Okay, this low-carb craze has hit an all-time low: low carb yogurt. Yes, YOGURT. It joins its wonderful brethren in the marketplace- things such as low carb pancakes, ice cream, pasta, bread (holy shit, bread), brownies, breakfast cereal, muffins, tortillas, and so on. There's shit you would never associate with being low-carb and they're fucking making low-carb versions of it. I for one am getting sick of being bombarded by this garbage.
Let's get to the bottom of this new national low carb fixaction- the infamous Atkins diet. Basically, it's a diet for lazy people who don't want to adhere to the only real diet plan that works- using up more calories than you take in. Yeah, that means exercise. Anyway, Atkins goes something like this:
When the body ingests carbohydrates, it converts them to a substance known as glucose, which is a form of sugar, and stores it in your muscles for use as energy. When you ingest below the body's minimum requirement of carbs, your body your body will actually begin to burn up your organs, muscles and fat in an attempt to generate energy. However, with Atkins, the diet requires you to eat high amounts of protein, which in turn counteracts the burning of muscle and organ tissue. You eventually enter a state known as "Ketosis". What Ketosis is exactly is the state of excess Ketones in your bloodstream. Ketones are the body's byproduct of fat metabolism. Your body switches over from burning carbs for energy to burning fat. Excess Ketones are expelled through urine, and there are test kits similar to pregnancy test kits that involve holding a stick in the urine stream when you take a leak. If it turns a certain color, bam, you're in Ketosis.
This can be effective in limited use to drop weight quickly. However, the long-term effects of any low-carb diet are anything but healthy. First of all, glucose is more effectively used by your body as an energy source than Ketones are. Thus, if you're on a low-carb diet for any length of time, your energy levels begins to dip. Likewise, your brain runs solely on glucose, and while it is capable of running on ketones, it does so, once again, with reduced effectiveness.
Also, your body receives the majority of its vitamins and minerals from carbohydrate sources, so unless you're taking supplements out the ass, you're not getting all the nutriments you need. And don't forget the fact that the majority of your fiber sources are carbs as well, so if you're not taking some sort of fiber supplement/laxitive, forget about shitting normally.
Another by-product of low-carb diets is that fact that your body is depleted of glucose. As stated above, your body breaks down carbohydrates and stores them in your muscles as glucose. When this happens, it has the effect of filling out your muscles, giving them a slightly harder, fuller look. Those of you work out will know what I'm talking about...you work out, and then eat a meal, and your muscles fill out. Those deprived of glucose tend to have a soft, drawn-in look. I work with a guy who's been on Atkins for a while, and while he appears to have lost some weight on it, he looks like shit. He looks soft and dumpy, and he plods around the office while extolling the virtues of his low-carb peanut butter. :rolleyes:
Nevermind the fact that these low-carb diets have you believing you can eat as much and any kind of protein that you want. However, eating a pound of bacon at a sitting can in no way be good for you (my cousin’s husband does this stupid shit). You're loading up your system with an assload of fat, and it's going to find a nice little home in your arteries. And lets not forget that, despite the fact that your diet is low-carb, it's still very high calorie from all that fat and protein. So, while you're burning up some of that fat you're storing, you're also not burning as much as you think because all those unused calories are being added back on as, yup, fat.
Like I said, low-carb diets are for lazy suckers. I've messed around with carb-cutting here and there, and it's always left me feeling like a zombie. I know lots of people like sitting on their asses. I know lots of people are always looking for that "magic diet" that will somehow supercharge their metabolism, but it ain't gonna happen. Don't get me wrong, you shouldn't go around eating as many carbs as you want, because eating more of anything than you need will end up making you gain weight, but there's a certain healthy minimum that you should always eat. If you want to lose weight, you gotta combine a healthy, sensible diet AND exercise.
Sorry about the rant. This low-carb yogurt thing just really annoyed me.
