Well, in terms of nutrition, LC is as good or as bad as any diet.
I mean, some people manage to b*ll*x up the '5 a day' don't they? By interpreting it as potato and 3 litres of OJ = enough veg
So with LC, as far as I can see from the forum, the most common mistakes are these:
- not enough water/fluids
- too much protein
- thinking you should stuff yourself on fat (nope, just eat enough to prevent hunger or to maintain weight if that is what you want)
- not enough veg. this is debatable, but I still think people are better off with a variety of textures and colours of above ground veg. I mean, if you are eating
normal protein and
some/enough fat, then you need veg to fill the plate, and your tum, don't you?
- not drinking the broth (this is because most people on carby diets eat a lot of hidden salt. When they drop the carbs, they drop the hidden salt too, and need to add back in enough. Not too much. Every summer we get threads on 'help! I have cramp!' from newby low carbers, because they need more salt
- many, many people are mildly deficient in magnesium nowadays, due to commercial farming stripping the nutrients out of the soil. Symptoms shown in my post above. Low carbers often seem to benefit from supplementation.
- likewise potassium, which is another cause of cramps and muscle weakness.
These links show good food sources of both minerals.
https://draxe.com/top-10-potassium-rich-foods/
https://draxe.com/top-10-potassium-rich-foods/
8 out of 10 of the foods listed on both lists are low carb, so it is easy enough to add them into a LC diet.
Personally, I firmly believe that a well designed low carb diet will automatically have
better nutrition that a standard carby diet. Carbs are notoriously low in nutrients, and even bread has various supplements added to it, because it is so nutritionally poor, otherwise. Bell peppers compete with oranges for Vit C content. Veg often have
more nutrients than fruit, but without the fructose.
However, as I mentioned earlier, people have to make the effort to eat a sensible, colourful, varied diet.
Anyone living on a narrow range of a few foods, cooked to death, with added fat, is going to go the way of Pottingers Cats... IMHO. Whether they are eating LC or non LC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_M._Pottenger,_Jr.
My choice is to have a plate full of 1/4 protein and 3/4 veg. To me, that is a balanced plate.
And a lot of that veg is lightly cooked, or salad.
