Low-Carbohydrate Diet Benefits

Words: 975
Pages: 4

The beneficial or harmful effects of low-carbohydrate diet has not been clearly demonstrated. A low-carb diet is beneficial for alleviating cardiovascular disease risk factors. Furthermore, low carbohydrate dieters reported less confusion and responded faster during an attention vigilance task than the reduced calorie dieters. Contrarily, it has been reported that low carbohydrate dieters performed worse on memory related tasks because of reduced dietary carbohydrate. Nonetheless, low-carb diet does not necessarily contribute to weight loss, and that a different component such as high protein content can contribute to weight loss. The low carb- diet has gained extreme popularity over the past 40 years because it was advertised effectively. …show more content…
Most people search for the quickest route to help them lose weight; however, they usually steer away from healthier routes such as exercise and eating less processed foods. Approximately, 17 % of Americans were on the low-carb diet in 2004 (Miljkovic & Mostad, 2007). A survey by A.C. Nielsen, a leading market information company, presented that 17.2% of households included someone who practiced the low-carb diet, while 19.2% tried the low-carb diet, but failed at it (Freeman & Hayes 2004). The low-carb diet restricts individuals from consuming carbohydrates, while their primary food sources are meat and dairy. However, a low-carb diet is not merely just limited amounts of carbohydrates.
There are many different types of low-carb diet, such as the Atkins Diet, Protein Power Diet, Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, and the Zone Diet (Miljkovic & Mostad, 2007). The list of low-carb diets are continuous, however, the most popular diet is the Atkins Diet. The Atkins Diet was introduce by Robert Coleman Atkins, who was an American physician and cardiologist. Atkins was best recognized for the "Atkins Nutritional Approach", or "Atkins Diet", a popular diet that requires high consumption of protein and limited consumption of carbohydrates (Miljkovic & Mostad,
…show more content…
The Low-carb dieters supported the low-carb diet as an ideal diet plan for most of the population to help reduce weight and alleviate disease factors. The study, administered by Kim and Colleagues, support a diet low in carbohydrate but high in protein content (2009). The high protein content increases metabolic rate in adipose tissues without causing detrimental effects. The increased metabolic rate, results in body weight loss due to the fact that the body does not store glucose as fat (Kim, Yang, Kim, Lee, & Kim 2009). Additionally, it was reported that low carbohydrate to high protein ratio had positive effect on body composition, blood lipid level, blood glucose, and satiety (Kim, Yang, Kim, Lee, & Kim