The crusade against carbs

[BCO]

Found a good article, addressing many of the claims that have been leveled against carbohydrates lately. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here, and I'd like to hear from low-carbers on this, specifically with regards to the papers linked.

Some extracts:

Low-Carbohydrate Diets Contribute to a Higher Risk of Death and Disease

1) The 2010 Annals of Internal Medicine published the article "Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality." Their conclusion: A low-carbohydrate diet based on animal sources was associated with higher all-cause mortality in both men and women, whereas a vegetable-based, low-carbohydrate diet was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality rates.

2) The 2012 British Medical Journal published the article "Low-Carbohydrate, High-Protein Diet and Incidence of Cardiovascular Diseases in Swedish Women: Prospective Cohort Study." Their conclusion: Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets, used on a regular basis and without consideration of the nature of carbohydrates or the source of proteins, are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

3) The 2013 Public Library of Science journal published the article "Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies." Their conclusion: Low-carbohydrate diets were associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality and they were not significantly associated with a risk of CVD mortality and incidence.

Animal Foods Increase Inflammation

The 2013 European Journal of Nutrition published the article "Consumption of Red Meat and Whole-Grain Bread in Relation to Biomarkers of Obesity, Inflammation, Glucose Metabolism, and Oxidative Stress." Their conclusion: The results of this study suggest that high consumption of whole-grain bread is related to lower levels of GGT, ALT, and hs-CRP, whereas high consumption of red meat is associated with higher circulating levels of GGT and hs-CRP. (Lower inflammatory markers, like CRP, are associated with better health.)

The 2013 Nutrition Reviews published the article "Dietary Pattern Analysis and Biomarkers of Low-Grade Inflammation: a Systematic Literature Review." A major conclusion: Patterns identified by reduced rank regression as being statistically and significantly associated with biomarkers of inflammation were almost all meat-based or due to "Western" eating patterns.

The 2014 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the article "Associations Between Red Meat Intake and Biomarkers of Inflammation and Glucose Metabolism in Women." Their conclusion: Greater red meat intake is associated with unfavorable plasma concentrations of inflammatory and glucose metabolic biomarkers in diabetes-free women.

Grains (Including Wheat) Do Not Increase Inflammation

The 2010 Journal of Nutrition published the article "Whole Grains Are Associated with Serum Concentrations of High Sensitivity C-reactive Protein among Premenopausal Women." Their conclusion: Women who consumed >or= 1 serving/d of whole grains had a lower probability of having moderate (P = 0.008) or elevated (P = 0.001) hs-CRP, according to the AHA criteria, compared with non-consumers.

The 2012 Nutrition Reviews published the article "Effect of Whole grains on Markers of Subclinical Inflammation." Their findings: Epidemiological studies provide reasonable support for an association between diets high in whole grains and lower C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations. After adjusting for other dietary factors, each serving of whole grains is estimated to reduce CRP concentrations by approximately 7%.

The 2013 Nutrition Journal published the article "The Potential Role of Phytochemicals in Whole-Grain Cereals for the Prevention of Type-2 Diabetes." Their findings: Diets high in whole grains are associated with a 20-30% reduction in risk of developing type-2 diabetes… biomarkers of systemic inflammation tend to be reduced in people consuming high intakes of whole grains.

Whole Grains Are Consistently Found to Be Healthy

A recent review of 45 prospective cohort studies and 21 randomized-controlled trials (RCT) compared people who rarely or never consume whole grains with those reporting an average consumption of three to five servings per day and found by comprehensive meta-analysis that those consuming the grains had a 26% reduction in the risk of type-2 diabetes and a 21% reduction in the risk of heart disease (independent of known CVD risk factors). Furthermore, there is an inverse relationship between whole grain intake and weight gain. Examples of whole grains included whole wheat, dark bread, oats, brown rice, rye, barley, and bulgur.

 

[3WA]

No-one in their right mind thinks that getting all the fat in a LCHF diet from animal fats is a good idea. These diets have to include nuts, avocados, olives and other fat-rich plant products.

 

[Nerfherder]

Its imposible to get rid of all carbs

However everyone has to admit that most diets could do with less refined carbs like bread, chips pasta etc.

 

[Archer]

You could probably find the exact same tests done with the exact opposite results.

I reckon there is only one thing you really need to think about - what are our bodies most suited to process? Grains which we've only eaten in large quantities for roughly the past 5000 years (and exceptionally more refined ones in the last 50 or so years), or fats which have been around and been eaten since forever. Obviously with the necessary other nutrients from veggies and such

 

[Obieone]

At least the focus seems to have shifted from cholesterol being bad to the main culprit which is inflammation.

 

[Thor]

Non processes carbs. End of story.

LCHF is BS, because people think HF means all and any fats.


Problem is people also think carbs from sweet potato and carbs from a muffin is the same quality.

Edit: corrected humiliating spelling error

 

[Replay]

No-one in their right mind thinks that getting all the fat in a LCHF diet from animal fats is a good idea. These diets have to include nuts, avocados, olives and other fat-rich plant products.

who said they don't?

Its imposible to get rid of all carbs

True. It is possible to keep it to a minimum

However everyone has to admit that most diets could do with less refined carbs like bread, chips pasta etc.

Exactly

 

[3WA]

crabs from a muffin is the same quality.

I did meet an absolute muffin at a bar last week. And she did give me crabs. How did you know?

 

[3WA]

who said they don't?

??? Not me.

 

[Thor]

I did meet an absolute muffin at a bar last week. And she did give me crabs. How did you know?

Eek... Sorry bout that

 

[Obieone]

lol..

 

[BCO]

Its imposible to get rid of all carbs

However everyone has to admit that most diets could do with less refined carbs like bread, chips pasta etc.

Agreed, but why are so many people also looking to exclude things like bulgur, lentils, brown rice, whole wheat etc.?

 

[Nerfherder]

Agreed, but why are so many people also looking to exclude things like bulgur, lentils, brown rice, whole wheat etc.?

Gluten?

The crusade against Gluten is also unfounded. Gluten allergies are rare and people are mistaking Gluten sensitivity for an allergy.
Same is true though... Carb portions need to be reduced

 

[BCO]

Gluten?

The crusade against Gluten is also unfounded. Gluten allergies are rare and people are mistaking Gluten sensitivity for an allergy.

Gluten's only found in wheat and barley - this issue is actually addressed in the article.

Same is true though... Carb portions need to be reduced

This is the problem - blanket statements lumping all "carbs" together. Or are you specifically referring to simple carbohydrates (aka sugars) and refined starches?

 

[gram]

Interesting Discussion

Carbs is not essentially bad, depends how they are used in your diet.

I am doing a Carb backloading, which is a best of both worlds scenario..

-low/no carb, high fat, moderate protein during the day
-Gym like a muddaeffer in the afternoon
-eat lots of carbs after that to replenish Glycogen stores

in the last 18 months or so...

lost +- 20 kg's
bmi is now around 13, ...could be better
cholesterol down
sugar down

I agree that gluten should not be demonized as well. You should only avoid it if you have a bona fide allergy to it.

 

[3WA]

Agreed, but why are so many people also looking to exclude things like bulgur, lentils, brown rice, whole wheat etc.?

To enter ketosis, which according to advocates burns fat faster and reduces cravings and overeating. These guys limit themselves to 15-30g of carbs a day. Haven't tried this myself, so don't know if it's very effective.

 

[BCO]

To enter ketosis, which according to advocates burns fat faster and reduces cravings and overeating. These guys limit themselves to 15-30g of carbs a day. Haven't tried this myself, so don't know if it's very effective.

My impression is that many people believe carbs are unhealthy, not just to be avoided for weight loss while on a ketogenic diet.

 

[Nerfherder]

To enter ketosis, which according to advocates burns fat faster and reduces cravings and overeating. These guys limit themselves to 15-30g of carbs a day. Haven't tried this myself, so don't know if it's very effective.

Its effective but there are a lot of people wondering what the long term effects are of this on your general health.

 

[Nerfherder]

My impression is that many people believe carbs are unhealthy, not just to be avoided for weight loss while on a ketogenic diet.

Well they don't believe that carbs have a place in our diet.

Physiologically we know that carbohydrates do have a place in our diet.

 

[RanzB]

Found a good article, addressing many of the claims that have been leveled against carbohydrates lately. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here, and I'd like to hear from low-carbers on this, specifically with regards to the papers linked.

Some extracts:

I'm about to leave, so I can't check up on everything, but is it really a good article? One of the sources doesn't work, and he seems fine cherry picking from another.

From his article:

Their conclusion: Low-carbohydrate diets were associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality and they were not significantly associated with a risk of CVD mortality and incidence.

From the actual review:

Conclusions
Our meta-analysis supported long-term harm and no cardio-
vascular protection with low-carbohydrate diets. However, the
observational studies were limited and moderately heterogeneous.
Our findings underscore the imminent need for large-scale trials
on the complex interactions between low-carbohydrate diets and
long-term outcomes