Sweden Becomes First Country To Reject High Carb/Low Fat Diet

[Reub]

Sweden is finally changing their guidelines along the lines of what Atkins, Chris Kresser, Dr. Ronald Hoffman and many others have been advocating for years and decades:

"Health markers will improve on a low-carbohydrate diet:

…a greater increase in HDL cholesterol (“the good cholesterol”?) without having any adverse affects on LDL cholesterol (“the bad cholesterol”?). This applies to both the moderate low-carbohydrate intake of less than 40 percent of the total energy intake, as well as to the stricter low-carbohydrate diet, where carbohydrate intake is less than 20 percent of the total energy intake. In addition, the stricter low-carbohydrate diet will lead to improved glucose levels for individuals with obesity and diabetes, and to marginally decreased levels of triglycerides.”?

"Dr. Eenfeldt also translated an article from a local Swedish newspaper covering the committee’s findings:

Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease."

http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/sweden ... nutrition/

[WildAboutHarry]

Wait a minute.

Isn't your post title backwards?

[Reub]

Not any more. 

[edsanville]

Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight.

I have to say I vehemently disagree with this statement.  I lost 47 pounds last year by reducing my fat intake significantly, reducing consumption of meats, and increasing my consumption of fruits and vegetables.  Also, wasn't Atkins 30 pounds overweight when he died?

[Gumby]

Sweden is finally changing their guidelines along the lines of what Atkins, Chris Kresser, Dr. Ronald Hoffman and many others have been advocating for years and decades:

"Health markers will improve on a low-carbohydrate diet:

Actually, Chris Kresser doesn't exactly advocate a "low carb diet" (Yes, it's "low carb" compared to the Standard American Diet). But, in fact, he's regularly discussed the health problems that many people fall into by failing to consume enough carbs (i.e. "Very Low Carb" diets). Kresser recommends a moderate carb diet (~100g—200g of carbs per day) — composed of "safe starches" (as described by Paul Jaminet's Perfect Health Diet) as well as traditionally prepared grains (as described by the Weston A Price Foundation) for those who can tolerate some grains and are willing to put in the work.

Interestingly, if you attempt to consume ~100g—200g of carbs per day in "safe starches" (potatoes, yams, plantains, white rice, etc) you are eating a LOT of starchy plants throughout the day — 1 pound of potatoes isn't even 100g of carbohydrates! Conversely, refined grains are extremely carby — a single slice of sandwich bread has 22g of carbs. So it's very easy to under-consume carbs if you cut out refined grains and don't eat a lot of safe starches.

Very low carb diets (<50g of carbs) and zero carb diets tend to promote fungal infections and will paradoxically raise your fasting blood glucose levels over time. You can even start to lose the ability to tolerate carbs. It can become problematic. The lesson is to eat a balanced diet — moderate protein, moderate carbs, and plenty of natural fats if you don't have metabolic issues.

Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease."

It's true that eating natural fats are good for you and can help you lose weight, but fat is also highly caloric and not everyone can lose weight by consuming lots of fat. It seems to work for some, but not others who have metabolic derangements — everyone is different.

[Benko]

Very low carb diets (<100g of carbs) and zero carb diets tend to promote fungal infections and will paradoxically raise your fasting blood glucose levels over time.

1. "paradoxically raise your fasting blood glucose levels over time"
Are you sure this is correct?  Lower carb diets work well for diabetics and help them lower there blood sugars.

Are you confusing the fact that at VERY low carb diets (see below) the body can convert proteins into sugar?  which does not mean it will raise the blood sugar levels.

2. "Very low carb diets (<100g of carbs)"

From one random google (which agrees with what I've read elsewhere):

DEFINITION "Low-carb diet (LCD): 50-130g carbs daily and between 10-26% of calories'

A VERY low carb diet is less than that. 

[Gumby]

Very low carb diets (<100g of carbs) and zero carb diets tend to promote fungal infections and will paradoxically raise your fasting blood glucose levels over time.

1. "paradoxically raise your fasting blood glucose levels over time"
Are you sure this is correct?  Lower carb diets work well for diabetics and help them lower there blood sugars.

Are you confusing the fact that at VERY low carb diets (see below) the body can convert proteins into sugar?  which does not mean it will raise the blood sugar levels.

I don't think I am...

If the key to health is achieving below-normal blood glucose levels, then low-carb diets are in trouble.

In general, very low-carb diets tend to raise fasting blood glucose and 2-hr glucose levels in response to an oral glucose tolerance test.

This is a well-known phenomenon in the low-carb community. When I ate a very low-carb diet, my fasting blood glucose was typically 104 mg/dl. Peter Dobromylskyj of Hyperlipid has reported the same effect: his fasting blood glucose is over 100 mg/dl. From one of Peter’s posts:

Back in mid summer 2007 there was this thread on the Bernstein forum. Mark, posting as iwilsmar, asked about his gradual yet progressively rising fasting blood glucose (FBG) level over a 10 year period of paleolithic LC eating. Always eating less than 30g carbohydrate per day. Initially on LC his blood glucose was 83mg/dl but it has crept up, year by year, until now his FBG is up to 115mg/dl….

I’ve been thinking about this for some time as my own FBG is usually five point something mmol/l whole blood. Converting my whole blood values to Mark’s USA plasma values, this works out at about 100-120mg/dl.

Peter notes that low-carb dieters will generally perform poorly on glucose tolerance tests, but that increasing carb intake to about 30% of calories is sufficient to produce a normal response to a glucose challenge:

The general opinion in LC circles is that you need 150g of carbohydrate per day for three days before an oral glucose tolerance test.

This is at the high end of the 20% to 30% of energy (400 to 600 calories on a 2000 calorie diet) that is the Perfect Health Diet recommendation for carbs.

The Kitavans eat more than 60% of calories as carbohydrate, mostly from starches. Their fasting blood glucose averages 3.7 mmol/l (67 mg/dl) (http://pmid.us/12817903).


Source: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2011/11/sa ... -rosedale/

Chris Kresser also referred to this paradox in a recent webinar (skip to 57:00) when asked about high fasting blood glucose on a very low carb paleo diet..

There is something called the "Dawn Effect" that you may have heard of, which is common with low carb diets, where the cellular energy is being met by fat overnight. And so there's kind of a physiological insulin resistance that develops, and that leads to a high fasting blood sugar in the morning.

Source: Chris Kresser: Insiders Circle Q&A Webinar #1 (skip to 57m 00sec)

What you see happening in the low carb Paleo universe these days is that you have a constant inflow of people who read about the low carb Paleo diet and try it, and get excited about losing weight and eating fat but don't eat enough good carbs. Then after a few months or years, a sub-set of these low carb dieters are slowly getting fed up as they find themselves with new health problems that may be caused from not eating enough carbs. When they add safe starches back into their diet, their problems tend to go away (hence, the title "Perfect Health Diet"). So, the Paleo world is actually quite divided these days by a few dozen grams of carbs (i.e. a pound of starchy tubers).

2. "Very low carb diets (<100g of carbs)"

From one random google (which agrees with what I've read elsewhere):

DEFINITION "Low-carb diet (LCD): 50-130g carbs daily and between 10-26% of calories'

A VERY low carb diet is less than that.

Right, sorry about that. I'll correct what I said.

[Benko]

"If the key to health is achieving below-normal blood glucose levels, then low-carb diets are in trouble.

In general, very low-carb diets"

Low carb and very low carb (20-50 gm) diets are not the same thing.  I  presume that he knows this and would have given the evidence for lower carb diets if it existed. 

There is no one perfect diet for everyone (though this this kind of approach may be a really good way to treat people with Gi issues).

[Gumby]

Low carb and very low carb (20-50 gm) diets are not the same thing.  I  presume that he knows this and would have given the evidence for lower carb diets if it existed.

He has. It's a sliding scale. I don't have the data in front of me, but generally speaking a 50% carb diet would generally give you a FBG of ~85. On a 30% carb diet (PHD) it would be ~92. On a 10% carb diet it would be ~100. It's just the way the Dawn Effect works. Apparently low carb diets don't lower FBG in healthy people as best as I can tell (I can't speak for diabetics).

Edit: From that same article I quoted from:

Studies confirm that high-carb diets tend to lower fasting glucose and to lower the blood glucose response to a glucose challenge. CarbSane forwarded me some illustrative studies:

* “High-carbohydrate, high-fiber diets increase peripheral insulin sensitivity in healthy young and old adults,”? http://pmid.us/2168124. Switching healthy adults to a higher carb diet reduced fasting blood glucose from 5.3 to 5.1 mmol/L (95.5 to 91.9 mg/dl) and reduced fasting insulin from 66 to 49.5 pmol/l.

* “Effect of high glucose and high sucrose diets on glucose tolerance of normal men,”? http://pmid.us/4707966. On diets with glucose as the only carb source, 2-hr plasma glucose after a glucose challenge was 184 mg/dl on a 20% carb diet, 183 mg/dl on a 40% carb diet, 127 mg/dl on a 60% carb diet, and 116 mg/dl on an 80% carb diet. The 80% carb diet was the only one on which blood glucose never went above 140 mg/dl.

This last study did not report fasting glucose, but did track blood glucose for 4 hours after the glucose challenge. If we take the 4-hr blood glucose reading as representative of fasting glucose, we find that dieters eating 60% or 80% carb diets had fasting glucose of 76 and 68 mg/dl, respectively.

Source: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2011/11/sa ... -rosedale/

Remember, this is for healthy adults. From what I can gather, diabetics are different...

Fact: Diabetes is diagnosed as a fasting glucose that exceeds a fixed threshold of 126 mg/dl, and in those with metabolic syndrome (but not those without) higher carb consumption leads to higher fasting blood glucose.

Source: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2012/03/re ... ice-oh-my/

[Benko]

Remember, this is for healthy adults. From what I can gather, diabetics are different.

Not just diabetics, but overweight people with metabolic syndrome (from medscape): which is 1/4 of the population


Metabolic syndrome affects approximately 24% of the US adult population; according to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) criteria,
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/484166_2

[Gumby]

Yes. My point was that healthy people shouldn't go overboard when it comes to cutting out carbs. And complex carbs such as cooked potatoes/yams/rice aren't very caloric, so you actually need to eat a lot of them in order to get a moderate amount of carbs if you cut out refined carbs. Obviously Standard American Diet levels of (refined) carbs is too high — and likely contributes to metabolic syndrome.

[Benko]

Yes. My point was that healthy people shouldn't go overboard when it comes to cutting out carbs.

Understood, but if you include people with metabolic syndrome (24%) and people who are overweight (US data):


    Percent of adults age 20 years and over who are obese: 35.9% (2009-2010)
    Percent of adults age 20 years and over who are overweight, including obesity: 69.2% (2009-2010)*

That covers a lot of territory of people who would benefit from lower carb diets (at least for awhile).  Plus if you use lower carb diets e.g. 75-100 g I would argue any detriments are minimal.

*http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

[Gumby]

Yes. My point was that healthy people shouldn't go overboard when it comes to cutting out carbs.

Understood, but if you include people with metabolic syndrome (24%) and people who are overweight (US data):


    Percent of adults age 20 years and over who are obese: 35.9% (2009-2010)
    Percent of adults age 20 years and over who are overweight, including obesity: 69.2% (2009-2010)*

That covers a lot of territory of people who would benefit from lower carb diets (at least for awhile).  Plus if you use lower carb diets e.g. 75-100 g I would argue any detriments are minimal.

*http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

Correct.

I believe the optimum carbohydrate intake is around 30% of energy. Many studies generate clear evidence of benefits as carbs are brought down into the range of 20% to 30% of energy, especially in metabolic disorders like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and obesity. It’s good to see that evidence from other diseases, such as CVD, also supports the same carb intake.

Source: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2012/11/mo ... arb-diets/

So, I agree that 75-100g of carbs is fine for those unhealthy/sick/metabolically deranged individuals who are looking for a therapeutic diet. Again, I was talking about healthy individuals.

For what it's worth, Jaminet does have a low carb version of the Perfect Health Diet (~50g-100g of carbs from safe starches, I believe) for those with diabetes and other metabolic issues:

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/reader-results/#Diabetes

Again, all I was trying to point out is that it's really easy for a healthy person to accidentally fall below 50g of carbs per day when they stop eating refined grains. A lot of Paleos and low carb dieters have accidentally fallen into that trap. And, again, a healthy person may notice some health issues arising by simply going below 100g of carbs per day over the long term.