This year more dieters than ever are expected to try losing weight by cutting carbs. But carb counting can be confusing.
Diet books talk about "good carbs," "bad carbs" and the "glycemic index," while food packages now boast the number of "net carbs" a product contains.
None of this is stopping the low-carb diet craze, which has gained momentum in recent months, fueled by a slew of low-carb food products and low-carb menus at national food chains.
Here’s a quick primer on how to navigate the low-carb landscape.
There’s nothing magical about counting carbs — low-carb diets ultimately work because the dieter is consuming fewer calories. But some low-carb dieters do seem to lose weight faster and more easily than people on traditional diets. One reason is that low-carb dieters often lose more water weight in the short term.
Because certain carbohydrates can make you hungrier sooner, people on low-carb diets may get less hungry. And many dieters like the meats, cheeses, eggs and other foods proffered by low-carb diets, making it easier for them to stick with it. There’s a big problem with most low-carb diets: They tend to encourage over-eating of saturated fats.
The South Beach diet, which has topped national bestseller lists for months, claims that it’s not a low-carb diet. But the truth is, the South Beach diet is just a modified version of the Atkins diet. Both diets start with two weeks of restricted eating of mostly protein and low-carb foods, banning fruit, bread, rice, potatoes and pasta.
The South Beach plan is slightly less restrictive during the first 14 days, allowing more vegetables and nuts than Atkins, and South Beach introduces fruits and other carbs sooner than Atkins. The South Beach diet also touts lean meats and fish, whereas Atkins made a name for himself by boasting dieters could lose weight while loading up on beef and bacon and other foods loaded with saturated fat.
The diets are similar in that both ultimately shun processed foods and sugars.
Often the answer is no. Nutritionists say dieters are flocking to low-carb products with the misguided notion that they will help them lose weight. But what’s often not clear is that many low-carb products actually have more calories and far more unhealthy fats than regular brands.
For example, a serving of pancakes made from CarbSense pancake mix contains just seven grams of carbs but has 320 calories. Pancakes made with the same amount of Aunt Jemima Original Pancake mix have 28 grams of carbs but only 213 calories.
And some low-carb products are far higher in saturated fat and sodium. Mike’s Low-Carb Gourmet offers a vegetarian lasagna with 21 grams of carbs and 240 calories compared with the 38 carbs and 324 calories in the same amount of Lean Cuisine cheese lasagna. But the cheese lasagna has four grams of saturated fat and 672 mg of sodium compared with seven grams of saturated fat and 1,240 mg of sodium found in the low-carb variety.
"Net carbs" is a term made up by Atkins diet founder, the late Robert Atkins, as a way to help dieters avoid the least desirable types of carbohydrates. Although the term isn’t recognized by the Food and Drug Administration as a legitimate nutritional measure, it nonetheless is now widely used on dozens of food products.
When a food package refers to net carbs, it’s talking about only the carbohydrates that have a measurable impact on blood-sugar levels — primarily the "bad" carbs like those found in sugar, breads and potatoes. Carbohydrates from fiber as well as some sugar-free sweeteners and bulking agents, which have only a negligible impact on blood sugar, are subtracted.
For instance, an Atkins Cookies and Cream Advantage bar contains 22 grams of carbohydrates, but 11 carbs come from fiber while another nine come from glycerine, a sugar substitute. So Aktins considered the net carb impact to be just two carbohydrates.
But few net carbs doesn’t mean a product is always good for you. The biggest concern is that consumers will stop paying attention to other important nutritional information such as total calories or saturated fat content. Even so, the net carb label can be useful if consumers begin to realize that some carbohydrates — such as those from fiber or fruits and vegetables — are good carbs that even Atkins recommends.
The best carbs are those that have a low glycemic index, which is a ranking of how quickly the body converts a carb to sugar. The glycemic index is well-explained in the book, "The New Glucose Revolution" and on the University of Sydney Web site, www.glycemicindex.com. But common sense is really all you need.
Slow-release carbs are fibrous foods such as apples and broccoli and whole grains. Eat oat, barley- and bran-based cereals. Use breads made with whole grains and seeds. Consume lots of fruits and vegetables and salads without gobs of dressing.
Limit the amount of potatoes you eat. Like white bread, they cause a quick spike in blood sugar.
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