High Protein Low Carb Diet – Benefits & Risks

What is a Low Carb Diet?

Carb means carbohydrates. Low carb diet means diet which is low in carbohydrates. Any sugary foods, bakery products like bread, pasta are high in carbohydrates. Low carb diet is high in protein, fat and more vegetables.

High protein, low carb diet always helps to lose weight. Only few things you need to take care of, which foods are to eat and which foods to avoid, how much exercise is required and how much weight you have to shed off. High protein, low carb diet is widely suggested by many dieticians because it gives 30% to 50% calories from protein itself.

Low carb diet helps to burn fat to get fuel for the body. Normally your body burns the carbohydrates to get fuel. But in this diet you are limiting your intake of carbohydrates, so from where your body will get the fuel? So your body will burn the fats and get the fuel.

Health Benefits of High Protein Low Carb Diet

Many studies show that low carb diets are healthy and include many health benefits. They are:

• Weight loss: A 2014 study by the National Institutes of Health published that high protein low carb diets are more effective for weight loss.
• Improve brain function, control mood and regulate hormone: Fats and carbohydrates are inversely proportionate. Your body needs healthy fats for proper brain function, mood control and hormone regulation. While unhealthy carbohydrates initially help you feel awake and alert, but quickly its reaction gets low and you will start feeling tired, grumpy and irritated.
• Lower risk for metabolic syndrome and heart disease: A 2012 study reported in The American Journal of Epidemiology that low carb diets are more promising at reducing certain metabolic and heart disease risk factors.
• Reduced risk of diabetes and hypertension: Researchers from the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at SUNY University of Brooklyn point out that a high-carbohydrate diet raises postprandial plasma glucose and insulin secretion, thereby increasing risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and obesity. Many studies have shown that a low-carb diet is a natural diabetes treatment and effective tool in the prevention of patients with type 2 diabetes.
  

• Fight Cancer: In Low-carb diets, cut down of sugar totally and lower intake of grains and processed foods, they might act like a natural cancer treatment, causing immunity to improve as oxidative stress goes down.
  
• Not feeling hungry and get rid of cravings: In low carb diets, eating more healthy fats and proteins instead of sugar and carbohydrates make you more satisfied. It effectively turns off the hungry hormone, i.e., Ghrelin.
  
• Increase the ability of digestion: Less sugar implies better stomach related capacity for many people, since sugar encourages “bad bacteria” that can flourish in the gut. The consequence of an eating regimen too high in sugar and carb can mean the improvement of candida infection, IBS and compounded manifestations of leaky gut disorder. A lot of vegetables, quality proteins and sound fats, then again, can act like fat-burning foods that likewise help support the stomach related tract and diminish bacterial development.
  
• Increase the levels of HDL (High-density Lipoprotein): Low-carb diets tend to be high in fat, which leads to an impressive increase in blood levels of HDL, often referred to as the “good” cholesterol.
  

The Risks of High-Protein, Low-Carb Diet

Every diet has different effects on different people. There are some side effects of high protein, low carb diet shown by experts:

1. High cholesterol: As intake of protein products get increased, so there is a chance of increasing your cholesterol level.
   
2. Kidney problems: When you are in high protein diet, you may urinate more calcium than usual. Thus there is a chance of getting kidney stones.
   
3. Osteoporosis: There is a conflict regarding this. Some experts think, high protein diet may cause osteoporosis.
   

Conclusion

High protein, low carb diet is very simple to follow, but it eliminates many foods. It is a restrictive diet and a bit difficult to follow for longer time. Before you choose this diet, consult your doctor or dietician. If you need specific nutrition, you may take supplements to cope up with the nutritional gap of vitamins or minerals.