The low carb diet vs. carb timing, what do you think?
A high caloric diet and eating large amounts of high fat foods are known as main contributors to the obesity epidemic and co-morbidities. In the past few years it has been discovered that carbohydrates have a main role as well. The carbohydrates we eat are stored as glycogen, in the liver, muscles and a small amount in our brain. These storages are limited in size, so when consuming more carbs than they can accommodate, the extra amount will be stored in the adipose tissue as fat, and eventually cause weight gain. One of the studies involved in discovering this mechanism took place in Africa while observing a Cameroon tribe. When young men of this tribe reach adulthood, they eat about 4000 kcal driven from carbohydrates only, as part of the tribe’s ritual. This causes them to gain about 10kgs in a period of two weeks. We learn that like these young men, people who eat an excessive amount of carbohydrates on a regular basis, will gain weight and with time, might suffer from diabetes and other co-morbidities.
A common way to deal with weight gain these days, is a low carb diet. The low carb diet contains no more than 30grs of carbs per day and is designed to promote weight loss. Since this diet is quite strict, it’s not easy to adopt for long periods of time, or as an ongoing lifestyle. An interesting research around this subject was conducted by readers Walsh & Ebbeling et al. They chose 30 people and sorted them into 2 groups. One group was given a low carb diet and the other a balanced diet. Both diets had the same total caloric value, and carb consumption differed mainly at breakfast. The participants were given a 16 week intervention period and another 16 week period of follow up. During the intervention period, participants had a monthly meeting with a dietitian, where they were asked to write a food log and were given specific diet instructions. During the follow up period, the participants were asked to continue the same routine of food logging and diet plan, only without the monthly dietitian season. By the end of the first 16 weeks, both groups lost weigh but surprisingly enough, only the group who had more carbs to eat, maintained weight loss for the next 16 weeks as well. Also, the high carb diet group had less cravings for sweets or high fat food as opposed to the low crab diet group. Postprandial glucose levels where equally lower by the end of the trial. The results teach us, that both diets induced weight loss, but for the long run, the higher carb diet was more consistent with maintaining the changes achieved.
Another interesting aspect addressed in this study is carbohydrate timing. The researchers suggested, that eating carbohydrates for breakfast could be a way to treat obesity, in light of the results. Carbohydrate timing was addressed in a different study, conducted by Cording & Walsh. They found that after a carb rich breakfast, ghrelin levels where lower as opposed to a second group that ate a low carb meal, and an isocaloric diet. Ghrelin, the “hunger hormone”, is a peptide hormone produced in the gastrointestinal tract which functions as a neuropeptide in the central nervous system to produce hunger. Ghrelin secretion is impaired as weight is gained, and so, according to this study, might be corrected with eating carbs for breakfast.
To sum it all up, it is possible that carbohydrate timing can promote weight loss and therefore good health, and might be easier to maintain or adopt as a lifestyle. What do you think?
