|
|
|
The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet
What It Is Given the premise, the Hellers claim that this is not a diet for everybody -- only for those with this metabolic imbalance that they call "carbohydrate addiction." However, their "documented research" shows that 75% of overweight adults identify themselves as "carbohydrate addicts," but they maintain that the actual figure may be as high as 85%. Alas, these theories on addiction and the related figures are not founded on scientific research. The diet is based on the Hellers' own theories about controlling fat-storing insulin in the body. And insulin, they claim, can be controlled by drastically reducing carbohydrate consumption during most of the day.
What You Can Eat After the first two weeks, the regimen splits into several eating plans, depending on how much weight you still want to lose, or on whether you just want to maintain what you've already lost. Some will choose a plan that allows one prescribed snack a day, made up of the same low-carb foods that you eat at the Complimentary Meals. You may never choose carbohydrate-rich foods such as fruits, fruit juices, breads, pasta, snack foods, or sweets as your snacks. Never. And these snacks are limited to half the size of a meal. The book gives an extensive list of food to chose from, which covers five pages, and urges you not to deviate: "If the food is not listed here, don't eat it during your Complimentary Meals or Snacks. ... When in doubt, save the food for your Reward Meal." Other rules: Drink plenty of water. If you have milk or cream with
your coffee, you can have one cup a day the way you like it. Keep
to the rules, say the Hellers, and you will improve your metabolism
and miraculously lose weight, and all the time you'll feel great.
How It Works The time limit on the Reward Meal, when you are eating and drinking carbs to your heart's content, controls the insulin release, which the Hellers say occurs about one-and-a-quarter to one-and-a-half hours after you begin eating. If you are still polishing off that apple pie, your body will compensate for the initial low release of insulin with a big blast of it. But if you've stopped eating within an hour, "this second phase appears to be kept low," they write. High insulin in the blood leads to a decrease in the number and
activity of receptor sites in the muscles and fatty tissue that
absorb insulin and glucose. This is called insulin resistance. Only
one carbohydrate-rich meal a day, the Hellers say, lowers insulin
production and leads to an increase in receptor sites, which then
gobble up the insulin and glucose more quickly, removing it from
the blood. This in turn allows the "carbohydrate addict"
to feel less intensely hungry throughout the day, have fewer cravings,
and lose more weight.
What the Experts Say "The whole premise that we are carbohydrate addicts makes about as much sense as telling people they are oxygen or water addicts," says John McDougall, MD, one of the participants in the debate on fad diets last spring in Washington, D.C., an event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is the head of the McDougall Program, a center for the rehabilitation of dietary diseases at St. Helena Hospital in the Napa Valley of California, and a lecturer in nutrition. "We are designed to be seekers of carbohydrates," he says. "The tip of the tongue has one kind of calorie-seeking taste bud, and that is for carbohydrates." McDougall explains that the Hellers' science is unsupported and as proof points to a 1997 article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which demonstrates that many animal protein foods produce more insulin than carbohydrates -- the reverse of their claims. Their diet, he says, "is a way of tricking people into restricting food intake," and for that reason it probably works in the short term. Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, is likewise unconvinced by the Hellers' premise: "This diet addresses a problem that is not even remotely the problem for most overweight people," he comments. "It would be much more effective to repair the body's ability to handle carbohydrates rather than demonizing them, and this is done by cutting fat out of the diet, boosting fiber, and choosing those carbohydrates such as whole grains and vegetables that release glucose slowly -- and, finally, by adding exercise to your routine." Barnard believes it would be easier to break poor eating habits
than tease yourself with the one Reward Meal a day. "The problem
is not the carbohydrate in the potato, it is the butter on the potato."
He concedes that some people would find the diet helpful, but he
insists that it is a "Band-Aid approach" to generally
poor eating habits in this country. "In Asian countries people
have consumed huge amounts of carbohydrates -- rice, vegetables,
noodles -- and they are the slimmest people on the planet."
Until of course, he adds, "They swap that healthy rice for
KFC, Burger King, and other Western, meaty, cheesy choices."
Food for Thought
Choose a different diet to evaluate:
|
|
|