Low Fat Diet vs. Low Carb Diet Essay Example

goal by exercising more and by eating less fat and calories.The right way is to lose fatty foods in one’s system but still incorporate other things like exercising and losing high calorie foods as well. A proper low fat diet would entail a person to decrease his or her total intake of fat 20 or 30% of his or her total daily calories. Cholesterol should be reduced to 300mg or even less daily. Saturated fat should be at most 10% of the total calories a day. Unsaturated fat that is healthier could be made as substitute like olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oils, nuts, salmon or avocado in one’s diet (Zelman, 2007).

Low Carbohydrate Diet

For several years now, low carbs diet had become quite famous for those trying to lose weight. As one could determine in its name, low-carb diets limit carbohydrates in ones food intake like bread, grains, rice, starchy vegetables and fruit and take in more sources of protein and fat. Many types of low-carb diets exist nowadays, each with varying restrictions on the types and amounts of carbohydrates. Some of these are include Atkins diet, Zone diet, Protein Power and the ever famous South Beach Diet (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2008).Like fats, carbohydrates in this type of diet become the enemy of the dieters.

Carbohydrates sre said to raise blood sugar levels, which then kicks in insulin. The theory behind this weight losing regimen is that insulin drives blood sugar into the cells and prevents fat breakdown in the body, and therefore carbohydrates should be reduced so that the level of insulin would follow. Too many insulin would means that one cannot burn excess fat

to lose weight.Proponents of low-carb diets are also suggesting that if carbohydrates raise blood sugar and insulin levels and cause weight gain, a decrease in carbs will result in lower blood sugar and insulin levels, leading to weight loss. If people are not eating carbs, or only so little, their bodies would break down fat to provide needed energy.

Of course, there are some accounts of how people do lose weight on low-carb diets, but the weight loss probably isn't related to blood sugar and insulin levels (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2008). There are four factors that contribute to the weight loss associated to this type of diet.With low carbs diet, there would be a loss of water weight, since at the onset of one’s carbohydrate intake, the body would be burning glycogen. This component contains large amount of water such that when it would be burned, a release of water or increase of urination would take place, leading ultimately to weight loss. Another factor relates low-carb diet to decreased appetite but no clear explanation exists for this.

As fats and protein are incorporated in the meals of a low-carb dieter, they feel full longer because protein and fats take longer for the body to digest.And since one is entirely eliminating one food group from his system, the carbohydrates, the diet reduces the overall calorie intake as it limits the variety of food entering the body. This is especially because carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice, cereals, milk or most fruits and sweets already make up over a half of people’s daily calories. Reducing these would evidently produce results if the diet is followed through religiously (Mayo Clinic Staff,

2008) .

Low fat diet vs. Low carbs diet Since these two types of diet are the most popular, both are often set against each other.Other people or experts may think that one type is better than the other. But although both might be helpful, effective for losing weight even, both also have their weaknesses and associated risks. Maybe people are arguing over the wrong things. If one would like to lose weight healthily, is it really right to eliminate one food group all together? Fats, when consumed moderately may have some good effects on one’s health, like unsaturated fats.

Same goes to carbohydrates, as this food group is composed of foods that give us energy.The key of course is moderation. Proponents of either diet focus too much on the merits of the diet they believe in that they fail to recognize that both are not truly the answers to losing weight, at least healthily. The real solution may very well be shifting from processed foods to unprocessed foods (Adams, 2004). Processed foods are manufactured and packaged nicely to attract consumers into wanting to eat something that contains no real nutrients or very few nutrients, and they cost handsomely too.

Nowadays, everybody seems to be eating them, living in such a fast paced world, everyone wants something instant. For example, for breakfasts, people have cereals, for lunch, frozen foods and for dinner, macaroni and cheese boxes, canned tunas and soups, packaged meats, or other grocery foods that are processed. The thing with these manufactured foods, they are heavily refined and uses processed ingredients like white flour, which has all of its nutrition stripped away already during the milling

process.All these processed foods are basically the same, they look appetizing outside, but inside there is nothing but empty calories that lead to more often than not illness, and of course weigh gain. Moreover, the processed foods contain larger quantities of sugar, or dangerous materials like hydrogenated vegetable oil, which could promote disorders in the nervous system and in the cardiovascular health of anyone fond of these foods or chemical flavor enhances that has some elements in it that could promote deathly diseases like cancers (Adams, 2004).The thing here is that all processed foods are unhealthy whether they are low fat or low carb.

Therefore the debate whether one diet is better than another is irrelevant to the question of healthy-eating. You may say you are not looking to become a healthy eater and you just want to lose weight, but still would you not agree that to do it healthily is much better, isn’t it? Losing weight but ending up in a hospital really is not on anyone’s wish for sure.

Reference

1. Adams, Mike (2004). Low-carb vs.low-fat diet debate distracts from the real weight loss solution. NaturalNews. Com. Retrieved 1 August 2008 from http://www.naturalnews. com/z002428. html Mayo Clinic Staff (2008).
2. Low Carb Diets. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 1 August 2008 from http://www.mayoclinic. com/health/low-carb-diet/NU00279 Zelman, Kathleen (2007).
3. Weight Loss: Reducing Dietary Fat. WebMd. Retrieved 1 August 2008 from http://women. webmd.com/reducing-dietary-fat? page=3