How Can Twenty Million People Be Wrong?
Part II of Should I Feed My Kids Fewer Carbs
By Dr. Daniel S. Kirschenbaum

In the first article, recommendations were made based on the argument that low-carb diets like Atkins, The Zone, South Beach , Protein Power, and Sugar Busters are NOT useful. Many parents showed great interest in that opinion and asked for more details. Very logical questions were asked, like, “Why are twenty million people trying these diets if they don’t work?” The purpose of this follow-up article is to answer this question and provide additional recommendations for healthful diets for you and your children.

So how can 20,000,000 low-carb dieters be wrong?

Those who wish to lose weight want the easiest fastest most effective way to do it. And, why shouldn’t they want that? You could keep cutting your lawn with shears or with a manual lawnmower, but why wouldn’t you use a power lawn mower and do the job better and in a fraction of the time if you can easily afford such a modern wonder? So when the first low carb gurus started promulgating this approach in the 1950s, millions of people were just as eager then as Americans are now to learn how to have their bacon and eggs and still lose weight. People who follow these low-carb diets can lose weight. They follow these diets for a few days or a week, lose several pounds of water weight (that come flying back on when they look sideways at a bagel), and revel in losing weight while eating formerly forbidden delights. This approach only helps people lose weight (after the first week of water weight loss) when they also cut calories by eating that way, or increase physical activity because they are “on a diet.”

Sorry to say, based on their understanding of the potentially dangerous effects of these diets and the fact that they don’t work better than very low fat diets which are much safer, here are some of the groups that advise AGAINST following low carb/high fat diets.

American Dietetic Association
American Diabetes Association
American Heart Association
American Cancer Society
National Institutes of Health
US Department of Health and Human Services

Two recent reviews about the effectiveness of low-carb diets were published by nutritional, medical, and behavioral scientists in major peer reviewed journals over the past three years (Freedman, King, & Kennedy in Obesity Research, 2001, v.9, 1S-40S; Bravata and colleagues, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003, v.289, 1837-1850). After carefully analyzing the results of hundreds of studies, the authors of both reviews concluded that people who lose weight fastest and happiest follow low-fat, not low-carb, diets, make permanent changes in the ways that they eat, develop active lifestyles, and lead longer, healthier lives because of these changes.

The implications for your family of these points are:

1. Keep eating carbohydrates, even white bread and white potatoes. Compared to their white counterparts, eating whole grains and sweet potatoes does improve fullness and health because of the extra fiber and vitamins in such foods. But eating white bread and potatoes won’t make you or your children gain weight or develop ravenous appetites. Keep in mind that white bread has the same impact on blood sugar (Glycemic Index) as whole wheat bread.

2. Minimize eating of fat to decrease hunger and improve long-term health. You can eat very little fat and still feel very satisfied and interested in your food, and so can your children. People report less hunger when following a low fat diet than when following their normal, higher fat diet. Some studies show that eating high fat foods increases appetite more than eating high protein and low fat foods. While it may take a bit more creativity to minimize fat, try searching the Internet for low-fat menus (e.g., try www.epicurean.com), or buy Jyl Steinback’s Fat Free Living Super Cookbook (Warner Books, 1997) and look for very low fat recipes for pizza, chili, meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, and a million chicken dishes.

3. Consider adding more protein and more high volume/high fiber foods to your children’s diets to keep them more satiated, and perhaps better able to concentrate in school. Recent studies DO NOT show that sugar makes kids hyperactive, but if your children eat more fiber and protein they may be a bit less hungry, less irritable, and better able to concentrate in school. Breakfast ideas: egg white omelets, Frosted Mini-Wheats or Multi-grain Cheerios + skim or low-fat milk; Lunch: low fat lunch meat sandwiches on whole grain bread (with low-fat mayo or Dijon or honey mustard) + carrots, whole fruit).

4. Keep moving as much as possible. Activity can decrease appetite, decrease stress, and improve long term health tremendously.