Low-fat, Low-glycemic And Low-carb Diets Compared

Cowboyjim said:

Why can't they write in plain English? 8)

Click to expand...

:lol: I know, where's that Google Translator :think:

Here's the hyperlink

http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalnews. ... sid=247043

Seems that with regard to total energy expenditure (TEE) and resting energy expenditure (REE)

low-fat produced the greatest decrease, low GL a middle amount, and low-carb the smallest.

IF I UNDERSTAND THE RELEVANCE of TEE and REE, then they're talking about energy (or loss of it through diet.)

They therefore recommend NOT following low-fat (greatest loss of energy expenditure, remember) and recommend low GL, since this is an improvement on low-fat.
Wht they don't recommend low carb is beyond me, since this is an even greater improvement.

Here is the actual study :

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.asp ... id=1199154

Seems this ranking of low-fat as one extreme/ low GL as middling / low-carb as the other extreme holds true also for :

serum leptin (low-carb lowest)
cortisol excretion (highest for low-carb)
HDL levels (highest for low-carb)
triglycerides (lowest for low-carb)

"indexes of peripheral (P = .02) and hepatic (P = .03) insulin sensitivity were lowest with the low-fat diet"
"the very low-carbohydrate diet produced the greatest improvements in most metabolic syndrome components examined herein"

It's not all good for the low-carb diet :

"Twenty-four hour urinary cortisol excretion, a hormonal measure of stress, was highest with the very low-carbohydrate diet. Higher cortisol levels may promote adiposity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease, as observed in epidemiological studies."


Their conclusions :

"The low-fat diet produced changes in energy expenditure and serum leptin that would predict weight regain. In addition, this conventionally recommended diet had unfavorable effects on most of the metabolic syndrome components studied herein.
"In contrast, the very low-carbohydrate diet had the most beneficial effects on energy expenditure and several metabolic syndrome components, but this restrictive regimen may increase cortisol excretion and CRP.
"The low–glycemic index diet appears to have qualitatively similar, although smaller, metabolic benefits to the very low-carbohydrate diet, possibly without the deleterious effects on physiological stress and chronic inflammation. These findings suggest that a strategy to reduce glycemic load rather than dietary fat may be advantageous for weight-loss maintenance and cardiovascular disease prevention."

Well ,that's thrown a bit more light on the matter. Leaves me with some low-carb observations to follow up (cortisol excretion, CRP)

Geoff

Wow. Thanks Jim, and Geoff for a great interpretation...

The cortisol thing is a concern often expressed about VLC in the paleo community, I think that cortisol production is linked to gluconeogenesis, so it's another reason not to bulk yourself up on protein on any diet.

Two obvious criticisms is that the study was very small and very short term. I'm not sure about the other diets, but low-carb dieters usually go through a 3 to 4 week "fat adaption", after which energy levels increase. I'd wager that if they'd continued for longer the low-carb TEE would have reduces further.

I'd like to have seen some VLC diets included as well.

Good stuff.

I just wish they'd stop confusing the terms "Low Glycemic Index" and "Low Glycemic Load"...

They are NOT the same thing... You use the GI to calculate the GL, but to do that, you need to know how many actual available carbs there are in a portion of that food.

Below is an extract from my pdf copy of GL Diet For Dummies

The GL gives you an accurate and sensible picture of what
really happens when you eat carbs. Here’s how we work it out,
but remember, you don’t have to worry about any of the maths,
or do any of the counting yourself. We’ve done it all for you.

 First take the GI rating of the food. The Web site www.
glycaemicindex.com gives you all the latest GI-rated
foods and their carbohydrate concentration.

 Divide that number by 100. For example, carrots have a
high GI of between 75 and 85, depending on how old the
carrots are and how long you cook them for (75 divided
by 100 = 0.75).

 Multiply that number by the actual carbs in an average
portion. (100 grams of carrots contains around 7 grams
of carbs. 0.75 × 7 = GL of 5.25.)

 100 grams of carrots is a normal portion, but to get 50
grams of those crucial useable carbs from carrots for
GI testing you need about 750 grams or 1 1⁄2 pounds of
carrots, which might be normal if you’re a donkey, but is
probably a bit on the heavy side for likes of us humans.

The GL ratings classification is:
 Low GL = 10 or less
 Moderate GL = 11–19
 High GL = 20 or more
The bottom line when it comes to GL and carrots (and loads
of other foods for that matter) is that a normal portion of
carrots with a GL of 5.25 is low and means that we can eat
carrots with confidence as a good, nutritious, healthy food.

Click to expand...

Eating natural, whole foods (which can include cake and cookies made with unprocessed ingredients like ww flour and maple syrup), cutting out processed foods and making, growing, cooking and baking your own food is what's going to take you through the long haul. Diets set you up to eventually fail. A healthy lifestyle, on the other hand, will win every time.

max008 said:

Eating natural, whole foods (which can include cake and cookies made with unprocessed ingredients like ww flour and maple syrup), cutting out processed foods and making, growing, cooking and baking your own food is what's going to take you through the long haul. Diets set you up to eventually fail. A healthy lifestyle, on the other hand, will win every time.

Click to expand...

I see you are a male with Gestational diabetes looks like your maple syrup diet has screwed you up a treat :lol: