A Low Carb Diet Worked For Me

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the important of cutting out carbohydrates, or carbs, from a normal diet. I cannot tell you how many articles I have read and how many news clips I have watched about the benefits of a low-carb eating plan. Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing all the reasons that I should alter what I eat. I'm sick of hearing about all of the consequences if I don't make these changes. I do not, therefore, want to attempt to convince anyone reading to make the change to a low-carb diet. I simply want to share that changing to a low-carb diet completely worked for me and my lifestyle.

I cannot remember exactly what it was that led me to taking the plunge into the world of low-carb for myself. I think perhaps I was just tired of being overweight and of feeling lethargic all the time. I guess it is true that life has to get really bad and that we have to want to make changes before we actually will. My physical health got bad enough that I really desired to make changes. So I spent a few afternoons at my local bookstore and came away with a few books that seemed the most reasonable and the most helpful at the end of my search. One of them was all about going low-carb.

I was leery of going low-carb for one main reason: I liked carbs and most foods that were carb-filled a lot. I liked eating breads, pastries, sandwiches, cookies and many other carb-friendly things. I knew that if I attempted to cut back on carbs it would really alter my diet. It took me a few days of debating before I came to realize that yes, I did want to try the low-carb plan and see if it worked.

I began my trial of low-carb eating by going through my pantry and refrigerator and tossing out everything that went against what the low-carb book said I should be eating. I was amazed at how little was left. Only at that moment did I truly see how unbalanced my diet had been. I went to the store and replaced the carbs with fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean protein foods. I picked up a couple of whole-grain items to fulfill the small amount of carbs I was supposed to be eating.

This marked the beginning of a sixty day trial eating a low-carb diet. Within days I was shocked by how different I felt and by how much my cravings had changed. Sixty days after I started my low-carb diet I was many pounds lighter, full of more energy, and I looked better than I had in a decade. So, take this for what it's worth. I'm not saying you should do a low-carb eating plan. I'm simply saying that doing a low-carb plan radically changed my life.

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Is A Low-Carb, High Protein Diet really Effective for Weight Loss?

You may have heard that to increase muscle and to lose weight you need to increase your protein intake. When I first heard that I thought...wait a minute the same thing that is going to make you bigger is supposed to make you 'smaller'...I asked the trainer this question and he looked at me dumbfounded but it left me to thinking..."besides sounding absurd, will this method actually be safe?"

Although we all know we require a certain quantity of protein every day to be healthy and because of propaganda to this effect, a lot of people view the daily consumption of high-protein foods such as meat and dairy as highly beneficial. However, judging from the failure of most if not all the people I have personally known attempting to lose weight on a high-protein, low carb diet, it may be time to revise our ideas about protein.

From what I have seen (upwards of six cases I have been able to observe among friends, family and co-workers) it will be safe to answer the question heading this article with a simple No!

Not only is a diet high in protein NOT the best at all for weight loss, according to many naturopaths, such a diet may even be detrimental to ones overall health.

Because of its complexity, excessive protein along with fatty foods are the most difficult foods to digest and tend to leave one tired all the time. Moreover the common putrefaction of protein while being digested creates many acids in the body and has been known to lay the foundation for cancer.

This is not to say that proteins and fats must be avoided, quite the contrary, what should be the goal in consuming these foods should be taking in exactly what the body needs and no more. The Max Planck institute has proven that, considering that the body recycles most of its protein for its own needs, 25g of protein a day is more than enough.

According to T.C. Fry, a well known Naturopath and pioneer in drugless healing, there are several cultures such as the Caribbeans, who subsist on a Manioc-based (root-vegetable) diet and get about 12 g of protein a day. Quite similarly, an aboriginal tribe living in the Mountains of Hagen was discovered to live on about 80-90% of their diet being Sweet Potatoes, the rest mostly leafy veggies, bananas and the like.

While I lived in Nigeria for 17 plus years, most people hardly ever even consumed milk or cheese (they were too expensive) and families strictly rationed the consumption of animal flesh to about the size of medium size lemon per person every other day. All these groups of people, with their root vegetable diets are obviously in great health, accomplishing great physical work.

Moreover, Mother’s milk, which for a time is a baby’s perfect food, has about 1-2 % protein content. (Only fruits and veggies resemble it in their composition) Any reasonable person will be able to deduce that a growing baby needs more protein than a full-grown adult, yet human babies, just like with our distant cousins: the Apes in the wild, do just fine on breast milk and on the subject of apes who share about 98% of our DNA, do you know the Gorilla, the strongest primate, has been known to bench press upwards of about 4000 pounds! What does this creature live on? According to Dr. George Schaller and Dian Fossey, two great primatologists, this powerful relative lives on mostly fruits and leaves.

Now, considering all the factors above, when it comes to the right diet for weight loss, I would recommend a Mucus-less or Mucus-poor (raw and cooked fruits and veggies) over any other mere fad in the quest of attaining fitness and health. Of course, if the consumption of animal flesh must be continued, I would also advise that it be done at a minimal quantity and only one kind of animal flesh every so often.

In my opinion, consumption of fresh home-made salads, mono-meals of fruits, snacks on dried fruits such as dates, a few nuts and maybe even a short juice fast, as a choice for a diet (along with some form of exercise) will be the best path to attaining safe and healthy weight loss.

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