About.com Low Carb Diets

More About Low-Carb and Mood

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:35:15 +0000

After last week's report on diet and mood there have been lots of great comments about how low-carb eating has affected people's moods. A really great one came from Dr. Richard Feinman, a researcher in the field. He writes, "I have been following a low carb diet for many years and was in a good mood until I read this paper." He goes on to tell of a study that he and his colleagues did several years ago, where 70% of the people on a low-carb forum who filled out a questionnaire reported improved mood since changing their diets. Even allowing for the fact that people who have a good response to low-carb eating are most likely to be hanging out on a low-carb forum, that is an impressive result! You can read the study for yourself here: http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-5-26.pdf

Photo © Andrzej Burak

More About Low-Carb and Mood originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 12:35:15.

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Countdown to Thanksgiving!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:59:37 +0000

Thanksgiving is next week! Time to make sure you plan your menu and have all the ingredients you need. For example, planning on making my stuffing bread? You'll need almond meal. Take a look at this Low-Carb Thanksgiving Planner to help you out.

Photo © James Steidl

Low-Carb Thanksgiving Recipes:

Sugar-Free Cranberry Sauce

Low-Carb Pumpkin Pie

Low-Carb Green Bean Casserole

Countdown to Thanksgiving! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 10:59:37.

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New Recipe: Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:59:36 +0000

Sometimes I come up with recipes just because I don't feel like going to the store, and I look around to see what's in the pantry. Could I make pancakes out of pecans? And wouldn't pumpkin taste good in them? Answer to both questions: yes! It turns out that if you put pecans in your blender or food processor, you have the start of some really tasty pancakes! With pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg, they really taste like autumn. Try my Low-Carb Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes this weekend for a nice treat!

Photo © Laura Dolson

Related Recipes:

Low-Carb Almond Meal Pancakes

Low-Carb Coffee Cake

Easy Pecan Chocolate Torte

New Recipe: Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 20:59:36.

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Will a Low-Carb Diet Lower Your Mood?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:59:33 +0000

Oh, my, the science reporters are at it again. A new study was published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine about diets and mood. Basically what happened over the course of a year was that both the low-carb and low-fat groups had modest elevation of mood over the first 8 weeks. The low-fat group on average sustained the elevated mood, where the low-carb group, on average, returned to the mood they had at the beginning. From this we get headlines such as "Low-Fat Diet Makes People Less Angry Than Low-Carb, Study Says" (neither diet "makes you angry"), "Low carb dieters more grumpy" (no more grumpy than they started out!) and even "Low carb diet may land you in depression" (oh, puh-lease).

As I explained to Courtney Hutchinson, reporter for ABC News, many many people have reported improvements in mood in the long-term while following a low-carb way of eating. (Added Nov. 17: See comments below for examples!) So, how can we explain this result? There are a few possibilities which occur to me:

- The study limited calories in both groups. We know from previous research and experience that limiting calories is not needed to lose weight on a low-carb diet. One of the positive aspects of low-carb eating is that people are able to follow their natural appetites once the carb cravings are elminiated by low-carb eating. Could it be that limiting both carbs and calories is a problem?

- We aren't told what people were eating before the study started, or at any point in the study. The "low fat" group was eating 45% carbohydrate, which is lower than usual for a low-fat diet. This probably was a reduction in the amount of carbohydrate the participants were eating. So people that would benefit from a mild carbohydrate reduction could have benefited from this probably unintended effect.

- The diet stayed very low in carbs throughout the year. One of the strengths of diets such as the Atkins Diet is that they help people zero in on the best amount of carbohydrate for that individual. 40 grams of carbohydrate is less than optimal for many people over the long-term.

Of course, we don't know what the reason was for the difference in the groups in this study, which the researchers admit in their paper. They speculate that low-carb eating is too much of a change from the "normal Western diet".

What do you think? Answer in the comments below.

Nov 15 Update: Atkins Nutritionals has responded to the study with some additional interesting points.

Photo: Dimitri Vervitsiotis/Getty Images

Related Resources:

Insulin Levels Show Who May Benefit from Carb-Cutting

Different Diets for Different Bodies

Popular Low-Carb Diet Plans

Will a Low-Carb Diet Lower Your Mood? originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 22:59:33.

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How Different Lunches Affect Blood Sugar

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:59:44 +0000

Do you ever wonder how much a meal raises your blood glucose? Unless you're a diabetic who monitors your blood glucose, you probably don't know. The glycemic index can give us somewhat of a guess, but there are a lot of problems with the glycemic index.

Recently, this issue came to the attention of Trent Smith, an economist at the University of Washington. He became aware of how refined carbohydrates are causing health problems by raising blood sugar, but also how foods made with these carbohydrates are inexpensive and plentiful. He became curious about how various meals would affect his own blood glucose and embarked on a project he called "Lunch Science". The results are fascinating, and he has posted them on the Web (PDF) (don't get put off by what looks like a 55-page report - it's in slide form and each slide takes several "pages". Also, there are a couple of economically-oriented slides in the middle that you can just skip if you want). He ate thirteen very different (and mostly hearty, high-calorie) lunches, and recorded his blood glucose at half-hour intervals after each meal. Many were from various fast-food restaurants. Interestingly, one of the lowest-calorie lunches, the Subway low-fat lunch caused the highest glycemic response!

Dr. Smith is interested in swapping similar data with other people. Monitoring blood glucose is something I recommend for people who are sensitive to carbs. I am prediabetic, and I keep tabs on my fasting blood glucose and also after meals, especially if it's a new food. I find it motivating and helpful.

Thanks to Jimmy Moore of the Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Blog for pointing me to Dr. Smith's project.

Photo © Richard Cano

Related Resources:

Glycemic Index Food Lists

The Low-Carb/Blood Sugar Connection

Why I Test My Blood Sugar

How Different Lunches Affect Blood Sugar originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 21:59:44.

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What the Large Food Companies Don't Want You to Know

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:32 +0000

The great documentary "Food, Inc." is out on DVD, and I highly recommend it. One of the big revelvations is how hidden much of the process of producing our food is. The filmmaker, Robert Kenner has said in an interview that he spent more in legal fees doing this movie than his past 15 films combined, and "I think I could have had greater access if we were doing a film on nuclear terrorism than if we were doing a film on food." This is truly an eye-opening and important movie in many ways. Check out my description and review of "Food, Inc.", and then go rent it!

Image Courtesy of River Road Entertainment

Related Resources:

DVD Review: My Big Fat Diet

DVD Review: Fat Head

About.com's Local Food Site

What the Large Food Companies Don't Want You to Know originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 14:59:32.

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Quick Low-Carb Breakfasts

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:59:33 +0000

Do you remember the days when you could grab a bagel, or dump some cereal in a bowl and then be out the door? Protein tends to involve...well, cooking. But a low-carb breakfast does not have to be a drawn-out affair. I have assembled a bunch of tips to quickly send you on your way in the morning with fuel for the morning under your belt. Check out my tips for Quick Low-Carb Breakfasts.

Photo © iStockphoto

Related Resources:

More Low-Carb Breakfast Ideas

Readers Share Breakfast Ideas

Low-Carb Fruit List

Quick Low-Carb Breakfasts originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 21:59:33.

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Of Mice and Media

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:37:43 +0000

Think about the health-related stories you've seen in the media recently, particularly ones related to diet. How much helpful information have you been given? How much education about science and how it works? If you pay attention to such things, as I do, most of what you've seen probably has to do with single studies about how this diet or that diet is related to this or that health outcome. But how helpful is this, really?

In the vast majority of cases, not very. Sure, occasionally there are large important studies that track tens of thousands of people over decades. These may give us some reason to sit up and take notice. But for the most part, scientific knowledge does not come from knowing the outcomes of single studies. It comes from the gradual assembly of many many studies, some of which may contradict each other, or at least seem to. (By figuring out why the seeming contradictions are occurring we can learn a lot.) But relatively seldom will you see a piece of science news that actually tries to give readers a context for the information they are being presented with, or to synthesize the results of the scientific data on a subject. Unfortunately, as the number of paid positions for science reporters shrinks, the ones left have less and less time to write these types of reports.

This all becomes even more of an issue when reporting about research where animals are used to try to understand human biology. For one thing, it's somewhat hit or miss whether the rat or the mouse (especially the genetically-altered one) responds as humans do. For another, animal studies are a perfect set-up for reporter bias.

I've done it myself when reading diet studies done on animals - if the conclusion agrees with what I already think is probably true, I see it as confirming evidence. If not, well, what the heck, it's just an animal study, right? I feel it is part of my job to fight this impulse, but unfortunately I see signs of it everywhere in the media.

A few weeks ago, a study was published in a journal called Molecular Neurodegeneration. Of the thousands of diet studies which are published every year, somehow this one rose to the surface, and after I saw an article about it, I gave the study a glance. It seemed to be the kind of basic science study that doesn't tell us much in and of itself, but might be fodder for more experiments. In other words, not something that it is helpful to report about. But over the next weeks, articles about the study kept popping up in my Google Alerts until now there are well over one hundred of them, with headlines such as "High Protein Diet may increase risk of Alzheimer's Disease" and "High Protein Diet Shrinks Brain". Even worse, many of the articles go on to suggest that the high-protein diet the mice were on is similar to the Atkins Diet. A tabloid even used the headline "Atkins Diet Makes Your Brain Shrink".

When you actually read the study, you find that mice (genetically altered to be prone to Alzheimer's disease) were fed one of four diets (normal, low-fat, high-fat, high-protein), and the diet that was most similar to the Atkins diet is not the high-protein one at all, but the high-fat one. The high-protein diet was 60%(!!) protein, much higher than recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and virtually everyone else. No big shock that it had negative effects (in this case, the brains of the mice were 5% lighter). And yet, the articles in the media had lines such as "A link between a high protein Atkins diet and a significantly reduced brain mass has been identified by scientists." Misleading, and total hogwash!

The study, and the report based on it, has issues that are problematic, but these were never even mentioned in the media reports. For example, the article starts out by stating that diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and fish have been shown to be protective against Alzheimer's disease. This could be true, but the test diets were totally lacking in any of those foods. So even if mouse chow with a certain mix of protein, carb, and fat is shown to be problematic, that says nothing about a situation where humans are eating actual healthy food. This is obviously pertinent to human beings, but is not mentioned by even one of the articles about the study which I read, nor was the fact that the body weight of the high-protein diet was also the lowest. Were these mice underweight? We aren't told. If they were malnourished, could that make their brains smaller? (To humans, a 60% protein diet is unpalatable and could conceivably cause a person to not eat enough for basic nourishment.) These are only a few of the very obvious questions which were not asked.

On the other hand, there have been animal studies about low-carb diets which were only reported by a very few media outlets. In one, rats were given either a high-fat, low-carb diet or a moderate-carb, moderate fat diet. It turned out that the rats on the low-carb diet were better able to handle stress. In another study, rats with spinal cord injuries recovered more quickly on a low-carb diet than on a high-carb one.

Are any of these studies significant to human beings? Only time will tell. But it is interesting which one is getting all the attention (and misreporting).

Photo: Sandy Jones/Getty Images

Related Resources:

How Much Protein Do You Need?

Low-Carb Food Pyramid

Low-Carb Science

Of Mice and Media originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 20:37:43.

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It�s Pumpkin Time!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:59:03 +0000

Pumpkin is one of those vegetables that is almost emblematic of fall - it makes us think of harvest, of holidays, of frost, of lengthening nights and the oncoming winter. Pumpkin is one of the winter squash family with the least carbohydrate, plus it's chock full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. It's also delicious in everything from soup to dessert. Once you start experimenting, you'll realize pumpkin can be a year-round nutritious addition to your diet. So let's get started trying some delicious Low-Carb Pumpkin Recipes.

.Photo © Cody Mummau

Low-Carb Pumpkin Recipes:

Low-Carb Pumpkin Cheesecake

Low-Carb Pumpkin Pie

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds

It�s Pumpkin Time! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 19:59:03.

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Tell Your Low-Carb Story!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:30:28 +0000

Often in blog comments or on the Forum, people tell us of the great changes they have experienced from reducing carbohydrate in their diets. People talk about weight loss, blood sugar control, and other health benefits from low-carb eating.

I'm really happy to announce that I have a new tool available so that my readers can share their stories in a place that will be easier for others to find and be encouraged. I have divided the stories up into three categories: weight loss success, blood glucose control, and other health benefits. You do not have to have reached your ultimate goal to share with others - we are all on a path to our goals, and encouragement along the way is always appreciated!

Where to Share Your Success Stories:

Where to Read the Stories

Tell Your Low-Carb Story! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:30:28.

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