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Why a High-Carb Diet is a Recipe for Weight Gain

Conventional dietary advice states that a high-carb, low fat diet is necessary for weight loss and a low risk of disease. Most nutritionists and doctors advise you to get most of your calories from carbohydrates and the least amount of calories from fats and oils. But for a growing number of people, this advice isn’t working.

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High Carb Diet for Weight Loss: A Dangerous Contradiction

Most people have been led to believe that for successful weight loss, all you need to do is take in fewer calories than you burn. But research continues to show that those who restrict calories and routinely exercise do not necessarily enjoy long-term weight loss or other health benefits.

Those who follow conventional dietary advice become frustrated when it doesn’t work for them. The problem is that high-carbohydrate diets have never been proven effective for weight loss and disease prevention. In fact, independent research points in the opposite direction.

High-Carb Grains and Starches Boost Blood Sugar Levels

In his book, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health, Dr. William Davis explains how certain carbohydrates increase blood sugar levels dramatically. For example, a bowl of oatmeal can spike your blood sugar to pre-diabetic levels.

All carbohydrates convert into sugar (glucose). Some carbs, like wheat and starches, elevate blood sugar levels quicker and longer than others. The higher and quicker your blood sugar levels rise, the more insulin is required to bring them back to normal. Insulin stores blood sugar into fat cells that cycle back and forth from fatty acids to triglycerides and back again.

As your blood sugar continually becomes elevated, more opportunities arise for sugar to be stored into your fat cells. How can it be possible that this continuous cycle could actually help you lose weight?

Obesity Causes Leptin Resistance

As fat increases, so does leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that is produced in the fat cells. It tells your brain that you’ve had enough, and now it’s time to stop eating. This system is inhibited in those who are obese, requiring more leptin in order to feel full. High-carbohydrate foods create this state of leptin resistance and the inability to feel satiated until you have overeaten.

Those who live on sweets and fast food aren’t the only ones struggling with leptin resistance and obesity. Two slices of whole wheat bread can spike your blood sugar levels higher than six teaspoons of sugar. Starches elevate these levels even higher and for longer periods of time. A medium sized potato is the equivalent of a half cup of sugar. You think you’re doing something good for your body by passing the candy aisle and picking up a box of whole grain crackers and complex carbs, when in reality both products produce the same results.

Awareness is Contagious

Dr. Eric Westman is president elect of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. He and other doctors who specialize in helping people to lose weight treat their patients by placing them on low-carb diets. Dr. Westman says the belief that a high-fat, low-carb diet elevates your risk of disease and promotes weight gain will one day go the way of geocentrism. Today, the disproved idea that the sun revolves around the earth is ludicrous to the majority. In the case of high-carb diets, people will one day look back and wonder, “Did people really believe that was healthy?”

Personal accounts outweigh corporate-sponsored studies. The number of people who find success in a low-carb diet with more fat, that happens naturally on a Paleo menu, continues to increase and health authorities who advise against them are losing credibility. As more people relate their own stories of successful weight loss and healing through the restriction of high-carbohydrate foods, the misinformation that prevails today will have no chance of survival.

Resources:

Eenfeldt, Andreas. “The Science of Low Carb.” DietDoctor.com. 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 05 June 2012.

Naughton, Tom. “Crisis In Nutrition IV – Vox Populi.” YouTube. FatHeadMovie, 17 Mar. 2012. Web. 05 June 2012.

Davis, William. Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health. Emmaus, Penn.: Rodale, 2011. Print.

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