Posts Tagged ‘Atkins’
High Protein, Low Carbohydrate Diets
If you’ve ever heard of the Atkins diet then you’re familiar with one of the most popular high protein, low carbohydrate diets. The idea behind high protein and low carbohydrate diets is that you get approximately 30-50% of your calories from proteins, which is much higher than what the American Heart Association, the National Cholesterol Education Program, and the American Cancer Society recommends. The logic of a high protein, low carb diet is that by consuming less carbohydrates, you put your body into a different metabolic state in which you consume fat for fuel. This state is known as ketosis, named after ketones, the carbon fragments created after breaking down fat and what the body consumes.
Your body typically consume carbohydrates for fuel and only turns to fat stores whenever you’ve run out of carbohydrates. My limiting the consumption of carbs, you skip the carb burning stage and go immediately into consuming fat.
There are significant risks to diets like the Atkins diet that aren’t widely discussed. Weight loss is certainly one of the benefits for you run the risk of problems such as kidney failure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, kidney stones, cancer, nausea and bad breath.
(Photo by size8jeans)
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