Again, why low carbs?

People ask again and again why carbs are bad for you. I guess the simple answer is, "because they make your body store fat."

Some people tell me, "I love carbs, I eat a lot of them." One friend in particular eats almost no fat and FREAKS if some fat gets into her diet. Well, if you have no fat in your diet, you are going to suffer somewhere. See my post on sat fats and the fact that they do have some redeeming qualities. But if you are not fat, you shouldn't change your eating habits too much unless you have high triglycerides, low hdl, high ldl, wrong size ldl particles, high blood pressure, diabetes, high inflammation indicators or a history of breast cancer or other cancers. why?

Because a high carb diet affects all of the above. Keep track of your carb intake for one day. Those slices of bread, the hidden sugars in drinks, yogourt, peanut butter and lots of other places all add up. They added carbs when they took out the fat.

Your body will make energy out of fats and stored fat if you cut your carb intake. Eat a piece of toast with peanut butter on it in the morning if you find you can't live without carbs. You'll burn it off quickly, and then your body will go back to burning fat if you eat protein, vegetables that are low sugar, and low sugar fruits. It's all about burning the fat around your middle-it is the most dangerous fat and impedes your organs and strains your heart.

Without carbs, you may have higher cholesterol, but as your triglycerides lower, the size of your LDL particles will get bigger, and that is good for your heart. The small LDL particles are the ones that stick together and cause blockages.

The only for sure scientific correlation is that people who have good levels of HDL have fewer heart attacks. So of course that is the ultimate goal, is to get that number into the approved range. And that takes a change in diet, to include olive oil, oils from nuts, lean proteins, salmon and other fatty fish and vegetables that don't raise your blood sugar.

The easiest route is to follow South Beach as closely as possible. It's the sugar in our diets that is killing us. And carbs equals glucose equals sugar. Bye bye baked potato, rice, white bread, chips and pop.

More evidence

Today an article in Archives of Internal Medicine on the benefits of a low carb diet with a vegetarian twist.

It benefitted blood pressure, apolipoproteins and the ratio between total and ldl cholesterol.

More proof that carbs are not good for us.

I've been looking at articles from as far back as 2000, regarding things like "the metabolic syndrome, LDL particle size, and atheroclerosis: the Atherosclerosis and Insulin Resistance
(AIR) study". This was the first study to show a relationship between having small LDL particle size, metabolic syndrome and thickening of plaques in the arterial walls carotid and femoral arteries. And smaller LDL particles are not good.

Another article from the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology journal, called "Change in LDL particle size is associated with change in plasma triglyceride concentration", talks about how LDL particle size is inversely related to plasma triglyceride concentrations, so the higher your triglycerides, the smaller the size of your LDL particles. It seems the smaller particles are the ones found in plaque folks.

I'm painting a picture here.

So how to lower your plasma triglycerides? Eat fewer carbs. In Canada the RDA for carbs is about 300 g. On South Beach, I would say you get less than 20g a day during Phase I, probably 50 during phase II and less than 100g during Phase III and the rest of your life, depending on whether you gain weight or not.

Exercise is also good for you. It burns whatever glucose you might have in your system and gets you into fat burning mode. It also increases your fitness level and endurance.

Next post: insulin levels and breast cancer

Fat and your body

Most people wonder what triglycerides are. Triglycerides are the fats as they are stored in your body. That stuff you want less of. It is a flag for you when your triglycerides are high, as that means there are lots circulating in your blood stream, and most likely you are in the process of storing them. They have to be broken down to get out of your cells, and that happens when you have used up (or don't have) glucose in the blood stream to burn as fuel for your body. So that is how a low carb diet burns fat: it absolutely will get fuel from wherever it can get it. And that will be the protein in your diet, and the fat stored in your body.

My husband has lost 30 pounds in the last four months on a low carb diet. He wants to lose another 10-15 lbs. He eats less than 50 g of carbs a day. I have lost 15 lbs and stay under 100g of carbs, which is one third of the recommended daily allowance in Canada. I'm sure I used to eat a lot more carbs before I knew to count carbs.

His triglycerides are now low compared to last year. His is more of a Meditteranean diet, I guess, but it is pretty low carb. We used olive oil. His HDL is good, and so is his LDL. Mission accomplished, and he walks on a treadmill. His family has high blood pressure and stroke as risk factors.

I was happy someone pointed me at "Good Calories, Bad Calories" or GCBC as its known. I recommend it.

Gary Taubes explains it so well

Watched his lecture at Berkeley again.

At the hour point, he cuts to the chase. Fat storage happens because of alpha glycerol phosphate, which is needed to bin fatty acids into triglycerides. AGP (my abbrev.) comes from burning glucose and nore is available to store fat when insulin levels are high. Want to store less fat? Keep insulin levels in the blood low. Take in less glucose.

Yalow and Berson in 1965 say "Insulin is the principal regulator of fat metabolism". Gary talks about how emaciated type I diabetics can be, as they no longer produce their own insulin. They have nothing to drive fat accumulation with. When treated with insulin therapy, Dr. Best (yes, that Dr. Best) describes how they develop adipose deposits in the stomach where the insulin is injected.

My husband and I started the South Beach Diet in late September 08. My husband has lost 25 pounds and his blood profile has improved so much his doctor is ecstatic. My husband's triglycerides are WAY down from where they were. The doctor had recommended South Beach. I have lost 17 pounds. Don't you hate men who always win in the weight loss game? My profile is improving as well. LDL and HDL levels close to normal.

It's the insulin, stupid.