Tag Archives: diet

Low-fat vs Low-carbohydrate Which is better for Weight loss?

Posted on November 12, 2018 by | 1 comment

Do you track your calories if you are trying to lose weight? Do you look at the amount of fat that is present in food? Protein and carbohydrates? For most people the answer to most of these questions is “sometimes”. When you might ask why they don’t pay closer attention to some of these attributes of food, they may mention that a single factor is more important than others. What is the main factor in weight loss when it comes to the composition of food?

Public Domain Author: Peggy Greb, U.S. Department of Agriculture

There are many advocates for the plant-based low-fat high-carbohydrate way of eating. This approach generally will contain around ~65% energy from carbohydrates, ~15% energy from protein and ~20% energy from fats. This diet calls for a large number of whole foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. The benefits are generally to have improved cardiovascular markers such as lowered cholesterol levels, lowered triglycerides, reduced C-reactive protein levels (inflammation biomarker) and have higher energy levels. A study took a look at a standard non-calorically restricted low-fat plant-based diet that was followed for 16 weeks. They found that with increasing percentage of energy from carbohydrates and increased consumption of total and insoluble fiber was associated with a lower weight. It also had favorable effects on insulin control which means it can be effective in reversing pre-diabetes.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Øyvind Holmstad

Another popular diet regimen for weight loss is a low-carbohydrate diet, popular variants include the Ketogenic diet (~5% energy from carbohydrates, ~20% energy from protein, and ~75% calories from fat) or the Atkins diet (a higher protein and lower fat variant of the Ketogenic diet). These diets aim at carbohydrate restriction to induce a state of mainly burning fat for your body’s energy needs. This is a state of ketosis and this can reduce appetite which can make dieting easier. This diet also claims to improve the same cardiovascular markers as previously mentioned in the low-fat diet description. A study shows that when pinned side by side, low carbohydrate diets can lead to more favorable changes in lipid profiles, as well as being greater in effectiveness for weight loss even while calories weren’t restricted when compared side-by-side with a calorically restricted low-fat diet.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: M21Cestda

The idea of a diet is frightening to many because the restriction is not easy especially from food. A diet should aim to increase your cardiovascular biomarkers to minimize risk for disease and increase your chances of leading a long healthy life. In dietary studies, many studies contradict results of another, A study which reviewed all the other smaller scale studies on the different macronutrient composition diets found that there was no significant difference between weight loss in different diets assuming that calories were controlled. This means that the diet that would be the ideal candidate for inducing weight loss would be a calorie restricted plan which can be followed the best.

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How much protein do we really need while in a caloric surplus?

Posted on October 22, 2018 by | 1 comment

The general public has always been confused as to which diets are the ideal fit to sustain health and longevity to live a long and disease-free life. Examples include diets that are high in protein, low in carbs, high in fat, low in fat, or high in carbs.

Grass-Fed beef. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eye_Fillet,_Grass-Fed_Beef.jpg

 

Athletes are an example of people who require extensive information surrounding fitness and nutrition and muscle building is usually required when starting out. Furthermore, there are underweight individuals who struggle to gain weight. In both cases a need is gain weight in a healthy way is called for. What defines healthy weight gain? Most athletes would mention that they would like to gain muscle rather than fat because increasing lean body mass will increase your metabolism since muscles are a metabolically expensive entity. Which macronutrient partitioning should be used for maximal muscle growth and minimal fat gain?

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protein-rich_Foods.jpg

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association took a single-blind randomized controlled trial which included 25 male and female volunteers with a body mass index between 19-30 and aged 18-35. The participants first consumed a diet (15% of energy from protein, 25% from fat, and 60% carbohydrates) for 13-25 days designed to yield information about their basal caloric needs. The following 8 weeks patients were fed 40% calories higher than their basal caloric requirements. There were three groups in this study 1) Fed a low protein diet (6% of energy from protein, 52% from fat, and 42% from carbohydrates) 2) Fed a moderate protein diet (15% of energy from protein, 44% from fat, and 41% from carbohydrates) 3) Fed a high protein diet (26% of energy from protein, 33% from fat, and 41% from carbohydrates).

The low protein group had significantly lower changes in weight and lean body mass than the other groups. The high protein group and the moderate protein group didn’t have statistically significant differences in weight change, accumulation of fat, and changes in lean body mass.

Figure 1. Body Composition Changes from 8 weeks of Overfeeding

The data shows that changes in body composition can be highly affected by protein intake since the amount of protein you should be consuming according to the American dietary Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (ADMR) is 10%-30% calories coming from protein for adults. The low protein group was only taking in 5% of their calories from protein and the results show that this resulted in a loss of lean body mass which is uncharacteristic when you’re in a caloric surplus. This means that the group that had 5% energy from protein was likely in a state of negative nitrogen balance which means that muscle breakdown exceeded muscle synthesis and due to lack of essential amino acids being present to replace the muscle that is broken down from regular muscle movement, the result is a loss in lean body mass which is undesirable while gaining weight.

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Trimming the Fat: Is the Canadian Ban on Trans Fats Justified?

Posted on October 8, 2018 by | 1 comment

Canadian Minister of Health, Genitte Petitpas Taylor, announced one year ago that Canada would be banning the addition of trans fats in food, and that ban came in effect today. Officials predicted the ban is going to prevent 12000 deaths from heart disease over the next 20 years.

Heart disease is no laughing matter. According to the Canadian Ministry of Health, “About 1 in 12 (or 2.4 million) Canadian adults age 20 and over live with diagnosed heart disease” and “Every hour, about 12 Canadian adults age 20 and over with diagnosed heart disease die”. So, what can we do to beat heart disease? Exercising, drinking and smoking in moderation, and eating a healthy diet are what any doctor will suggest. When it comes to eating a healthy diet, trans fats are public enemy number 1, but why is that?

Trans fats contain cholesterol that is carried in the body by proteins. The most common are low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). These two lipoproteins bind to cholesterol to make it soluble in water so that it can move around our body. Unfortunately, LDL is also responsible for the plaques in our heart and arteries that contribute to heart disease. Knowing this, it’s a no-brainer to reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol we eat. Trans fats have a high proportion of LDL to HDL cholesterol relative to other fats, so avoiding them is the obvious choice. If you’re worried that your favourite treats will soon be off the shelf, there’s no need to worry.

Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger – Courtesy Clay Caviness of Flickr

Protecting people is part of a government’s job, and the Canadian government should have taken action to protect Canadians from this health threat years ago. Canada has finally joined a global initiative to reduce trans fats in food, alongside the United States of America and the European Union. While our heel-dragging isn’t great for our health, we can at least rest easy knowing that food manufacturers in the USA and the EU have already had time to remove trans fats from their products, so we can keep buying them in Canada without interruption. While some alternatives to trans fats are a little more expensive, we can at least pay with our wallets rather than our health. I’ll raise a doughnut to that.

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Trimming the Fat: Is the Canadian Ban on Trans Fats Justified?

Posted on September 17, 2018 by | Leave a comment

Canadian Minister of Health, Genitte Petitpas Taylor, announced one year ago that Canada would be banning the addition of trans fats in food, and that ban came in effect today. Officials predicted the ban would prevent 12000 deaths from heart disease over the next 20 years.

Heart disease is no laughing matter. According to the Canadian Ministry of Health, “About 1 in 12 (or 2.4 million) Canadian adults age 20 and over live with diagnosed heart disease” and “Every hour, about 12 Canadian adults age 20 and over with diagnosed heart disease die”. So, what can we do to beat heart disease? Exercising, drinking and smoking in moderation, and eating a healthy diet are what any doctor will suggest. When it comes to eating a healthy diet, trans fats are public enemy number 1, but why is that?

Heart plaque – Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Trans fats contain cholesterol that is carried in the body by proteins. The most common are low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). These two lipoproteins bind to cholesterol to make it soluble in water so that it can move around our body. Unfortunately, LDL is also responsible for the plaques in our heart and arteries that contribute to heart disease. Knowing this, it’s a no-brainer to reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol we eat. Trans fats have a high proportion of LDL to HDL cholesterol relative to other fats, so avoiding them is the obvious choice. If you’re worried that your favourite treats will soon be off the shelf, there’s no need to worry.

Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger – Courtesy Clay Caviness of Flicker

Canada has joined a global initiative to reduce trans fats in food, alongside the United States of America and the European Union, and we’re a little late to the party. While our heel-dragging isn’t great for our health, we can at least rest easy knowing that food manufacturers in the USA and the EU have already had time to remove trans fats from their products, so we can keep buying them in Canada without interruption. While some alternatives to trans fats are a little more expensive, we can at least pay with our wallets rather than our health. I’ll raise a doughnut to that.

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Antioxidants for Post-Workout Recovery: Do They Actually Work?

Posted on September 17, 2018 by | Leave a comment

If you’re anything like me, you genuinely enjoy exercise but loathe the aftermath, and by aftermath, I mean soreness. Luckily, there are post-workout supplements to the rescue, right? Wrong. There is research on how antioxidant supplements that claim speedy muscle recovery and pain relief aren’t really beneficial for athletes, at all. As your average gym-enthusiast, this was a surprise to me as well. I paid good money for my antioxidant supplements, so why aren’t they working? Let’s break it down.

Intense exercise can induce oxidative stress, a condition that over-produces reactive and damaging chemicals in the body while the defensive line of natural antioxidants decrease. Additionally, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) kicks in due to the inflammation of overworked muscles. So, it only makes sense that you would need to simply replenish your antioxidant levels, right?

“Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (aka DOMS)” by Zouhir Kharmaz. Image from Flickr.

 

Well, an interesting study published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) in 2017 offered insight on how athletes intaking more antioxidants than the daily required amount isn’t necessarily beneficial for speedy recovery or pain relief after strenuous exercise.

Experimental evidence revealed that only a select few athletes felt a slight reduction of muscle soreness upon higher doses of antioxidants. Because of such small numbers, this result unlikely equates to a meaningful difference.

The team compiled 50 similar experiments where athletes exposed to varying types of exercises resulting in muscle soreness were given either a placebo pill

“Antioxidant Supplements” by Mambo. Image from Flickr.

with no antioxidants, or an antioxidant supplement that contained a dosage higher than the daily recommended amount. Muscle soreness levels after 6, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours, recovery and adverse effects were accessed.

Many scientists remain skeptical on the advantages as there are also reports discussing similar disappointing experimental results that leave room for uncertainty.  

So, does this mean that antioxidant supplements are useless? In this context, perhaps. The daily recommended amount of antioxidants is obtainable through a healthy, balanced diet, which will aid in post-workout recovery the same way as supplements intend to do, and for only a fraction of the cost. Personally, if my expensive post-workout supplements aren’t working miracles on my muscle soreness, I believe it’s time to switch to the healthy, cheaper alternative.

It’s easy to be swayed by cool labels, isn’t it?

“Antioxidants” by Epickidstoys Smith. Image from Flickr.

 

  • Sonia Sharma

 

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