Valerie Goldstein-Berkowitz, 7 West 51st Street, New York, NY 10019; Valerie@centerforbalancedhealth.com.
What does a clinician need to know about low-carbohydrate (LC) diets? This review examines and compares the safety and the effectiveness of a LC approach as an alternative to a low-fat (LF), high-carbohydrate diet, the current standard for weight loss and/or chronic disease prevention. In short-term and long-term comparison studies, ad libitum and isocaloric therapeutic diets with varying degrees of carbohydrate restriction perform as well as or better than comparable LF diets with regard to weight loss, lipid levels, glucose and insulin response, blood pressure, and other important cardiovascular risk markers in both normal subjects and those with metabolic and other health-related disorders. The metabolic, hormonal, and appetite signaling effects of carbohydrate reduction suggest an underlying scientific basis for considering it as an alternative approach to LF, high-carbohydrate recommendations in addressing overweight/obesity and chronic disease in America. It is time to embrace LC diets as a viable option to aid in reversing diabetes mellitus, risk factors for heart disease, and the epidemic of obesity.
Amazing news: my LDL-P was 765 after a 45 day cruise while on a very low carb diet. I have been on the very low carb diet since the first week of Jan.
Other Liposcience results:
Total Cholesterol 125
LDL-C 55
HDL-C 85
HDL-P 35.5
Triglycerides 48
non-HDL cholesterol 40
I eat three eggs each morning with bacon.
I try to eat at least 30 g of protein at each major meal.
I don't worry about butter or mayonnaise.
I have not lost weight.
My hgb A1C was 8.7 just before I started the diet. Now it is 7.7
That decrease is after decreasing fortamet (metformin) from 2,000 mg a day to 1,000 mg a day.
I am on crestor 5mg
Endur-acin 500 bid
Lovaza 4,000 a day
I lost 80 pounds before my wedding in 2007 with with a 1800 to 1400 calorie diet.
My metabolism slowed down and I gained back 55 pounds over five years despite not exceeding 3,000 calories a day and exercising two hours a day. I began eating a lot of fruit.
I think those extra carbs were my downfall.
Thus I decided to try something new: The very low carb diet.
BIG SURPRISE TODAY. AIM HIGH TRIAL stopped early because of ischemic strokes in the patients on high dose extended release niacin.
Hopefully in the Orlando NLA meeting we will have the full evaluation of the data.
Were the strokes in metabolic patients?
Was the dose of Niacin 2,000 mg which may have made the insulin resistance worse in metabolic patients.
I use endur-acin 1,000/d with crestor 5 mg. I will continue this low dose at this time.
Keywords: niacin
Chapter nine: The laws of Adiposity
1- Body fat is carefully regulated if not exquisitely so.
2- Obesity can be caused by a regulatory defect so small that if would be undetected by any technique yet invented.
3-Whatever makes us fatter and heavier will also make us overeat.
This book follows up on Gina Kolata's book, Rethinking Thin.
I hope the NLA will address the paradigm changes suggested in this book. I have to say I still hear lectures at the NLA that patients should eat less and exercise more. This has not worked for our patients. The Science discussed discussed in these two books explains why.
I hope the new NCEP guidelines do not make TLC the first thing for patients to do.
Lets put the evidence based medicine first. Statins to decrease mortality in patients with plaque. What could be simpler.
Low Fat diets and increased carbs may be part of the cause of the obesity epidemic.
Because the evidence has been so poor, we may have been giving patients the wrong advice.
