Nutrition & Health OnLine Magazine

How Safe are Low Carb Diets?

Shawn Sales

Low Carbohydrate diets are extremely popular right now for weight loss but their safety and effectiveness has become the subject of debate. Most low carbohydrate diets restrict greatly the amount of carbohydrates each day to between 30 and 55 grams. This figure is well below the minimum intake of 100 grams that is required to prevent the loss of lean tissue (muscles and organs). Low carbohydrate diets also restrict the amount of caloric intake for the individual to between 1200 and 1600 calories. This makes it difficult for the body to take in the nutrients it needs to meet RDA (recommended daily allowance) recommendations

When you restrict carbohydrates in your diet, your body can no longer make glucose. Your body is then forced to scavenge from dietary protein and fat to supply glucose. The hoops your body has to jump through to do this require more effort than depleting your body's stores of glycogen. Glycogens are converted to glucose easily. The problem is when you've depleted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue) your body turns to burning muscles or organs (lean muscle tissue) and dietary protein or fat to provide blood glucose to supply energy needs.¹

By cutting back on calories and depleting your body of carbohydrates, you are loosing weight but this is fools gold. When your body looses lean muscle tissue, it causes your metabolism to slow. When your metabolism slows from decreased muscle mass, you will again gain weight. The weight lost from the low carbohydrate diet is water. "Each gram of glycogen in muscles and lean tissue holds 3 grams of water." ¹ When you deplete your body of glycogen, you loose water weight not fat. "Muscles and lean tissue are 70% water; fat is only 15% water." ¹ Ultimately, the lost muscle and water from carbohydrate depletion has cost you a slower metabolism from reduced muscle mass. The long-term effect is that you will not only gain back all the weight you lost, likely you will gain back more weight than before you started the diet.

By eating a low carbohydrate high protein diet, more water is needed to process extra protein removal. This puts added stress on the kidneys forced to process the extra load. The kidneys now need extra water. The extra water that was needed to process the additional protein is not available because it was eliminated through depletion of carbohydrates. This leads to dehydration. This causes a loss of potassium in the body, causing the body's electrolyte balance to falter.

The bottom line is any diet that you start should be a diet that follows the food guide pyramid. The base of the pyramid is 6 to 11 servings of breads and grains each day. By eating this number of servings in your diet you are supplying your body with the fiber it needs to remove harmful toxins from the system. The high protein diet is low in fiber. If the diet is continued over a long period, it may lead to serious health problems. One problem that may arise is a loss of calcium in the body. Eating additional protein in your diet causes extra protein to bind with calcium. Women need additional amounts of calcium in their diet. Staying on a high protein low carbohydrate diet for an extended period may not only cause calcium deficiency but also potassium deficiencies.

A good weight loss program should consist of eating foods that make up the base of the food guide pyramid. Eating fewer calories and less fat coupled with regular exercise is the foundation of good health, and healthy eating. By choosing a sensible diet that contains low fat foods that also provide plenty of fiber and nutrients you will not only lose weight but also improve you health and feel better.

¹Stanford, B. The Jack Spratt Low-Fat Diet Plan. 1995

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