| Alice Campbell 2006-04-20, 11:00 am |
| I have read books and heard so-called
diet experts advise you to exclude carrots, onions, tomatoes, squash and a
whole range of veggies with slightly higher carb levels in them. In that
case, you are eating mostly animal proteins and leafy greens - and that's
when the dangers of cannibalisation of body tissue arise.
That is exactly what the goal of any weight loss diet is all about -
cannibalisation of body tissues, specifically stored fat. How do you
think you get rid of the extra weight? Fat is the body's was of storing
calories of any sort for your use when freshly eaten ones aren't
available. When you are overweight, the excess is stored fat. The goal
of any diet is to reduce the amount of stored fat. How else to loose
weight? Something's got to go, and it's the stored fat.
People in extreme situations like the concentration camps in WWII came
out emaciated. Their diet was so bad or nonexistant that their bodies
used up their stored fat, and then with nothing else to do began to
destroy more useful tissues just to continue existing. In their case,
using useful body tissues for maintaining life did exactly that. The
body itself made that decision. The body is rather smart.
The low carb diet starts you off with dramatically restricted carbs.
You WILL lose weight on the introductory phase of the diet. The body
will be forced to use stored fat for energy. Then you increase your
carb intake slowly until you stop losing weight. This is a 'set point'
that means you are eating only the carbs that balance what your needs
are. You body is no longer using stored fat, but then again it is not
storing extra fat either. You are eating in balance to your needs.
Then you know exactly how to gain weight (eat more carbs) or to lose
weight (restrict them).
As long as you balance your carb intake, you can eat refined sugar every
day to gat your carbs, or you can eat carbs that are accompanied with
fiber and vitamins and such. It's your choice, and the quality of the
carbs you choose determine other things about your health than weight.
The low carb diet doen not tell you what to eat. It merely tells you
how many carbs to eat to determine your set point. When you know that,
the rest is up to you. The books written on the diet tell you how many
carbs are in most available foods. How you choose to eat is your
problem. Hopefully you will make good choices.
Alice
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