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A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

nytimes.com

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Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#221

Post by leephillips »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #184
Mikeb85 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet some of the healthiest people on earth eat vegetable heavy diets... The archaeological record shows that hunter-gatherers had an abysmally short lifespan, and were far from healthy... Pretty much every positive development in human health history happened after the advent of agriculture. Hunter gatherers were lucky to live past 30... I'd guess your 'low carb' diet still had more vegetables and grains than mos…

True enough, life span was often short until fairly recent times. In the distant past there were many factors affecting life span, e.g., diseases, accidents, predation (by large feline species in particular), childbirth to name a few. However there is evidence of populations in pre-agricultural times which had favorable environments and consequently better health. In fact there was just published by the Smithsonian a…

I find your three comments here to be uncommonly rational and informative. I really hope you stick around.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#222

Post by kaitai »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #41
Taylorious wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its weird that this pops up on HN because I have been trying a low carb diet for the last 2.5 weeks (with quite a bit of success). I have run into the same issue as you in regards to snacking. The best snack I found was flavored almonds. They are about 4 carbs an ounce and come in a bunch of flavors (coconut is my favorite). I have had a huge sweet tooth my whole life but I find the thing that I crave the most is fru…

> Cheeseburgers are amazing but they are a hell of a lot less appealing with no bun, onions, tomato, or ketchup This is true, but honestly the only one of those you really need to cut out is the bun. The onions and tomato add up to 2-3g of carbs, and the ketchup is another 4g, so the whole burger in a lettuce wrap would be 6-7g of carbs, not at all bad for a meal! For reference, I use myfitnesspal to keep track of my…

Agreed. The 20g limit is not sustainable long-term. Even 50g can be hard or impossible (from a health perspective) for some people to sustain. Diets are not really all-or-nothing -- check out marksdailyapple.com for a more flexible approach to low-ish carb eating.

Playing with carb intake can be very educational: while low-carb diets benefit a lot of people, different folks have different needs. Your athletic pursuits, sex, pregnancy status, thyroid health, etc, are all really important to consider.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#223

Post by wdewind »

brianmcc wrote: post #185
rhizome wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know it.

From now on, Science is only allowed to study stuff wdewind didn't know already. A committee will run daily checks.

Sorry if I came off as a jerk, it wasn't my intent. This topic is well discussed on HN so I figured it was appropriate to expect something more cutting edge. When it comes to nutrition there are a few "key questions" people are debating right now. Whether or not a high fat diet provides high satiety is a well studied, uncontroversial subject.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#224

Post by kaitai »

trwea wrote: post #214

> They had significantly greater reductions in body fat than the low-fat group, and improvements in lean muscle mass I'm a bodybuilder and spend a good deal of time reading about the subject every week. It is common knowledge among bodybuilders that an increase in muscle and loss of fat at the same time is possible only with steroids. So what does "improvements in lean muscle mass" mean here? > what foods are best to…

Bodybuilders are people trying to perfect a good physique. Normal Americans are, generally, a little fat.

> It is common knowledge among bodybuilders that an increase in muscle and loss of fat at the same time is possible only with steroids.

For bodybuilders. If you're a 166-pound 5'1" 45-year-old woman who can't manage a 45-lb deadlift because of a combination of inflexibility and weakness, an increase in muscle mass and loss of fat at the same time is totally possible :)

> Here we read that the people in the experiment did not limit their calories, but "lost weight". This couldn't have been fat.

Why in the world not?

You sound like you think all people are bodybuilders, paying attention to their nutrition, hitting the gym regularly, deciding between chicken breasts and oatmeal for breakfast, focusing on fat loss instead of weight loss. Wrong audience.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#225

Post by mark_integerdsv »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #171
vacri wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lost 10kg last year on a low-carb diet. The diet was "eat no more than two slices of bread's worth of carbs per day", and knowing what carbs are (including rice and sugar). There's very little management or tracking required, and certainly no need for a mental 'calorie dictionary'. Counting calories is not as trivial as you make it sound, and I don't think it's warranted that you mock people as lazy for not doing s…

My main gripe is that low-carb dieting is being sold as a "one stop shop" for dieting. You'll notice how the undertone of the article is that it's more "healthy" and "lower risk" to eat low carb. This complete myth if you count your calories. It's the programming world equivalent of someone going "A call for Functional Programming" and then telling you how shit imperative languages are. If everyone just coded in Hask…

Down 15kg since April, Keto.

I highly doubt that anyone doing Keto with a good amount of success is doing so without tracking macros.

It is ironic that you'd decry ignorance and oversimplification when in point of fact you are guilty of the same in doing so.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#226

Post by [deleted] »

mark_integerdsv wrote: post #225
laichzeit0 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main gripe is that low-carb dieting is being sold as a "one stop shop" for dieting. You'll notice how the undertone of the article is that it's more "healthy" and "lower risk" to eat low carb. This complete myth if you count your calories. It's the programming world equivalent of someone going "A call for Functional Programming" and then telling you how shit imperative languages are. If everyone just coded in Hask…

Down 15kg since April, Keto. I highly doubt that anyone doing Keto with a good amount of success is doing so without tracking macros. It is ironic that you'd decry ignorance and oversimplification when in point of fact you are guilty of the same in doing so.

[deleted]

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#227

Post by kaitai »

dimitar wrote: post #139

I don't understand why there is this constant search for a diet that isn't just calorie restriction - learning about caloric content and restricting yourself in calories is much easier than following a diet. You basically eat the same foods you enjoy, but skip the occasional item that will take you overboard. Learning a few facts about caloric content of different types of food is much easier than changing your lifes…

Because it sucks being hungry and angry and moody and uncoordinated all the time. On my healthy 1800-calorie-a-day diet I once crashed my bike into a friends' bike in a roundabout because of a blood sugar crash that was leaving me shaking and with blurred vision. I was ravenous every morning at 10 am after my oatmeal at 8 (steel-cut, not instant!). Blood sugar fluctuations would lead me to divorce-inducing rage. And I still wasn't skinny. I was pushing "overweight" on the BMI scale despite biking 50 miles a week and weight training (Starting Strength).

Switch to a lower-carb diet -- eggs & veggies for breakfast -- and now I'm serene and start feeling gradually hungry at some point, without the rage. Better digestion, too. And lost 10 lbs so fast I checked with a doctor to make sure I don't have cancer, as I have not changed my routine other than diet.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#228

Post by wdewind »

wuliwong wrote: post #123
wdewind wrote: post #4

This study adds nothing new to the debate: > “To my knowledge, this is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new study. “It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calorie…

You are assuming that the low carb group consumed less calories but I believe that is not something that was tracked, so you shouldn't assume that.

I'm not assuming that. I'm pointing out that the major weakness in the study is that we can't know the impact calories had here either way, leaving dietary composition to be potentially a major confounder. It's a massive, gaping flaw in the study.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#229

Post by gdilla »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #5

To bad it's environmentally unsustainable. There's no way our ecosystem can survive all of us eating eggs, tuna, and chicken all day. We need to consume less animal products not more. Low carb is fine for a few wealthy people who want to lose weight but it's not a responsible solution to the public health problem. What about a low-junk food diet? No cqlorie restrictions but no refined carbs? I don't think we need ti…

You can do a keto diet and still be vegetarian. Don't know about vegans. But anyway, cheese, nuts, avacados, cooking with olive oil and butter. More here: http://www.reddit.com/r/vegetarianketo

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#230

Post by gdilla »

sb23 wrote: post #12
buss wrote: post #9

For anyone who has access to the paper ( http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1900694 ) and is skilled in reading medical research papers, I would love to know if they account for snacking. When I briefly tried a low-carb diet (just out of curiosity, not to lose weight as I'm already quite healthy) I found that I was unable to snack because almost all snack foods are loaded with carbs. I can only eat so much beef…

I have been on a low carb diet for over a year now, and I have a handful of nuts. Almonds, cashews, whatever. They have an acceptable amount of carbs in them and make you feel full enough to make it to the next meal. The biggest issue is the expense, I spend about $20-30 a fortnight on nuts alone.

You might like sunflower seeds. Salted and husked - $3 a bag and they last a long time. THey have fibre and good fat, taste good but not so good that you over eat.
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