Is it low carb or low fat? Which one wins?

Main Category: Cholesterol
Article Date: 19 May 2004 - 0:00 PST

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Here is the million-dollar question - which one is better, the low carb or the low fat way? Over the long term, if all you are interested in is weight, both seem to be as effective as each other. However, eating the low carb way has other benefits which tip the balance.

With a low carb diet, over the short and long term, your cholesterol levels will fare better than with the low fat diet. Your triglyceride levels will also be better with low carbs.

Walter Willet, a Harvard Univerisity Epidemiologist, wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine 'You can no longer dismiss very low-carbohydrate diets.'

Two recent studies (large ones) have shown that the low carb diet is better than the low fat one.

Experts are now up in arms. Some say that over the very long term the low fat one will win. But they said a year ago that over a one year period the low fat one would win, and it has just lost. It lost on cholesterol counts and other factors that can affect your general health and longevity. They cannot keep moving the goal posts.

Lets look at some societies and see how they fare:

In Europe, the people with the longest life expectancy live in Crete - a small island near Greece. In Crete, they eat much more fat and red meat than the people in the UK do - and they live about seven years longer, on average. Their fat is olive oil based and their red meat is mainly sheep and goat. In the UK people eat a lot of potatoes (fast release carbs) and saturated fats. In the UK people eat loads of junk foods - in Crete they don't. In Crete they eat loads of fruit and vegetables, they eat salads (slow release carbs) at every meal. The people in Crete smoke a lot more than the British do and they live longer. The British have corn flakes for breakfast and the people in Crete have cheese, olive oil and some vegetables. The people in Crete are eating the stuff Atkins tells us to - the people in England aren't.

The people in China have much higher rates of heart disease and diabetes than the people in Crete. The people in China have a carbohydrate-based diet. Life expectancy in Crete is over 15 years longer than in China.

Japan, which has the longest life expectancy in the world, eats more animal protein than the British do. A much larger percentage of their animal protein intake is fish (than in Europe).

Your protein intake can also come exclusively from plant sources. I have no preference for animal or plant protein - if you choose carefully, either as a carnivore or as a vegetarian, correct protein intake as a percentage of your total consumption can be good for you. Personally, I have found that the Atkins slant is not for me, neither is the low fat one. I tend to eat 40% carbs (slow release), 30% protein and 30% fats (mono-unsaturated).

What many critics need to understand is that Dr. Atkins never said the fat had to be bacon fat or lard all the time - the media, and experts who never read his studies said this. In fact, he went into great detail talking about good fats and bad fats. There are saturated fats (bad ones) and mono-unsaturated fats (good ones). Generally, the good fats come from plants and the bad ones from mammals.

So called food gurus also need to understand that fast carbohydrates boost your insulin levels too quickly - that, in the long term is bad for your health.

Like it or not - after two studies which monitored people for over one year, the low fat dieters are losing out to the low carb ones - but only just.

The problem in Western culture today, I find, is that everyone belongs to a pressure group that offers the final solution. Everyone thinks he/she is right and everyone else is wrong. Wouldn't it be nice if so called experts sat down one day and became more eclectic - looked at all the diets there are and picked out the best there is in each one. Or, tailor each diet depending on the individual's need. A super obese person needs a short term solution followed by a long-term solution. That person has an eating problem and health risks that need urgent attention. A low fat diet would make that person's life hell, he/she would be hungry all the time. A low carb high protein diet would help that person.

If the experts in the Western world had done a good job in creating the food pyramid, we wouldn't all be so fat and ill.

If you need nutritional advice, make sure you see a fully qualified licenced nutritionist/dietician. Many have jumped onto the bandwagon without having done the training.

Written by the Editor of Medical News Today

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