In my daily conversations and reading about weight loss, one thing continues to intrigue me. No-one bats an eyelid at a ‘low-fat diet’ – but why is low carb still considered so controversial?
During the summer this piece of research was published showing the long term effects of three types of diet. Low Fat, Mediterranean and Low Carb. The report was looking at a whole heap of factors and yet again , notwithstanding the expectations of the health industry, low carb comes out best . It is only one of many studies proving that the diet is not harmful, and is effective. But out of those three diets, low carb is probably the one people know least about or are least confident in.
A low carb, high protein diet is based around the ways our bodies have evolved to best process food – the hunter-gatherer principle – and therefore should seem the most logical and natural thing in the world. But as in all areas of our life, propaganda and advertising can influence us on a very strong emotional level. Decades’ worth of images of smiling skinny women munching on nothing but carrots and rice cakes convince us this is the only way to stay slim, even when the reality makes us miserable.
Why do you think people remain strangely resistant to the idea of low carb eating?
9 September 2008
