Compared to many areas of science, the science of nutrition,
in the scheme of things, is only in its infancy. That’s probably why it often
feels like scientists ‘change their minds’ all the time about what’s healthy
and what’s not. Over the years some very plausible theories have been debunked,
and new ones have been introduced. And there’s always a new theory around the
corner.
One popular theory at the moment – although not new – is
that eating a low carbohydrate diet is the key to good health. It’s the basis
for the old Atkins diet, and the newly popular paleo-style diets, (although some
paleo followers do include more carbs). It’s also the basis for a low-carb diet
with a twist – the low carb, high fat diet, or LCHF diet, being proposed by a
group of scientists as potentially the key to fighting type 2 diabetes and
obesity. On this diet most (about 80%) of the energy comes from fat. That means
eating eggs, fatty meat, fish, cream, coconut oil, butter, cheese and plenty of
non-starchy veges, topped off with extra shots of oil and butter in your
coffee.
Whether that appeals or not, it’s an interesting theory, and
it will be interesting to see what comes from research on it, which is needed
before we can really know if the theory is correct. At this stage it seems
likely that a LCHF diet could work well for some people, although even
advocates of the diet say it’s not for everyone, and the long-term effects are
not yet known.
A common problem with many dietary theories, whether
low-carb-high-fat, or - as has been recently proposed as another ‘best’ diet, high-carb,
low-protein – is that it can be tricky to apply them to our real lives. Most of
us don’t think of our food in terms of percentages – counting grams of carbs
and fat. We think in terms of foods. If the only message we took from a theory
like LCHF was ‘eat more fat’ and we didn’t change anything else in our diets –
it could be disastrous.
However, there’s little doubt that poor-quality, refined
carbohydrates are bad for our health. They’re especially bad when combined with
saturated fat and salt - probably the worst case scenario, especially for people
with insulin resistance or diabetes. But it’s worth remembering that all carbs
are not equal. We could all probably improve our health by looking at the quality of the carbs we eat. Ditch the cakes and biscuits, white
bread, white rice and mashed potato. Concentrate on true whole grains
(not just things that say ‘wholegrain’ on the packet) and low-GI carbohydrates
from legumes and colourful veges. Stick to fresh whole foods and it’s hard to
go wrong, carbs or no carbs.
Personally I think I would find a very low-carb life
difficult. As a food lover, the idea of a life where I could never eat crisply
roasted potato or kumara, fresh sweetcorn, nutty quinoa, or a warm bowl of porridge
on a cold morning – feels like a hard life.