Oct 6, 2012

Quick Fact: Diet Fads

Two diet fad facts to consider:
 


Low Carb Diet

-Pasta, rice, or vegetables eaten on their own do not convert to fat. They convert to glycogen and are stored in muscle and liver cells. A study by Kevin Acheson showed that when people were fed over 500 g of carbs (roughly 1.3 kg of cooked pasta), it only converted to 10 g of fat—large amounts stored as glycogen.

-In 1997, Dr Susan Holt from the University of Sydney fed people 1000 kJ portions of food and measured the amount of glucose and insulin produced. What she found was protein foods such as beef, chicken and fish stimulated the release of larger amounts of insulin than a 1000 kJ serving of white pasta. The reason? Protein foods also stimulate the release of insulin, and some specific amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are potent stimulators of insulin.

-For each gram stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver, there is about 3-4 g of water. On a low carb diet, after 7-14 days, a person basically goes through diuresis which makes weight loss more dramatic.

-When deprived of carbs, the body uses ketone (emergency backup fuel). Some studies have shown that the metabolic rate can slow as much as 20% while the human body is in this state.

-Consider the production of glucose from protein, and that while in ketosis the body cannibalizes its own muscle in a bid to get some carbohydrate to the above-mentioned systems, and you can understand why valuable muscle and water loss make a huge chunk of the weight loss. A loss of lean muscle means a further decrease in metabolism.



Glycemic Index (GI)

-This measure how fast the carbohydrate-based foods release sugar (glucose) into the blood.

- Glycemic load (GL) is the GI food multiplied  by the grams of carbohydrates. A study was conducted between two groups. One followed a high GL diet and other was a low GL diet. There was no difference between the two groups with weight loss.

-The American Diabetes Association states: “At this time, there is insufficient information to determine whether there is a relationship between glycaemic index or glyceaemic load of diets and the development of diabetes.”

-Dairy foods have a low GI but have a high insulin index. For example, whole milk was 41 (low GI), the insulin index was a whopping 148. (Skin milk is 37 and 140.)



Information for this posting was from: Bilsborough, S. (2007). Finding facts in fad diets. Issues, 84, 28-31.

As for Dr. Carm, she is on a see food diet. Not seafood, but see food. 
[This means she sees food and eats it!]
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Next Quick Fact is scheduled for October 20th

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