Low-carbohydrate diet: benefits, contraindications and an approximate menu

Low carb diet- It is only a diet for one or two months, it is a way of life. And although it has certain restrictions on products (for example, it is necessary to exclude soda, sugar, baked goods), it is not much stricter than usual, but so lazy in understanding proper nutrition.

Grilled meat, fish, fatty dairy, berries, veggies, and a variety of greens, and with all this variety, you can still successfully lose extra pounds! Don't all girls dream of this? But, like elsewhere, there are difficulties here, so we strongly recommend that you check with your doctor before switching to a low-carb diet.

The essence of a low carb diet

Anyone who has tried to lose weight at least once knows that to lose weight you have to give up sweet and starchy foods. True, most often foods containing fats are excluded from the diet: butter, meat, cream, mayonnaise. As a result, girls, in an effort to obtain a dream figure, eat lettuce and green tea, which inevitably leads to collapse and even greater weight gain. This approach to losing weight is fundamentally wrong. To lose weight it is necessary to eat, only that the diet must be different from the one you followed previously.

Also, many women forget that healthy fats are the basis for the formation of sex hormones in the ovaries, adrenal hormones, and vitamin D, which is responsible for the expression of several thousand genes.

Nutritionists constantly study the effect of certain foods on human health. Their work results in various nutritional systems aimed at maintaining good health, a stable emotional background, and achieving ideal physical shape. In the mid-2000s, Swedish scientists showed that the massive and widespread consumption of sugar and starch, and not fat, as previously believed, is much more damaging to the figure. This led to a true revolution in nutrition.

Fat-containing foods have a completely different effect: they give the body a lasting feeling of fullness, provide it with energy, which is enough for a long enough period. Just compare: when carbohydrates are burned inside our body's ovens, the production factory in the form of cells and tissues receives a little more than 4 kilocalories, while fat contributes twice as much, 9 with a small tail.

Recently, another myth has been debunked that the brain needs glucose for normal function, which can supposedly only be obtained from pure sugar. Large-scale studies in the field of physiology and nutritional science suggest otherwise: senile dementia is seen more frequently in lovers of sweets, and those who have consumed moderate amounts of carbohydrates throughout their lives retain clarity of thought until the end of his days.

In fact, the nervous tissue uses glucose as a substrate for energy (that is, the firewood that it sends to the mitochondrial stoves); This is a favorite, but it is not the only way to guarantee its vital functions. With prolonged starvation and a decrease in carbohydrate intake with food, our brain, at first, of course, reluctantly, but switches from gasoline to gas, or rather from glucose to ketone bodies.

A low-carbohydrate diet to lose weight is very easy for many women to tolerate, as it is not accompanied by bouts of hunger. Followers of this style of eating note that they do not feel the desire to eat foods that contain a large amount of sugar and starch. In this regard, it is not necessary to clearly normalize the amount of allowed carbohydrates, however, nutritionists still give certain recommendations - from 20 to 100 g of carbohydrates per day. Naturally, your source of supply should be grains, vegetables, and fruits, but not refined sugar and premium (and even more refined) flour.

However, the constant counting of calories ingested and the resulting feeling of guilt if it does not fit into the daily norm, involves only loosening the emotional background, and then losing weight is counterproductive with psychosis. Add in enough physical activity and make sure satiety doesn't automatically equate to overeating, and then you definitely won't need highly conditional calorie calculations by apps on your phone.

• Consume only natural fats, strongly discarding synthetic ones.
• Keep food cooking to a minimum.
• Eat with pleasure, obtaining physical and aesthetic pleasure. Keep only your plate: let the phones, newspapers and televisions not distract you from your food: do not forget that digestive juices are secreted even before the food touches the taste buds of the mouth - this is the so-called phase reflex brain or complex secretion.

There are no serious contraindications to a low-carbohydrate diet, but people with chronic medical conditions (such as tired adrenal syndrome) are advised to consult with their physician. Insulin-dependent patients, patients with cardiovascular problems should take into account the peculiarities of their condition and be guided by the recommendations of nutritionists.

How Mitochondria Work in the Body

It would seem, why should a person, far from science, understand such a complex subject? However, understanding the basics of cell function will allow us to better understand what processes take place deep within our bodies. We will only touch on the effect of ketones and insulin on mitochondrial activity to show exactly how we can improve our health, simply by making dietary changes.

Function of the mitochondria- Extraction of energy from food, its combination with oxygen and the synthesis of adenosine triphosphoric acid (ATP), which is the basic unit of energy in an animal cell. Mitochondria are present in every cell in the body, with the exception of erythrocytes - red blood cells are forced to support themselves through slightly different glucose transformation processes.

Insulin plays an important role in this process. It depends on exactly how the body will dispose of the generated energy: will it spend it for current needs or will store it for a rainy day. Elevated insulin levels trigger synthetic reactions, including fat. This is the ANABOLISM hormone, that's why everything grows in it: both the muscles (due to increased protein production) and cancer cells (in fact, the tumor relies on uncontrolled division).

The lack of carbohydrates leads to the fact that insulin is produced in a limited amount, just enough to meet the body's need. This starts the process of ketogenesis - fatty acids are converted into ketones, which serve as fuel for cells, including neurons in the brain, as mentioned above.

8 types of low carb diets

Basic low-carbohydrate diet

Simply put, it can be described as follows: carbohydrates - less, protein - more (compared to your usual diet). The basis of the diet is meat, fish, eggs, cereals, vegetables, fruits, nuts, natural fats.

As for the recommended amount of carbohydrates, it depends on the goal:

• to maintain weight or provide energy to the body for intense sports activities: 100-150 grams. Starchy fruits and vegetables are allowed;
• moderately reduce weight - 50-100 grams; Forbidden potatoes and sweet fruits that are high in carbohydrates (like bananas and mangoes)
• quickly get rid of excess fat, no more than 50 grams. A lot of vegetables, but a minimum of fruits.

Ketogenic diet

If you reduce carbohydrate intake to a minimum, insulin levels drop to basal levels, triggering the onset of ketosis, a state in which fatty acids are broken down to extract the energy the body needs. Ketone bodies are formed in the liver, which itself does not have the necessary enzymes to generate energy; in fact, it is a factory that produces goods for export. These molecules serve as fuel for muscles, kidneys, and brain.

The diet for a ketone diet includes foods rich in protein and fat, while the amount of carbohydrates is limited to 20-50 (and often 5-10) grams per day.

Low carb, high fat diet (LCHF - low carb, high fat). . .

This style of eating differs from the usual option by the emphasis on the inclusion in the diet of whole foods or that have undergone minimal cooking. More common in Scandinavia, where sustainable ways of eating and living in general are traditionally popular.

Low carb Paleo diet

Supporters of this method of losing weight and maintaining health believe that only those foods that were available to humans at the dawn of their appearance, in the Paleolithic era, can be eaten. You can eat meat and fish, shellfish, eggs, fruits, wild vegetables and berries, nuts, seeds, and roots. In a word, what the old man was able to collect or catch with his own hands is allowed. Everything that has appeared as a result of the development of agriculture and the food industry is prohibited: sugar, cereals, sausages and confectionery, semi-finished products. The main idea of such a diet is the confidence that when Homo sapiens appeared, nature had prepared everything necessary for its good nutrition.

Atkins diet

The popularity of this weight loss system has not waned for the past forty years. Meats, fish, shellfish, eggs, salads, and other non-starchy vegetables, mushrooms, dairy products, and nuts are allowed. Fruits should be limited due to their high fructose content.

The diet has four stages:

• In the induction phase, it is recommended to eat less than 20 g of carbohydrates for two weeks. The diet consists of protein and vegetable products that do not contain starch.
• In the stable weight loss phase, the amount of carbohydrates increases weekly by 5 g. 3-5 kg before the desired weight, this phase ends.
• in the stabilization phase, carbohydrates are added at a rate of 10 g per week.
• In the maintenance phase, healthy carbohydrates are allowed to be included in the diet. If the weight begins to increase, their number decreases again.

Eco-Atkins

For followers of plant-based nutrition, a special type of Atkins diet has been created. Since animal products are not used as a source of protein, essential amino acids are obtained from soybeans, legumes, nuts, and gluten. This inevitably increases the amount of carbohydrates consumed compared to the classic Atkins diet, but in the context of traditional diets, there are very few of them on the vegan menu. In addition, the frequent use of cereals adversely affects intestinal permeability - it increases, which leads to the entry of elements of the bacterial cell wall into the systemic circulation and the activation of reactions of the immune system.

Zero carbohydrate diet

Few decide to completely exclude the use of carbohydrates to start the process of active weight loss. However, there are people who exclusively include products of animal origin in their diet. Its menu includes meat dishes, fish, eggs and animal fats. They don't eat vegetables, fruits, and even more grains. It is not known with certainty how safe this style of eating is, as the corresponding scientific research has not yet been carried out.

Definitely, the total absence of fiber (a kind of broom that cleans the intestines and also stimulates its motility) will negatively affect the body. Constipation and the resulting stool problems form a closed vicious cycle which, in turn, leads to bacterial overgrowth and, as a result, increased intra-intestinal pressure. The latter will adversely affect the mechanisms of excretion of pancreatic juice and bile.

Mediterranean diet

Based on the traditional Mediterranean diet based on fish, shellfish, olives, vegetables, cheese and durum wheat pasta. It differs from the classic low-carbohydrate diet in a reduced content of red meat and animal fats and a large amount of vegetables, namely olive oil. Studies show that this lifestyle helps Mediterranean people to suffer less obesity, cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes.

Benefits of a low carb diet for weight loss

Research has shown the effectiveness of a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss. At the same time, people do not feel hungry, they do not experience a constant craving for prohibited products. This is due to the specificity of protein breakdown and the sufficient caloric content of fats.

A low-carb diet can help you quickly lose fat in your abdomen, including the visceral stores around your internal organs. This significantly reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

Benefits of a low carbohydrate diet to fight diseases

Excess weight becomes the cause of the appearance of many pathological conditions, therefore it is necessary to get rid of accumulated kilograms, even if there are no tangible health problems yet. A low carbohydrate diet should be the guiding principle of nutrition for patients with diabetes, heart, reproductive and neurological diseases.

• Diabetes. . . Changing the diet towards less carbohydrates while increasing fat has many beneficial effects in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Following such a diet, they stabilize blood glucose levels and can take smaller doses of pharmacological medications prescribed for this condition.
• Neurological disease. . . For people with epilepsy, a low-carbohydrate diet has long been recommended as a simple and effective way to reduce the risk of seizures. For Alzheimer's disease, in addition to preventing its onset, neurologists advise including more high-fat foods in the diet and minimizing the use of simple carbohydrates.
• Heart diseases. . . By adhering to the principles of a diet with minimal carbohydrate content, patients with heart problems can significantly improve their condition. One study involved 55 overweight subjects. After 12 weeks of adherence to a low-carbohydrate diet, they showed a decrease in triglycerides, C-reactive protein (one of the main markers of inflammation), and also an improvement in indicators of "good" cholesterol in HDL ( high-density lipoprotein). ).

Foods to Avoid on a Low-Carb Diet

Compliance with a diet means excluding the following foods from the diet:

• Cereals and starches: bread, buns, empanadas, pasta, rice and other cereals.
• Sweet drinks: juices, sugar tea, smoothies, fruit smoothies, sports drinks, cocoa, sweet lemonades.
• Sweeteners: sugar, honey, agave, syrups.
• Vegetables high in starch and sugar.: potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, beets, peas.
• Alcoholic drinks: beer, sweet cocktails and sweet wines.
• Low-calorie, diet foods commercially available. . . This labeling is often misleading: light mayonnaise contains starch and diabetic products contain fructose.
• Semi-finished products and sausages: not suitable due to high sugar, starch and soy content. They are also a hidden source of gluten.
• Fruits can be consumed in limited quantities, berries - in small portions.

These are general guidelines for all types of low-carb diets. The exact amount of carbohydrates that can be consumed during the day depends on the goal and, consequently, on the type of diet. Therefore, ketosis can only be achieved with the maximum reduction in carbohydrate-containing foods. Other types of diets can include up to 50 or even 100 g of carbohydrates in the diet.

List of approved products

To lose weight without feeling hungry and without being healthy, the creators of low-carbohydrate nutrition systems are focusing on foods that are high in fat and protein.

This list includes:

• Eggs. . . They contain a lot of healthy fats and an almost total absence of carbohydrates. In particular, it is a source of biotin, fat-soluble vitamins (A, D and E), as well as choline, a precursor of one of the main neurotransmitters in the nervous system: acetylcholine.
• Oils. . . All types of oils can be used in the diet, but olive, coconut and avocado oils are recognized as leaders in terms of health benefits.
• A fish. . . It is better to give preference to fatty varieties: salmon, trout, sardines. Its sufficient consumption will provide the body with omega-3 fatty acids, thus significantly reducing the risks of diseases of the cardiovascular system and impaired cognitive functions.
• Meat and poultry. . . Beef, chicken, turkey, rabbit are recommended.
• Dairy products. . . Cream, unsweetened yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, cheeses.
• Non-starchy vegetables. . . Any vegetables, broccoli, all kinds of lettuce, asparagus, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms.
• Avocado. . . A unique fruit rich in healthy fats.

I'll give you a sample menu

An example of a low carb diet to lose weight for a week looks like this:

Breakfast:

• An omelet made with two eggs and a small amount of milk or whole cream.
• Two pieces of hard cheese.
• Coffee with milk or coconut cream.

Dinner:

• Pork Meat.
• Fresh vegetable salad with olive oil.
• Cream cheese (3 tablespoons).
• Unsweetened tea

Afternoon snack(optional, but it's still best to strive to eat the three most physiological meals a day):

• 20-30 pcs. soaked almonds.
• Baked apple (without raisins, sugar and honey! ).

Dinner:

• Greek salad (bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, olives).
• Grilled or fried mushrooms in vegetable oil.
• Baked fish.

Menu of the week

To simplify the process of losing weight as much as possible and save your time, we suggest using an everyday menu for precise adherence to a low carb diet. If you want, you can modify it without going beyond the list of approved products.

Monday

• Breakfast.Omelette with cheese, vegetable and herb salad, avocado toast, unsweetened coffee with a piece of butter or coconut oil and red berries.
• Dinner.Grilled or skillet pork tenderloin, lettuce, salty homemade cheese.
• Dinner.Veal in creamy sauce, coleslaw.

Tuesday

• Breakfast.Pike perch cutlet, cucumber and tomato slices, natural yogurt for dessert (you can add coconut, almond flakes and some berries beaten in a blender).

• Dinner.Mushroom soup, tobacco chicken, homemade aubergine and bell pepper caviar.
• Dinner.Duck breast with vegetable garnish.

Wednesday

• Breakfast.Ham omelette, green salad with sour cream dressing, a handful of your favorite nuts, green tea.
• Dinner.Soup of zucchini puree, fried cheese, baked apple (it is better to choose unsweetened varieties).
• Dinner.Sauteed veal, cauliflower, stewed in cream.

Thursday

• Breakfast.Poached eggs with avocado, spinach, slightly salted salmon.
• Dinner.Pike cutlets, grilled vegetables.
• Dinner.Pork and Broccoli Casserole in Cheese Crusted Sour Cream Sauce.

Friday

• Breakfast.Soft-boiled eggs, zucchini pancakes with ricotta cheese, olives, cocoa.
• Dinner.Chicken fillet cutlet on a vegetable pillow.
• Dinner.Salmon fillet with pumpkin puree.

Saturday

• Breakfast.Ham and dried tomato omelette, hard cheese, a handful of nuts and berries.
• Dinner.Rabbit loin with poached and fried asparagus.
• Dinner.Sauteed chicken thigh, mushrooms and aubergines.

Sunday

• Breakfast.Poached egg with salmon and spinach, baked turkey, coffee without sugar.
• Dinner.Turkey fillet, cauliflower in creamy sauce.
• Dinner.Cold cuts and broccoli puree.

We remind you that for those who wish to switch to a low carb diet, this weekly menu is only a guide to creating an individual diet. It is impossible to take into account the taste preferences of each person. The main thing is to adhere to the basic principle behind a low carb diet: low carb, high fat.

Low carb diet for diabetes

The principles of a low-carbohydrate diet differ depending on the type of diabetes. Insulin-dependent patients should eat a balanced diet that includes foods with a low glycemic index.

The low-carbohydrate diet for type 2 diabetes has some specific characteristics:

• The main part of the medical menu consists of vegetables and herbs. For women, the norm for non-starchy vegetables is 500 g per day, if you do not spend a lot of energy, and up to 800 g - with physical work or regular sports.
• To prevent cholesterol levels from rising, people with diabetes eat a low-carbohydrate diet without saturated fat. Preference is given to healthy unsaturated fats, found in low-fat varieties of fish, as well as vegetable fats. This means that pork, lard, salmon, and salmon are not recommended. Instead, nutritionists advise diabetics to eat more nuts, avocados, olives, and use vegetable oils for cooking.
• The complete rejection of carbohydrates for these patients is contraindicated, as it is fraught with a drop in blood sugar and a deterioration in well-being. Carbohydrates should be absorbed evenly throughout the day, with vegetables being the best source of carbohydrates.
• For snacks, you can use protein foods with a low glycemic index, which quickly satisfy hunger - soaked walnuts are perfect.
• In type 2 diabetes, a low-carbohydrate diet with a low-sugar menu may require adjustments in previously prescribed drug doses. At the first stage, it is necessary to constantly measure the level of glucose in the blood: if it decreases as a result of a change in diet, the doctor will reduce the dose of antihyperglycemic drugs. Consultation of an endocrinologist is required; it is not worth adjusting the drug intake on your own.

Low carb diet for adrenal fatigue syndrome

Adrenal fatigue syndrome occurs as a result of constant stressful conditions. One of the symptoms of this condition is hypoglycemia and the accompanying hunger, irritability, and headache.

The treatment is accompanied by proper nutrition, which is based on three key points:

• Do not abuse sweets under any circumstances. Eating sweets will temporarily improve your well-being, but then it will invariably lead to a sharp decrease in blood glucose concentration and subsequent discomfort.
• Any sausage is better to prefer a piece of normal meat. Products obtained as a result of complex technological processing contain many substances that are contraindicated in such a diagnosis.
• Vegetable and gluten oils that contain pro-inflammatory omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids should be eliminated from the diet.

Also, a low-carb diet for men and women with adrenal fatigue syndrome means avoiding coffee altogether. It is cortisol, the production of which increases under the influence of caffeine. As a result, the metabolism slows down and the weight loss process slows down.