A major study concludes that a low or no carb diet increases premature mortality. It also increases mortality due to many chronic diseases. Scientists, therefore, urge dieters to stop low-carb diets.
Latest estimates indicate that as many as 45 million people in the U.S. go on a diet every year.
Recent research focuses on low-carb diets and discusses the health risks associated with them. Carbohydrates are a significant source of nutrition for most living organisms. But how does a low intake of these molecules affect health?
The new research does not provide a causal answer to this issue. Still, it examines the relationship between low-carb diets and the risk of premature mortality.
How Do Low-Carb Diets Work?
Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy. The body breaks down fat into ketones without enough carbohydrates for energy. The ketones would then become the main source of food for the body. When ketones are the primary fuel source, this puts the body in a state called ketosis.
When your fat stores become the primary source of energy, you will lose weight.
Studying low-carb diets and death risk
Prof. Lodz and his colleagues investigated the correlation between low-carb diets and the risk of death from any cause among 24,825 individuals who participated in the 1999–2010 National Health and Nutrition Review Study.
Researchers looked into associations between low carb consumption and death risk from many diseases. These include coronary heart disorder, cerebrovascular disease—including stroke—and cancer.
On average, the research participants were 47.6 years of age. Their carbohydrate intake was calculated as a percentage. Then, on the basis of these percentages, researchers split the participants into fourths. Prof. Banach and colleagues have monitored the researchers for an average of 6.4 years.
According to their BMI, researchers also graded participants as obese and non-obese.
In the second part of the study, the team investigated the same associations in a broad meta-analysis of prospective research that summed up almost 450,000 participants, followed over an average duration of 15.6 years.
Risk of Low carb diet
1. You might lack essential nutrients
Slashing carbohydrates decreases the consumption of all of the main nutrients present in shunned foods. These include vitamins, minerals, vitamins, fibre and prebiotics and healthy fats. There is no multivitamin or powdered supplement capable of replacing many nutrients. This shortfall can potentially affect immune function, cognitive health. This can raise the risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease and Alzheimer’s. In fact, in the Blue Zones—the areas where people live the longest, healthiest lives—diets are predominantly plant-based and relatively high in carbs.
2. Carb avoidance could lead to poor digestive health
The recommended daily fiber target is at least 25 grams a day. And you can find this important nutrient only in foods containing carbohydrates. A high fiber diet is associated with a significantly reduced risk of:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Certain gastrointestinal issues
Certain forms of fibre also act as prebiotics. This serves as food for beneficial intestinal bacteria that enhance immunity and mental health. Fibre supplements are available. But they do not provide the same benefits as fibre derived from whole foods.
3. You could experience low carb flu
You’ve probably heard of the flu in keto. When someone first takes a keto diet, signs could include headaches, brain fog, irritability, etc. This is when your brain, which usually uses up to 60% of all the carbohydrates you consume, has to adapt to another food source. But that doesn’t mean it’s ideal just because the body can adapt. The same is true of the renunciation of carbohydrates. Again, there’s no need for weight loss or good fitness, so why put yourself to torture?
4. Social and psychological side effects may occur
Any extreme diet is a challenge for social eating. We’ve heard many stories from people about how their strict diet caused them to stop socializing. It may even make them obsessive or fearful of food. Others who cannot maintain limitations and therefore fall off the wagon often feel extreme guilt. Sometimes they even have depression. Moving on and off from strict diets is a pattern that can turn into seriously disturbed eating. This can crush down people’s quality of life and mental health. A systematic review of 11 studies found that plant-based diets that contain nutritious carbohydrates are associated with significant improvements in emotional well-being, including depression.
No carbohydrate diet is appropriate or recommended for either long-term weight loss or optimal health. Recent evidence indicates that a plant-based diet includes:
- Whole grains
- Fiber-rich foods
- Plant-based proteins such as lentils and beans
These play a major role in the prevention and control of type 2 diabetes.
Plant-based diets, moderate to high in carbohydrates:
- Induce weight loss
- Enhance insulin resistance
- Promote a healthy intestinal microbiome
- Reduce the development of advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. These are compounds associated with ageing
Why should you avoid ‘low-carb diets?
A study used survey results that showed that people who ate the least amount of carbohydrates were 32 percent more likely to die prematurely from any cause. This was compared to the people who ate the most carbohydrates
Also, low-carb consumers were:
- 51 percent more likely to die from coronary heart disease
- 50 percent more likely to die from cerebrovascular disease
- 35 percent more likely to die from cancer
The associations were the highest in older, non-obese persons.
Researchers repeated these results in the meta-analysis. This showed that the average risk of death from any cause was 15 percent higher in people who consumed the least amount of carbohydrates. The chance was 13 percent higher for cardiovascular death. And the risk of death from cancer was 8 percent higher.
You should avoid Low-carb diets, concludes Prof. Banach. He also ventures some possible causal explanations for the connections identified.
Reduced consumption of fiber and fruit and increased intake of animal protein, cholesterol, and saturated fat can play a role in these diets. There may also be variations in minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals.
Low-carbohydrate diets can be helpful in the short term to reduce weight, reduce blood pressure, and boost blood glucose control. Still, research shows that, over the long run, they are associated with an increased risk of death.
Should You Try It?
Nope.
Whole grains, fruit, starchy vegetables and beans do not cause you to gain weight. They also do not prevent you from gaining weight. The overabundance of heavily processed fried foods, baked goods, snacks is more likely.
Blue Zones and Mediterranean diets are some of the healthiest options out there. These diets tend to concentrate on eating more vegetable-based whole foods with smaller amounts of fish or meat if any. These diets do not focus on cutting out a single nutrient or food group. It’s about taking a balanced approach that focuses mainly on eating whole foods.
