Low Carb Diet - The Truth and the Lies

Strictly speaking most slimming diets nowadays are a derivative of a low carbohydrate diet and we can’t by right consider a low-carb diet to be a type of diet. Rather it is more of a theme of diet. Other diets that we discuss here such as the Atkin’s Diet and the South Beach Diet are all technically low-carb diets too.

Basically a low-carb diet is one where the dieter is put on a dietary plan that restricts the consumption of carbohydrates. Foods that are high in carbohydrate like pasta, rice, noodles and bread are limited and are normally replaced with foods such as protein, fats and vegetables with high fiber and low carbohydrates.

Most of the time low-carb diets are used for the treatment of obesity however over the years many of also discovered different uses for the low-carb diet. Most notably would be for the treatment and regulatory purposes for diabetes and also for the treatment of children and people who suffer from epilepsy. Some people have even used specialized low-carb diets to help lessen the affect of stomach and intestinal cancer although solid proof about its effectiveness hasn’t be verified.

The whole movement of low-carb dieting started some 100 years ago when anthropologists started to analyze the dieting and food consumption patterns of previous human prior to the modern industrialized and farming ages. Most early humans were in-fact hunter gatherers who consumed food that were high in vegetable fiber and animal fat and protein. Hunter-gatherer societies rarely had much carbohydrates in their diets, much less than what we regularly consumer these days.

One of the first popularized low-carb diets was when Dr. Robert Atkins published his 1972 book titled “Dr. Atkin’s Diet Revolution” which basically recommended a low carbohydrate diet which he stated was successful in treating obese patients in the 1960s. One problem that this book had in its reception and thus its overall success was that the consumption of any proteins and any amount of fats was allowed. This met with criticisms from many health professionals and would limit the overall uptake of the book by a greater number of dieters.

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