By: Eddie Tobey
Low-carb dieting is not new but has been around for many years, long before low fat diets. Earlier, if you wanted to lose weight you cut out the potatoes, biscuits and pastry, and reduced the bread from your diet. Nowadays, low-fat diets are the norm, but if you take out the fats you lose the flavor. All processed low -at foods have added sugar so a low-fat diet can make you gain weight. This is because the body requires energy, and sugar is the first thing the body uses, if you stop eating sugar the next easiest to transform is carbohydrates. Cut out the carbohydrates, and the body then has to convert the fats.
The first few days of a low-carb diet are probably the hardest, because the body will crave carbohydrates. Most people are unwittingly addicted to carbohydrates, but don't realize this until they try to reduce them. There are certain specific foods which are never allowed when you are on a low-carbohydrate diet. There are those food items which contain white flour and/or sugar (including honey). Grains and breads are restricted, though people who are on a weight-maintenance diet, non-obese diabetics, or those who can tolerate a few additional carbohydrates and still lose weight may eat a limited amount of grain products. Similarly, most fruits are restricted, but some fruit (other than watermelons and bananas) is allowed as long as it does not produce weight gain.
Fiber is an important part of our diet, and supplements of dietary fiber in the form of psyllium husks are advisable. When you are on a low-carb diet it is important to have a high-fat diet. Saturated fats and fats like olive oil, coconut oil, butter, lard, fish oil, tallow, palm kernel oil, peanut oil, and flaxseed oil are advisable.
