Dave's pointer to the NY Times' most mailed articles got me to read this essay about carbohydrate restrictive diets. The article admits that there is very little actual experimental evidence for the effect or mechanism behind these popular diets, but exposes that this has been due to a systematic denial of funding for any research that contradicted the low-fat dogma that has been enforced since the 1970s. The evidence and well reasoned physiological hypothesis described in support of the effectiveness and healthfulness of low-carb is well presented. The central role of insulin in sugar and fat utilization is well known. The regulation of fat storage by controlling insulin dietarily seems obvious and intuitive.
I have been gaining weight since the late '70s, I believe due to a change in lifestyle due to higher paid desk jobs. At the end of the 80's I had reached a maximum weight of 300 pounds (I'm 5'11"). I was convinced by a girlfriend to eliminate refined sugar from my diet and lost 50 pounds in a year and a half. I reintroduced sugar, increased complex carbohydrates (a fancy name for starch) and decreased both protein and fat from 1992 through 1997 and slowly regained 30 pounds.
At 280 pounds I felt decidedly sluggish and unattractive so I tested Atkins' diet for three months, losing the 30 regained pounds during that time. I was satisfied and hungry, especially for bread and rice, which I began to consume at an increasing rate, culminating in carb binging. In 2000 at 290 pounds I began a low fat diet in earnest, combined with daily exercise, losing a meager 10 pounds over a year and a half. I believe slow weight loss is healthy, but this was ridiculously slow. It also took will power, hunger and physical suffering which made the experience very uncomfortable.
In late summer of last year, a new variant of a low carb diet was given to me that had few rules and allowed any carbohydrate rich food everyday. Carbohydrates are eaten only once a day, quickly, and complimented with twice the volume of non carbohydrate foods. Any number of non-carb meals (or more likely snacks) can be eaten at any other time. All this eating eliminated hunger. The lack of a sugar slump, a post meal loss of energy, increased my enjoyment of physical activity and subsequently my physical self image. Over the past 8 months I have lost 45 pounds, slightly exceeding my target rate.
We live in a carbohydrate rich environment. If you eat carbohydrates and getting sick of starve and relax type dieting, check out these concepts.
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