some parts of this rationale are fact, while others are fiction. FACT: Consuming carbohydrates will increase your blood sugar level, temporarily. This is a normal response to eating. An elevation in blood sugar will cause your pancreas to release more insulin into your blood stream. This too is normal. The insulin will help to bring blood sugar back into a normal range. In some instances, blood sugar and insulin will increase to abnormally high levels. Foods with a high-glycemic index will result in an exaggerated increase in blood sugar, and as a result, a higher than usual increase in insulin. People who are insulin resistant generally also will have an increased insulin response, regardless of blood sugar level.
FICTION: The exaggerated insulin response does not result in a significant conversion of carbohydrates into fat. Although, many animals- pigs and cattle, for example-fatten up quite easily on carbohydrates, humans have a very poor capacity for turning carbohydrates into fat. It is not primarily carbohydrates in your meals that get converted into body fat. The carbohydrates that you eat are, for the most part, either burned as fuel or stored in your muscles and liver for later use. It is the fat in your meal that gets converted into body fat.
Researchers at George Washington University Medical center and the National Institutes of Health placed 24 overweight men and women on the Atkins diet for eight weeks. Body weight was measured before and after, and blood samples were drawn and analyzed for cholesterol, free fatty acids, and uric acid. Conclusions of the Atkins diet may elevate total and LDL (bad) cholesterol, particularly in women. The diet also lowered HDL (good) cholesterol in women, as well as increase the ratio of bad to good cholesterol, especially in women. The nearly 50 percent increase in LDL/HDL cannot possibly be considered a good thing- regardless of weight loss. The Atkins diet also increased blood free fatty acid levels, which increases the risk of irregular heartbeat and diabetes. Furthermore, the increase of blood uric acid levels may be hazardous to joints and kidney function. This diet may result in weight loss over the course of a least eight weeks if strictly followed.
What should be considered is the actual amount of fat and protein consumed during the diet did not change all that much from their usual diet. In fact, total fat intake actually decreased a bit. The only major difference was that carbohydrates were virtually eliminated from the diet. So, one possible conclusion from this study is that the unfavorable cholesterol changes were due not to the relatively high-fat nature of the Atkins diet, but rather to the fact that the diet is low in carbohydrates. The study indicated an important role for dietary carbohydrates in cholesterol control.
