Saturday, February 17, 2007

Weighing-In On Low Carb Diets

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Weighing-In On Low Carb Diets


With all of the conflicting studies and fuzzy interpretation of information, it's no wonder that confusion reigns when it comes to the value and safety of low-carb diets. It seems like heated debates are raging everywhere! Whether it's Atkins, the South Beach or some other low-carb plan, as many as 30 million Americans are following a low-carb diet.

Advocates contend that the high amount of carbohydrates in our diet has led to increasing problems with obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. Critics, on the other hand, attribute obesity and related health problems to over-consumption of calories from any source, and lack of physical activity. Critics also express concern that the lack of grains, fruits, and vegetables in low-carbohydrate diets may lead to deficiencies of some key nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.

Any diet, weather low or high in carbohydrate, can produce significant weight loss during the initial stages of the diet. But remember, the key to successful dieting is in being able to lose the weight permanently. Put another way, what does the scale show a year after going off the diet? Let's see if we can debunk some of the mystery about low-carb diets. Below, is a listing of some relevant points taken from recent studies and scientific literature. Please note there may be insufficient information available to answer all questions.

- Differences Between Low-Carb Diets

There are many popular diets designed to lower carbohydrate consumption. Reducing total carbohydrate in the diet means that protein and fat will represent a proportionately greater amount of the total caloric intake. Atkins and Protein Power diets restrict carbohydrate to a point where the body becomes ketogenic. Other low-carb diets like the Zone and Life Without Bread are less restrictive. Some, like Sugar Busters claim to eliminate only sugars and foods that elevate blood sugar levels excessively.

- What We Know about Low-Carb Diets

Almost all of the studies to date have been small with a wide variety of research objectives. Carbohydrate, caloric intake, diet duration and participant characteristics varied greatly. Most of the studies to date have two things in common: None of the studies had participants with a mean age over 53 and none of the controlled studies lasted longer than 90 days.

Information on older adults and long-term results are scarce.

Many diet studies fail to monitor the amount of exercise, and therefore caloric expenditure, while participants are dieting. This helps to explain discrepancies between studies. The weight loss on low-carb diets is a function of caloric restriction and diet duration, and not with reduced carbohydrate intake. This finding suggests that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period.

Little evidence exists on the long-range safety of low-carb diets. Despite the medical community concerns, no short-term adverse effects have been found on cholesterol, glucose, insulin and blood-pressure levels among participants on the diets. But, adverse effects may not show up because of the short period of the studies.

Researchers note that losing weight typically leads to an improvement in these levels anyway, and this may offset an increase caused by a high fat diet. The long range weight change for low-carb and other types of diets is similar. Most low-carb diets cause ketosis. Some of the potential consequences are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and confusion. During the initial phase of low-carb dieting some fatigue and constipation may be encountered. Generally, these symptoms dissipate quickly. Ketosis may also give the breath a fruity odor, somewhat like nail-polish remover (acetone).

Low-carb diets do not enable the consumption of more calories than other kinds of diets, as has been often reported. A calorie is a calorie and it doesn't matter weather they come from carbohydrates or fat. Study discrepancies are likely the result of uncontrolled circumstances; i.e. diet participants that cheat on calorie consumption, calories burned during exercise, or any number of other factors. The drop-out rate for strict (i.e. less than 40 grams of CHO/day) low-carb diets is relatively high.

What Should You Do? - There are 3 important points I would like to re-emphasize:

- The long-range success rate for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

- Despite their popularity, little information exists on the long-term efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets.

- Strict low-carb diets are usually not sustainable as a normal way of eating.

Boredom usually overcomes willpower.

It is obvious after reviewing the topic, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are needed. There just isn't a lot of good information available, especially concerning long-range effects. Strict low-carb diets produce ketosis which is an abnormal and potentially stressful metabolic state. Under some circumstances this might cause health related complications.

The diet you choose should be a blueprint for a lifetime of better eating, not just a quick weight loss plan to reach your weight goal. If you can't see yourself eating the prescribed foods longer than a few days or a week, then chances are it's not the right diet. To this end, following a moderately low fat diet with a healthy balance of fat, protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients is beneficial.

If you do decide to follow a low-carb plan, remember that certain dietary fats are associated with reduction of disease. Foods high in unsaturated fats that are free of trans-fatty acids such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, and nuts are preferred to fats from animal origins.

Even promoters of the Atkins diet now say people on their plan should limit the amount of red meat and saturated fat they eat. Atkins representatives are telling health professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter's calories should come from saturated fat (i.e. meat, cheese, butter). This change comes as Atkins faces competition from other popular low-carb diets that call for less saturated fat, such as the South Beach diet plan. Low-carb dieting should not be considered as a license to gorge on red meat!

Another alternative to "strict" low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not "throw out the baby with the bath water". In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbohydrates such as fruit, potatoes and whole grains, retained.

Tim Robinson is the owner of Weight-Loss-Diet-Search.com

Visit this site for fresh health, weight loss and dieting articles, useful books, guides and software, and latebreaking health & fitness news.

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Web Page Building for Beginners 2

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Web Page Building for Beginners 2


A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds. It also gives extra credit to the size of the type and title of each page.

What a webmaster should consider, is every word connecting to a keyword and not wasting words, for the public and the robots. This can be difficult to do when writing about certain subjects, but not impossible. Take diets for instance. Saquoyah Publishing writes diets and uses www.free-diet.biz to promote them, but nobody wants to read pages full of the word diet just bandied around with no oomph in the article that should teach the reader about diets. So a happy medium must be reached to get the website placed high in the search engines database, yet allow the articles to inform the reader of the subject written. Remember, the information super highway is called that for a good reason. Most people just want to learn something about a subject, not necessarily buy something. So if you are selling, the first thing you will want is to get the reader to find the pages you have written, and that means search engine optimization, or SEO as it is called.

SEO should be a major consideration as the page is written, and a concentration on keywords should be the main concern of the page writer. Take diets as an example of page writing. The word Diet or Diets should be placed in the title of each page on the website if at all reasonable, and each page should utilize those words as many times as possible without deterring hopeful customers. The title of the page is the most noticeable attraction to your website from the searchers perspective, and the few words you have to say everything about your site. Free diet is a two word search that will get you over twenty five million pages on Google or Yahoo, and the competition is fierce. Just the word free will get you over a half billion pages and the competition is downright crazy. So stick with keywords that you can compete in, and use those words wisely as you write your pages.

Simple, free, healthy diet are the four keywords that describe the title of my index page, and they are the best way to describe what I hope the searchers will be looking for, as well as what I have to offer. This is the most optimistic I can be when writing my title to help people learn about diets and to help my website get a good placement with search engines. Also, a four word phrase has less competition than a two word phrase. So make sure your title is something that the searcher is looking for as well as something you provide or you will never get customer satisfaction, and maybe never get customers.

The contents of the page can be categorized into sections to help keep your keywords alive without pushing them on the reader. For instance, free diets, beer diets, funny diet jokes, potato soup diet, pineapple diets, Beverly Hillbilly Diet foods, and many other strange things can be written without being insensitive to the reader, if they are titles of some of your other pages or just paragraphs on each topic. The contents close to the top of your page should also be the same words you have in the contents meta tag that the robots will copy to be placed under your title in a web search. In this way, the reader will also get a fair chance at what you really have to say on your site and can make a better judgment call on whether to open your index page or some other. This is how you select customers instead of wasting everyones time. This article can be copied and reprinted anywhere as long as it is intact and includes the authors bio.

About The Author

Ted Dupuie owns a home based publishing company that only publishes his work, which includes diets, an investment strategy, and 8 websites, plus a family newsletter. He is also a writing critic with top ten placement on Google and Yahoo!

www.saquoyah.com - www.homewriters.com - www.free-diet.biz

This article can be copied and reprinted anywhere as long as it is intact with the authors bio.

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Vegetable Diets: Facts For Fitness

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Vegetable Diets: Facts For Fitness


The body needs a lot of fiber, so its only common sense to add plenty of fiber to your diet. Vegetables will definitely supply you with much of the daily fiber that you need. Nature grows the required vegetables and fruits suitable for the complete nourishment of your body, so you have no excuses.

So, go ahead its perfectly OK to go crazy eating vegetables.

Here are some juicy tidbits about the benefits of vegetables, and how to prepare them properly.

1. Vegetables are your best bet when it comes to losing extra pounds. Nature provides a terrific buffet of healthy vegetables, and leafy green veggies are your best choice for dropping that spare luggage. So, always try to include a salad with your meals.

2. If you need to have a snack, stay away from the cookie jar! Choose vegetables as a healthy snack instead. We all get those pangs of hunger in between meals, but it is something that we have full control over. A great snack suggestion would be to try munching on carrots. They are a wonderful way to satisfy those hunger pangs and are good for your eyes, as well as your teeth. If people tease you about being Bugs Bunny, just remember that you wont be saying Whats up Doc? nearly as often as they will. You will be healthy!

3. Fresh vegetables are far better for you than cooked or canned vegetables, so always try to eat your vegetables raw. Wherever possible, locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden or grove should be eaten. When you cook vegetables, you are taking away nearly half of the vitamins in them. Canned vegetables are not much better than cooked. They are processed and are not nearly as good for you as fresh vegetables. Also, when you buy your vegetables its always a good idea to see if the label states whether its pesticide free or not.

4. If you do have to cook your vegetables, steam them. Try steaming them without adding anything at all. This is probably the healthiest way to eat vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflowers and a whole host of other yummy vegetables.

5. Consider carrying some sprigs of parsley with you. Parsley is another excellent thing to snack on in between meals. Not only is it good for you in terms of vitamins, but it is also a perfect way to make your breath fresher just in case you might need it.

Your mother was right eating your veggies is very important for your overall development. And if you haven't been listening to your mother, it's not too late for you to start now!

To support your Mom's advice one more time, here's one more benefit to eating your vegetables that is often overlooked. Water intake.

Most people seem to be surprised when they learn of the pure simplicity and effectiveness of water for weight and health management. And yet, its right in front of us!

Since some vegetables like tomatos (actually a fruit) are a good source of water, you now have one more reason to consume vegetables. So, dont think about it anymore; just do it.

**Water intake is a whole other topic, but one that will also enable you to drop the pounds and stay healthy. To learn more about the amazing benefits of water and how to maximize its use in your dietary routine, visit: http://www.privilegedinfo.com/waterwisdom.html.

Steve Shannon is webmaster at PrivilegedInfo.com and finds unique and useful information such as the weight loss tips at http://www.privilegedinfo.com/waterwisdom.html . You may reprint this article in its entirety as long as this resource box remains intact and the links are live.

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Top 15 Reasons to Avoid Low Carb Diets


Low carb (carbohydrate), high protein diets are the latest

dieting craze. However, before you jump on the band wagon,

you may want to consider a few things:

1. Low carb (ketogenic) diets deplete the healthy glycogen

(the storage form of glucose) stores in your muscles and

liver. When you deplete glycogen stores, you also dehydrate,

often causing the scale to drop significantly in the first week

or two of the diet. This is usually interpreted as fat loss when

its actually mostly from dehydration and muscle loss. By the

way, this is one of the reasons that low carb diets are so

popular at the moment - there is a quick initial, but deceptive

drop in scale weight.

Glycogenesis (formation of glycogen) occurs in the liver and

muscles when adequate quantities of carbohydrates are

consumed - very little of this happens on a low carb diet.

Glycogenolysis (breakdown of glycogen) occurs when

glycogen is broken down to form glucose for use as fuel.

2. Depletion of muscle glycogen causes you to fatigue easily,

and makes exercise and movement uncomfortable. Research

indicates that muscle fatigue increases in almost direct

proportion to the rate of depletion of muscle glycogen. Bottom

line is that you don't feel energetic and you exercise and move

less (often without realizing it) which is not good for caloric

expenditure and basal metabolic rate (metabolism).

3. Depletion of muscle glycogen leads to muscle atrophy (loss

of muscle). This happens because muscle glycogen (broken

down to glucose) is the fuel of choice for the muscle during

movement. There is always a fuel mix, but without muscle

glycogen, the muscle fibers that contract, even at rest to

maintain muscle tone, contract less when glycogen is not

immediately available in the muscle. Depletion of muscle

glycogen also causes you to exercise and move less than

normal which leads to muscle loss and the inability to

maintain adequate muscle tone.

Also, in the absence of adequate carbohydrate for fuel,

the body initially uses protein (muscle) and fat. the initial

phase of muscle depletion is rapid, caused by the use of

easily accessed muscle protein for direct metabolism

or for conversion to glucose (gluconeogenesis) for fuel. Eating

excess protein does not prevent this because there is a caloric

deficit.

When insulin levels are chronically too low as they may

be in very low carb diets, catabolism (breakdown) of

muscle protein increases, and protein synthesis stops.

4. Loss of muscle causes a decrease in your basal metabolic

rate (metabolism). Metabolism happens in the muscle. Less

muscle and muscle tone means a slower metabolism which

means fewer calories burned 24 hours-a-day.

5. Your muscles and skin lack tone and are saggy. Saggy

muscles don't look good, cause saggy skin, and cause you to

lose a healthy, vibrant look (even if youve also lost fat).

6. Some proponents of low carb diets recommend avoiding

carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, potatoes, carrots, etc.

because of they are high on the glycemic index - causing

a sharp rise in insulin. Certain carbohydrates have always

been, and will always be the bad guys: candy, cookies, baked

goods with added sugar, sugared drinks, processed / refined

white breads, pastas, and rice, and any foods with added sugar.

These are not good for health or weight loss.

However, carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, legumes,

whole grain breads and pastas, and brown rice are good for

health and weight loss. Just like with proteins and fats, these

carbohydrates should be eaten in moderation. Large volumes

of any proteins, fats or carbohydrates are not conducive to

weight loss and health.

The effect of high glycemic foods is often exaggerated. It's does

matter, but to a smaller degree than is often portrayed. Also,

the total glycemic effect of foods is influenced by the quantity

of that food that you eat at a sitting. Smaller meals have a lower

overall glycemic effect. Also, we usually eat several types of

food at the same time, thereby reducing the average glycemic

index of the meal, if higher glycemic foods are eaten.

Also, glycemic index values can be misleading because they

are based on a standard 50 grams of carbohydrate consumed.

It wouldn't take much candy bar to get that, but it would take

four cups of carrots. Do you usually eat four cups of carrots

at a meal?

Regular exercisers and active people also are less effected by

higher glycemic foods because much of the carbohydrate

comsumed is immediately used to replenish glycogen stores in

the liver and muscle.

By the way, if you're interested in lowering insulin levels,

there is a great way to do that - exercise and activity.

7. Much of the weight loss on a low carb, high protein diet,

especially in the first few weeks, is actually because of

dehydration and muscle loss.

8. The percentage of people that re-gain the weight they've

lost with most methods of weight loss is high, but it's even

higher with low carb, high protein diets. This is primarily due

to three factors:

A. You have lost muscle. With that comes a slower

metabolism which means fewer calories are burned 24

hours-a-day. A loss of muscle during the process of losing

weight is almost a guarantee for re-gaining the lost weight,

and more.

B. You re-gain the healthy fluid lost because of glycogen

depletion.

C. It's difficult to maintain that type of diet long-term.

D. You have not made a change to a long-term healthy

lifestyle.

9. Eating too much fat is just not healthy. I know you've

heard of people whose blood levels of cholesterol and

triglycerides have decreased while on a low carb, high

protein diet. This often happens with weight loss, but it

doesn't continue when you're on a diet high in fat.

There are literally reams of research over decades that clearly

indicates that an increase in consumption of animal products

and/or saturated fat leads to increased incidence of heart

disease, strokes, gall stones, kidney stones, arthritic

symptoms, certain cancers, etc. For example, in comparing

countries with varying levels of meat consumption, there

is a direct relationship between the volume of meat consumption

in a country and the incidence of digestive cancers (stomach,

intestines, rectal, etc.).

Fat is certainly necessary, and desirable in your diet, but

they should be mostly healthy fats and in moderation.

Manufactured / synthetic "low fat" foods with lots of added

sugar are not the answer. Neither are manufactured / synthetic

"low carb" foods with artificial sweeteners or added fat. By

the way, use of artificial sweeteners has never been shown

to aid in weight loss and they may pose health problems.

According to Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob of Albert Einstein

College of Medicine in New York, "In my experience,

unless you're willing to throw out decades of research,

you cannot ignore that diets chronically high in saturated

fats are linked to heart disease," Dr. Ayoob is also a

spokesman for the American Dietetic Association

and says that low carb, high protein diets are an attempt

at a quick fix and not a long-term lifestyle change.

10. As someone recently told me, "it must work - people

are losing weight". People that are truly losing fat on

low carb, high protein diets, are doing so because they

are eating fewer calories - that's the bottom line. There

is no magic - the same can be done on a healthy diet.

11. Low carb diets are lacking in fiber. Every plant-based

food has some fiber. All animal products have no fiber. A

lack of fiber increases your risk for cancers of the digestive

track (because transit time is lengthened) and cardiovascular

disease (because of fibers effect on fat and cholesterol). It

also puts you at a higher risk for constipation and other bowel

disorders.

12. Low carb diets lack sufficient quantities of the the many

nutrients / phytonutrients / antioxidants found in fruits,

vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, necessary for health

and aiding in prevention of cancer and heart disease. In fact,

you need these nutrients even more so when you're consuming

too much fat as is often the case on a low carb high protein diet.

13. Amercans already consume more than twice the amount

of protein needed. Add to that a high protein diet and you

have far too much protein consumption. By the way, most people

don't realize that all fruits, all vegetables, all whole grains,

and all legumes also contain protein. Animal products contain

larger quantities of protein, but that may not be a good thing.

Excess dietary protein puts you at a higher risk for many health

problems: gout (painful joints from high purine foods which are

usually high protein foods), kidney disease, kidney stones,

osteoporosis (excess dietary protein causes leeching of calcium

from the bones). By the way, countries with lower, healthier

intakes of protein also have a decreased incidence of

osteoporosis.

14. Low carb, high protein diets cause an unhealthy

physiological state called ketosis, a type of metabolic acidosis.

You may have heard the phrase, "fat burns in the flame of

carbohydrate". Excess acetyl CoA cannot enter the Krebs

Cycle (you remember the old Krebs Cycle) due to insufficient

OAA. In other words, for fat to burn efficiently and without

production of excess toxic ketones, sufficient carbohydrate

must be available. Ketosis can lead to many health problems

and can be very serious at its extreme.

15. Bad breath. Often called "keto breath" or "acetone

breath", its caused by production of acetones in a state of

ketosis.

So why the low carb, high protein craze? I believe there are

several reasons.

A. Weight loss (mostly muscle and muscle fluid) is often

rapid during the first few weeks. This causes people to think

theyre losing fat rapidly.

B. It gives you "permission" to eat the "bad foods": bacon,

eggs, burgers, steak, cheese, etc., and lots of fat.

C. Many see it as the new "magic" they've been looking for,

although it's been around, in various forms, since the

1960's.

The good news is that there is a very healthy way to lose

weight, feel energetic, and to greatly increase your chances

of keeping it off. But that's another article.

References:

- Brooks, G, Fahey, T: Exercise Physiology - Human Bioenergetics

and its Applications. John Wiley and Sons, 1984.

- Cheatham, B, Kahn, CR: Insulin Action and Insulin Signaling

Network. Endocrine Review 16:117, 1995

- Fain, JN: Insulin Secretion and Action. Metabolism 33:672, 1984.

- Fitts, RH: Cellular Mechanisms of Muscle Fatigue. Physiological

Review 74:49, 1994

- Griffin, James, Ojeda, Sergio: Textbook of Endocrine

Physiology. Oxford University Press, 2000

- Guyton, A, Hall, J: Textbook of Medical Physiology. W.B.

Saunders Company, 2000.

- Herzog, W: Muscle Function in Movement and Sports. American

Journal of Sports Medicine 24:S14, 1996

- Hoffman, JF, Jamieson, JD: Handbook of Physiology: Cell

Physiology. Bethesda: American Physiological Society, 1997

- Kimball, SR, Vary, TC, Jefferson, LS: Regulation of Protein

Synthesis by Insulin. Annual Review Physiology 56:321, 1994.

- McArdle, William, Katch, Frank, Katch, Victor: Exercise

Physiology - Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance.

Lea and Febiger, 1981.

- Mcdougall, MD, John: The Mcdougall Plan. New Century

Publishers, 1983.

- Simopoulos, AP, Pavlou, KN: Nutrition and Fitness. Basel:

Karger, 1997

copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S.

Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry,

offers free weight loss and fitness success stories

and targeted, highly affective weight loss programs

for women, men, type 2 diabetics, and people with

slow metabolisms and hypothyroidism..

http://www.Landry.com

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Low-Carb Diets - An Introduction

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Low-Carb Diet - Should I or Shouldnt I?