Have you been diligently dieting for weeks but watching as the scale hovers around the same number?
It’s pretty darn frustrating, isn’t it?
But I have some news that could help you fade that frustration. Even if you’re not losing weight, making changes in your diet could be doing very big things for your health.
Namely, slashing your risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed 69 healthy, overweight people who were at risk of developing diabetes. For eight weeks, the participants ate diets that were modestly lower in either fat or carbs — so we’re not talking drastic changes here.
After eight weeks, the people who ate diets lower in fat had "significantly higher insulin secretion and better glucose tolerance and tended to have higher insulin sensitivity," according to the lead researcher on the study.
Translation: A decreased risk for diabetes.
Now, all of these benefits came without the participants in the study losing any weight. They ate enough to maintain their original body weights, just cutting fat or carb intake. In the end, the researchers determined that taking fat consumption down to 27 percent of your daily calories could do big things for diabetes prevention.
When it comes to food and diet, quality is as important as quantity. We already know that taking in plenty of good-for-you foods can do great things for your health — it’s just easy to lose sight of that fact when you’re not seeing visible results.
The researchers emphasized that the diet used in the study is an easy one to adopt. Participants dined on meals like sesame chicken with rice accompanied by snow peas, carrots, broccoli, cheese, oranges, and a dinner roll.
That doesn’t sound too much like diet food, now does it? But the benefits seem to be major.
Ms. O’Brien has written for Nutrition & Healing, Healthier Talk and a variety of other natural and alternative health outlets. She believes in the power of natural medicine and her goal is to open people’s eyes to the benefits of alternative and integrative medicine.
Christine is passionate about helping people help themselves without having to turn to harsh drugs or invasive surgeries.
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Effects of Low-Carb Diet on Appetite, Glucose, and InsulinResistance
An Atkins-like low-carbohydrate diet can help improve glucose control,insulin sensitivity, and glycated hemoglobin (A1C), according to a trialreported in the March 15, 2005, issue of Annals of InternalMedicine.
Researchers studied diet in a controlled clinical environment among 10obese people with type 2 diabetes. While staying in an inpatient hospitalunit, participants were instructed to continue their usual diet, consisting ofmeals from the hospital kitchen augmented by food from the outside, for thefirst 7 days of the trial. Participants were encouraged to eat as much as theywanted of name-brand foods—McDonald’s sandwiches, Dunkin’ Donuts bakeryproducts, Oreo cookies—for which dietary information was readilyavailable.
After 7 days, all participants switched to a low-carb diet that reducedcarbohydrates to about 21 g/day but permitted as much protein and fat as theydesired. People were allowed to choose from a menu of foods prepared in thehospital kitchen. They remained on the low-carb diet for the next 2 weeks. Allparticipants were encouraged to maintain their usual level of physicalactivity.
While on the low-carb diet, the average energy intake decreased from 3,111kcal/day to 2,164 kcal/day, which contributed to an average weight loss of 3.6lb during the 14-day low-carb diet phase. The average 24-hour blood glucoselevels became normalized, the average A1C level dropped from 7.3% to 6.8%, andinsulin sensitivity improved by about 75%, according to researchers.
Although the study had a small number of participants and lasted only a fewweeks, it was strictly controlled and provides evidence concerning the valueof low-carb diets that may merit further exploration in larger controlledstudies. â–ª
Boden G, Sargrad K, Homko C, et al.: Effect of alow-carbohydrate diet on appetite, blood glucose levels, and insulinresistance in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Ann InternMed 142:403–411, 2005.
What happened to the group that ate the reduced carb diet?
Get your carb intake low enough and I’ve got to think there would be ZERO risk of diabetes……no?
People that reduce fat intake will no doubt eat more of something else, most likely carbs. That’s a recipe for disaster.
NOW WHICH IS IT, LOW FAT OR LOW CARBS. I HAD A STROKE BECAUSE OF A LOW FAT DIET. WHERE IS THE SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF THESE SO CALLED SCIENTIFIC STUDIES?
I absolutely hate articles that seem to claim a one type of diet fits all. For example just in my case, the total opposite is true! I cannot tolorate carbs unless they are from vegetables and from a limited amount of fruit but I can eat as many berries that I want. I eat all the fat I want but the “right” type of fats. The results are quite stunning for me. I stay at my correct body mass for years and feel great as a result.
This low fat, low carb issue will probably continue indefinitely. Any nutrition textbook will tell you that there are essential nutrients in protein and fat, but none in carbohydrates. That said, vegetables and fruit contain phytonutrients that are really important for health. I think because everyone is encouraged to eat a bunch of “whole grains”, we get too much flour. Period. Flour, regardless of it’s origin, is refined. Refined carbs are the #1 reason for insulin spikes.
And then there’s the ridiculous new plate icon replacing the food pyramid, that tells us we need more and more grains, and only low fat or skimmed dairy products. I went on the website (www.choosemyplate.gov) and out of curiosity put in info as if I were a pregnant woman wanting to know how to fill my plate. What came up, in my opinion, is nothing short of frightful. No fat, switch to skim milk, or soy milk. Eat tofu, though not a mention of an egg – or even salmon! Eating this way as a pregnant woman ensures producing a baby deficient in fat soluble nutrients, and most likely very poor brain and nervous system development. Chronic disease: here we come. The USDA should be very ashamed that this is really all about money. Hence, the dumbing down of Americans. This truly scares the hell out of me!
Most people consume cooked fats, which are bad. Reducing those would lead to health improvements, as the study showed. However, reducing healthy fats such as those found in plants, consumed raw, would have detrimental effects on health.
What raw fats can are found in plants? I can render lard in my kitchen in a matter of hours by simply heating it up. Try that with corn or soybeans.
Anonymous– I think coconut oil or olive oil would be the healthiest choices, as these are oils one would consume raw. But there are many other plant oils– all your polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils come from plants– but who would drizzle canola oil on their salad? Avocados and chia seeds also contain beneficial fats, and again these are consumed raw. When you COOK an oil, you turn it into a trans fat AND you oxidize it, which means you are ingesting millions of free radicals in every bite, and these in turn will oxidize your cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol is much more likely to “stick” in your blood vessels and form atherosclerotic plaque, along with the trans fat from those same cooked oils.
Cooking with butter and/or other animal fats keeping below their respective flash points is not unhealthy as long as these fats are from pasture/grass fed animals. Folks have been doing this for a really long time. Vitamin K2 is one of the most important essential vitamins for cardiovascular health, bone health, cancer prevention, and blood sugar regulation (we don’t convert it well from K1), and plant fats don’t have it. If we want to get it from plants, we need to eat fermented soy or black beans (natto) or other fermented vegetables. Other than that, the best sources are from cultured grass fed dairy, and animal fats. Here’s a chart that shows the food sources of K2.
http://connect.in.com/vitamin-k2-food-sources/images-vitamin-k-in-food-sources-micrograms-per-100-grams-1-914329838364.html