What Do Nutritionist Students Learn About Low Carb Diets?
We’ve been taught to eat lots of grains and fruit, some veggies and stay away from anything with more than a tiny bit of fat in it. This current fat theory diet focuses on helping people lose weight and lower cholesterol. The only problems that diet claims to fix are those two…and the reality is that diet does nothing to help either of these issues. A low carb diet also focuses on normalizing weight and cholesterol levels. In addition it’s been shown to improve immune function, increase satiety, lower stress and stop heartburn. Decreasing carbs can improve function of the pancreas, liver, heart, brain, kidneys, intestines, blood vessels and every other organ in you body. Higher energy levels, better sleep, a cease to depression, an end to diabetes and a cure for acne have all been seen eating less carbs and more natural fat and protein. Joints that don’t ache, no headaches or need for a nap after meals, higher bone density, regulated blood sugar and normal blood pressure to name a few more benefits.
Ok a few more: normalized levels of hormones, digestive enzymes, blood pressure, insulin, vitamins and minerals. There are more to write about and I definitely plan on detailing every one in the future so you’ll just have to trust me. Or, you can leave a comment on a particular condition that I’ve listed or one I haven’t and I’d be happy to write up a detailed post on why a low carb diet can probably help or cure it. I’m excited to learn more about the actual mechanisms behind the benefits of eating low carb. To be completely honest, from the research I’ve done so far as a nutritionist student, which is a decent amount of reading but I haven’t even scratched the surface of the numerous benefits of a low carb diet, I am completely on board already. I know people today are looking for the one easy answer on how to be healthy. While it’s not the easiest thing to transition from high carb to low carb, it’s already the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done for my health, and many, many others have a similar experience.
The book I’m reading currently is Life Without Bread by Christian B Allen, Ph.D. and Wolfgang Lutz, M.D. It was originally published in Germany about 40 years ago and it chronicles the successful use of solely a low carb diet by Dr. Lutz to treat over 10,000 patients with a wide array of ailments. Most of the conditions I listed above were successfully abolished with the adoption of a low-carb diet, more specifically less than 72g of carbs per day. 72g is still a decent amount of carbs, but that is the amount that Dr. Lutz stuck to when treating his patients. I’ll do a more detailed writeup of the book as soon as I finish it, which will probably be tonight because I can’t put it down. I’ll sum up the book as simply as possible in the meantime. The high-carb, low-fat diet that has been prescribed to patients to lose weight and lower risk of heart disease for the past 30 years is false. Eating too many carbs, especially without a proportional increase in activity level, is literally killing us slowly through a variety of mechanisms. These damaging conditions can be remedied with a low carb, high protein, high fat diet. Now when I say high fat/high protein, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be eating too much of either of those. When a majority of your calories are coming in the form of healthy fat and beneficial protein, you are far more satisfied after a meal for a longer time than when you eat mostly carbs. The book includes many studies and real results to scientifically prove the harm of eating high carb and the benefits of eating low.
I do believe that a low carb approach to combating disease is a long way off from being accepted in the general population. It debunks a lot of current nutritional wisdom and changes this large are never a quick transition. There is enough scientific data already to support the adoption of a low carb diet but it’s going to take a lot more time, money and research to completely change people’s view of healthy eating.