Low Carbohydrate Versus Low Fat Diets

The purpose of this essay is to compare Low carb and Low Fat diets and examine their similarities and differences. Two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine provide evidence that in the short term, a low-carbohydrate diet helped people lose weight without any adverse effects. In the last decade, several leading nutritional scientists have taken the side effects into consideration. They have begun to think that the low carb diet may be partly right about losing weight, and scientists are now finally studying whether low-fat diets really work. However, many people still question the low-carbohydrate diet's long-term effectiveness and choose to stick to the traditional low fat diet.

In the short term, a low carbohydrate diet may be more effective, and in some ways healthier, than traditional low-fat diets. A low-carb diet allows unlimited protein and fats, including meats, cheeses, eggs and butter to be eaten along with very limited quantities of carbohydrates (i.e fruits and vegetables). It has been determined that people following a low carb diet lose more weight than people on a low-fat diet, even if they consume up to three hundred extra calories per day. Plus, low carb diets have been found to be easier to stick to, with less an appetite and less cheating. With these diets, people eat satisfying amounts of food and are even encouraged to snack. On a more scientific approach, the low carb diet is found to be healthier in the sense that the consumption of refined carbohydrates increases blood sugar. The body responds to this by producing insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that keeps blood sugar (glucose) under control. Insulin slows down the process of lipolysis, in which ...

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...holesterol) and blood pressure were not significantly raised during the low carb diet. However, by the end of the year, these people regained a lot of the weight that they had lost

These studies provide evidence that in the short term, a low-carbohydrate diet helped people lose weight without any adverse effects. In the last decade, several leading nutritional scientists have taken the short term and long term side effects into consideration. They have begun to think that the low carb diet may be partly right about losing weight, and scientists are now finally studying whether low-fat diets really work. From comparing these studies it can be concluded that both diets do efficiently “work,” they just affect the body in different ways, with different side effects…and in the end produce similar results: giving up on the diet and being heavy again.