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Evaluating The Benefits Of A Low - carb Diet
Medindia Health News   November 28, 2004

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Low-carb diets do a better job of keeping metabolism on track when
people are trying to lose weight, and that might be helping people keep
the pounds off for good, shows a new study.

Researchers say carbohydrates such as white bread, refined breakfast
cereals, and white sugar are rapidly digested, causing a quick rise in
blood sugar and insulin. This in turn leads the body to slow the
metabolism, causing people to feel hungrier sooner. Low-carb diets,
however, emphasize foods that are digested more slowly, such as whole
grains, fruits and nuts. Blood sugar rises more slowly, and metabolism
remains more normal.

Specialists say that conventional weight-loss diets usually don't
work for more than a few months because the body has a 'setpoint'
and when and individual diets, the bodies internal mechanisms work to
restore ones weight back to that setpoint. Results also show that
Low-carb diets, work better with these internal biological responses to
create the greatest likelihood of long-term weight loss.

In a recent study, researchers compared adults who went on a low- fat
diet with those who went on a low-carb diet. Both groups consumed about
1,500 calories a day, and both lost about 10 percent of their body
weight. However, those on the low-fat diet had larger decreases in
resting energy expenditures, meaning their metabolisms slowed down
significantly more than those on the low-carb diet. Low-carb dieters
also reported being less hungry while dieting than those on the low-fat
diet.

Thus researchers suggest that the type of calories consumed --
independent of the amount -- can alter metabolic rate.  

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TC