Low carb or no carb?

Negative media surrounding low carbohydrate dieting is giving healthy nutritional habits a bad name, according to Maria Deveson Crabbe, CEO of Aussie Bodies.

 

Ms Deveson Crabbe believes the media response to the 'celebrity low-carbohydrate diets' followed by identities such as Geri Halliwell and Jennifer Aniston is confusing low carbohydrate with no carbohydrate, and is overlooking the health benefits of a diet that reduces carbohydrates to sensible levels.

 

Responding to recent media reports, Ms Deveson Crabbe says that while cutting out whole food groups such as fat and carbohydrate is dangerous, those aiming to lose weight can benefit from eating more protein while minimising refined carbohydrates as found in white bread, white rice, and sugary snacks - without sacrificing good health.

 

"For decades the Australian consumer has been sold a myth - that cutting out fats and proteins and filling up on carbohydrates will enable you to lose weight," Ms Deveson Crabbe says.

 

"But not everybody has the same active lifestyle of the ironmen on breakfast cereal boxes. Since we're not burning all those carbohydrates as energy, over time our body begins converting these carbohydrates and storing them as fat.

 

"As many experienced dieters will testify, a regular high-carbohydrate intake with inadequate physical activity sends you on a roller coaster of weight fluctuations, along with mood swings, tiredness and lingering ailments.

 

"Foods high in protein and containing moderate amounts of healthy fats are not only essential for the repair and recovery of muscle tissue and organs, they actually assist metabolic fat burning by stimulating a hormone that rescues carbohydrates from body fat storage.

 

"Every day I am contacted by women and men who find that by combining a high-protein/low-carbohydrate (not no carbohydrate) diet with moderate exercise, not only are they losing weight and building muscle, they are healthier and happier too."

 

Ms Deveson Crabbe believes that while the low-carbohydrate diet trend is opening people's minds to alternative weight loss methods, consumers should be wary when it comes to 'one size fits all' diets.

 

"If there's one positive to come out of the whole low-carbohydrate dieting movement, it's that more and more people are thinking in terms of food groups - protein, carbohydrate and fat - for weight management, rather than calories.

 

"But ultimately healthy eating is about knowing what's best for your own body, as every individual has their own metabolic rate, their own activity level, and their own genetically-determined natural body weight.

 

"It's naïve to assume that one kind of diet is going to work for everybody. That's why Aussie Bodies came up with the PCF Calculator - a free online tool that allows you to work out your daily requirements of protein, carbohydrate and fat, all based on your own personal details."

 

Top-selling author and former bodybuilder Donna Aston, featured last month on the Seven Network's Today Tonight report on low-carbohydrate diets, recently criticised the program for its "failure to mention a few vital facts".

 

"The orthodox dietician generally believes we should consume around 10-15 per cent of our calories in the form of protein, very little fat, and between 60 and 75 per cent carbohydrates. These are quantities that the majority of modern-day scientific data continues to prove nutritionally imbalanced," Donna says on her website.