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Are carbs the new fat? For much of the second half of the 20th century, doctors constantly suggested we avoid high-fat foods, but more recently a new target for our dietary scorn has emerged: carbohydrates. Two new companion studies are suggesting a ketogenic diet – high fat, low protein, and low carbohydrates – could enhance memory, improve physical strength and extend lifespan.
Whether you want to call it the Atkin's Diet, Paleo or simply "Keto," there have been plenty of variations on this way of eating. While some diets suggest no carbohydrates or sugars, many are underwritten by the same theory. The idea is that by severely restricting the body's intake of carbohydrates, a state known as ketosis is entered into. This forces the body to burn stored fats as fuel instead of carbohydrates.
Has a ketogenic diet worked for you?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:31AM (6 children)
The mistaken belief that human dietary needs have not changed since the paleolithic era..
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:48AM (1 child)
Nice try but you don't NEED cheetos, dude.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:58AM
He's evolved!
(Score: 5, Informative) by julian on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:50AM (3 children)
I'm an evolutionary biologist by education so I'm not completely making this up. Nutrition is complicated, and tends to break down on an individual level. That doesn't mean we can't find truths that prevail over entire populations.
You're right that evolution has indeed continued since the paleolithic. However, the two agricultural revolutions (~10kya and ~150ya) are too recent for humans to have evolved meaningful adaptions to those dietary changes. The most recent evolutionary change I can think of would be the ability of (some) humans to retain the ability to digest lactose into adulthood. All mammals drink the milk of their mother during infancy, including humans, but only humans are able to continue drinking milk and eating dairy after being weaned. In fact, most humans are "lactose intolerant". I've always thought that we shouldn't single them out--they're the majority after all. We should single out those who *can* digest milk as "lactose tolerant".
Humans are omnivores, so they can survive on a wide variety of diets. You can live on primarily processed cereal grains, survive into adulthood, reproduce, and even see grandchildren. Yet if you subject a population to this dietary regime I would expect to see some illnesses increase; diabetes, obesity, heart disease, some cancers. A lot of this is due to over-indulgence, and daily physical labor or exercise can partially negate this. Yet again it's the diet which even allows this over-indulgence to be possible. Just try getting fat eating green vegetables, roots, the occasional fruit, and game birds you catch yourself. Eat as much green vegetables and chicken thighs as you can, you probably won't succeed. But we can concentrate calories much more effectively in carbohydrates. Fat is even more concentrated, but it's empirically true that a high fat doesn't make you fat. Swapping carbohydrates for fat actually causes people to lose weight, and there's a limit for how much people can physically tolerate. You can't get your daily calories by chugging 250ml of olive oil without retching.
So we're still evolving, yes, but your dietary needs and optimizations are still stuck in the Pleistocene. Is full paleo necessary or practical for most people? probably not. You're still better off swapping a carbohydrate dish for vegetables + protein/fat. Wash it down with a beer if you feel the need to celebrate humanity's agricultural triumphs.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:06AM
Because, as we know, vegetables dont contain carbs! (yes, i know, you forgot the 'green leafy' there, but just saying).
A diet of sweet potato is unlikely to lead to much loss ;)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:43PM
Before that I'd guess the dental changes to better consume cooked meat vs tough raw meat.
I would guess if humans are around in 100K years we'll have evolved built in can openers and bottle cap benders.
There's also individual movement. A mere 150 years ago I had precisely one ancestor who had ever eaten corn (and they came over in the 1600s, so only 400 odd years there...) and zero soy eaters, and that's like 90% of the modern american diet right there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @07:38AM
But lots of people have no problems consuming significant amounts of vegetable oils via snack foods and french fries ;).
Most people won't want to consume many spoons of plain white sugar, or salt or oil/fat in a sitting. But the food industry has worked out many addictive ways to bypass the "limiters".
I actually don't think carbs are evil. I think they're fine as long as they are proportionate to your physical activity. If you're sedentary you don't need any carbs. If you so active that you burn 6000 kcal a day it's probably cheaper to get most of them from carbs (e.g. pasta, potato etc) and some oils. Also doubt you want to spend so much time eating and pooping kilos of broccoli...
That said for long distance events starting while already on fat burning mode can be an advantage because you don't need to switch modes from carb burning to fat burning and for many people that switch isn't that smooth.
Sugar (sucrose/fructose) on the other hand is useful telling your body to fatten up. If you don't intend or need to fatten up for "winter" then you shouldn't be taking that much of it.