Weight gain and obesity have become causes of health concerns in the western world.
Obesity in particular is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the world today.
Studies have been conducted to establish the reasons why the world population seems to be
gaining weight. Research has shown, for instance, that the general weight of the population
today, is much higher than it was in the 1960s.
What are the factors that have contributed to this turn of events and what are the intervention
measures that can be instituted to control it? Studies have shown that although our children still
engage in physical exercises, just like the children of yester years, they still add weight and in
some cases get obese. For the older people, lack of exercise, among other issues has been
cited a reason for weight gain or becoming fat.
Obesity and weight gain have been attributed to the foods we eat. Research shows that we
have increased our food intake which unfortunately contains a higher percentage of sugar than
what the world population used to ingest about fifty years ago. Also, the amount of fat that we
eat has considerably increased. This coupled with lack of exercise have been cited as the
leading causes of weight gain. It's an established fact that when we get large portions of fatty
foods, creamy desserts, alcohol and soft drinks full of sugar, our calorie intake gets higher. With
a higher calorie intake, we are expected to do a lot of exercises to burn the excess calories. If
this is not done, there is a calorie pile up that leads to weight gain.
The solution to these problems lies in the ability to change our eating habits. One way of
controlling unnecessary weight gain is the eating low carb foods. This way, the amount of
calories in the food is closely controlled and helps in making one healthier.
Low Carb diets have been defined differently depending on whether the point of discussion is
centred on the amount of calories derived from carbohydrates or the percentage of
carbohydrates in a diet. Generally though, low carb diets can be described as those diets that
help the body to derive between 5% to 45 % of calories from Carbohydrates. The normal
percentage of calories that is supposed to be derived from Carbohydrates, according to the U.S.
guidelines on health is between 50% to 65%. Therefore, a low carb diet refers to a conscious
effort to try and limit the intake of foods with high carbohydrate levels, especially those that
cause a significant rise in blood sugar.
Although the debate on the advantages of a low carb diet is still going on, it's true that the
tolerance of carbohydrates in the body varies from person to person. This type of diet, then, will
suit or benefit those who are sensitive or whose tolerance to carbohydrates is low. The
approach is to encourage the reduction of the intake of carbohydrates to levels that the body
can tolerate. This approach targets the reduction or elimination from our diets foods like
potatoes, white rice, white flour and sugar from the diet.
The reduction of carbohydrates intake has been known to cause weight loss in people. To
control this, a low carb diet should be closely monitored so that immediately signs of weight loss
are noticed; the intake of carbohydrates is slowly increased until the body can control blood
glucose. It's also advisable to embrace the ketogenic diet where the body generates energy
from body fats instead of glucose. This leads the body into what is called fat adaptation or ket
adaptation. This adaptation encourages body metabolism which leads to improvement of
stamina. Energy from fat is long lasting unlike energy from glucose which quickly diminishes..
