scigirl

Has anyone looked at whether lo carb diets increase cortisol levels?

Just curious...

scigirl

ps418

As far as I can recall, none of the studies collected data on cortisol levels.

One possible risk I'm curious about is the possible increased risk of some forms of cancer associated with high dietary intake of red meat. This is clearly not an effect that is going to show up in a 6-12 month study, and could be made even worse if antioxidant intake is simultaneously decreased in Atkins dieters (though it need not be so decreased). There are many epidemiological studies looking at the association of high red meat consumption and risk for some forms of cancer, and though none of these studies can be uncritically generalized to the Atkins, they suggest a possible risk that needs to be considered in future long-term studies.

Seow et al, Food groups and the risk of colorectal carcinoma in an Asian population. Cancer 2002 Dec 1;95(11):2390-6.


Chow et al, Protein intake and risk of renal cell cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 1994 Aug 3;86(15):1131-9.


Kaplan et al, Nutritional factors in the etiology of brain tumors: potential role of nitrosamines, fat, and cholesterol. Am J Epidemiol 1997 Nov 15;146(10):832-41.


Patrick

ps418

Oh, I forgot to add -- several of the studies of the Atkins diet were funded by the Atkins foundation, so you'll want to be very skeptical Just joking, of course. You should judge them on their merits, not their funding.

Patrick

Bookman

I did a little number crunching for the food plan that I've been on which combined with daily exercise has netted me a loss of 25 pounds so far this year (started in February). Hopefully, I'm just getting started. I need to lose that amount at least twice more.

The meal plan that I've worked out (based upon food exchanges as presented by AHA and what I think I can live with) works out to 21% of calories protein, 53% from carbs, and 26% from fat.

(Oh, yeah, and I take one day a week and eat whatever the fuck I want.)

I haven't read atkins, ornish, or any of that stuff 'cause their books cost money and I'm cheap. Is my program high or low carb, high or low fat, or somewhere in between?

One thing I like about using exchanges is that its a good way of keeping up with fruit, veggie, and dairy intake, which I believe (for no good reason save my government-sponsored education) is important for fiber intake as well as balanced levels of nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and so on. It seems to me that people that I have known who were fat gram counters ate a lot of fat free crap food and people who were high protein didn't worry enough about vitamins or fiber.

Oh, and Claudia's advice about learning to cook is spot on, IMO. I'm a pretty good cook, and even though we do make Kraft dinner from the blue box for the kids once in a while for the most part we eat many fewer processed foods than is the American norm. It is a little extra effort for me to cook every night, but if mom did it, so can I.

Bookman

P.S. I love hommus, though I make it much to garlicy for most folk.

Wyz_sub10

My wife make the bestest hommus ever. And I agree that learning to cook is a huge step toward controlling your diet in whatever way you see appropriate.

Most of my counter-productive eating comes from buying meals as opposed to making them.

Machiavelli

I regularly race in cross country mountainbiking events in the Southeast.

I've also been on a low carb diet for about a year now. I didn't have a real weight problem, but simply saw it as the wise thing to do because of the effect on blood sugar and cholesterol.

I did lose about 8 pounds initially, I didn't have much fat to start with, but I suspect that my training and the high protein caused muscle development to accelerate a bit and replace some fat loss. And yes, at first, my training was affected by the lack of carbs. I burnt out early and felt completely drained afterwards.

But then after about a month, I began to feel better and stronger. I found that I could ride longer at the same intensity as I rode before the diet. I believe that while injesting carbs, your body becomes dependant on that metabolic path for producing energy. But when that source is depleted, you begin to burn your stored fat and whatever calories you get from protein and fat that you've eaten. But when you train your body to use fat or protein this as it's primary source of energy, you don't hit the wall quite as hard after 2 hours or so. Which is about the amount of time it takes on a mountainbike to deplete your body of stored carbohydrates.

Right now I do eat more carbs than the atkins diet. Only after training since that is when your muscles recovery can benefit from a surge of carbs. And on a race day I'll drink a low glycemic index sports drink.

I think an active person can benefit from being aware of the effect of carbohydrates and using this to plan when to eat them and when not to. When you are going to be sedentary a while, it isn't wise to spike your blood sugar. But if you're going to go run 5 miles or something similar, go ahead and eat the powerbar or slice of pie cause you'll burn it off.

JGL53

Interesting, Machiavelli. This comports with a post of mine from a previous thread:

// Perhaps Dr. Rick or others know more about this than I do, but I distinctly remember reading an article in some popular science magazine a couple of years back that reported on a study of low-carb vs high carb diets on the performance of world-class bikers. All had eaten a high carb diet previously, and the group that was put on a low carb, high fat diet performed much poorer than their personal records in the short run - for about 6 weeks or so. Then there was a breakthrough, as they began to match their previous PRs, then began to surpass them and actually outperform the high carb group. The explanation offered was that it took this long for their chemical pathways to switch over to fully utilize body fat as a primary energy source. The body fat proved to eventually provide a more efficient and smoother supply of energy, especially into the second hour of exercise and longer.

... these were world-class distance bikers that actually improved their performance on high-fat diets. The article pointed out that long distance bikers, marathon runners, and others who engage in endurance type exercise could benefit from utilizing fat as a main energy source rather than carbs.

The article stated that those athletes who engage in sports requiring short bursts of explosive energy, like power lifters, pole vaulters, short distance runners, etc., would not see this benefit, and would do best on the seventy per cent carb type diet of which the government is so fond - proving no one is wrong all of the time. //

I also eat my highest carb meal of the day about 30 minutes after my daily exercise. Obviously the more active one is, the less likely one will get blood sugar spikes from eating a bolus of carb rich food.

The theory behind Atkins is that a person who has a lot of body fat to burn off (due to decades, sometimes, of binge eating and no exercise) should do very low carb at first, add 'good' carbs gradually through pre-maintenance, then even more so in a maintenance diet as a normal body fat ratio is reached. If one gets into exercise, at some point one might even be able to eat enough fruit, potatoes, whole grain breads and cereals, etc. to please even SOME of the maniacally anti-Atkins people.

It's a somewhat complicated process, not the straw man 'magic bullet' the antis denounce. It would a nice change of pace if such people would just critique the ACTUAL Atkins diet instead of some IMAGINED Atkins diet based on ignorance, exaggerations and half-truths.

Godot

From what you say, your diet would most closely fit a high carb model. If it's working for you, and you're happy with it, that's great. Using food exchanges is a simple and easy way to ensure you are eating a well-balanced meal. Another option that I find works well for people is to use the Weight Watchers point system. I'm not keen on it for purely ideological reasons, but that's just me.

One thing I've noticed that is absent in this discussion is the concept of exercise. Any dietary intervention will only be successful if performed in conjunction with an exercise program. Exercise will increase your overall energy output, thereby making it easier to exist in a negative energy balance. It will also help improve your lipid profile (provided your exercise is of a cardiovascular variety and not exclusively resistance training).

The Other Michael

Since you've mentioned exercise, let me direct you to the working out and physical fitness . . . thread, and for some recipes that are fairly compliant with the Body for Life eating/exercise program (roughly 40/40/20% for protein/carbs/fats) the Food/recipe stuff for exercisers (BfL specific) thread.

There is some info that you may find of interest in the exercise thread on a study published in the NEJM on the effects of breaking the daily caloric intake into many regular small meals throughout the day.

cheers,
Michael

Godot

Thanks for the links Michael. Overall, the BfL program is pretty solid. I still have a couple of grievances towards it (again, with the theory rather than any other part of it), but this thread is not the place to air those (unless prompted).