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Low-carb craze is just plain crazy, nutrition expert says

Monday, February 14, 2005 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor | Key concepts: Low-carb, Nutrition and Foods

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Summary

A hospital nutritionist in Colorado says America's low-carb craze is just a bunch of marketing craziness. There's more to losing weight and staying healthy than counting carbs, she says, and companies that hype their "low-carb" products often fail to point out that eating large portions of their food is unhealthy for other reasons. Many low-carb foods have inadvisable amounts of fat, for example.

Original source:
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20050207/NEWS/50207004

Details

  • Not sure what to make of all the low-carb diets and foods currently on the market?
  • Hospital dietitian Michelle Maccarone gave a speech Wednesday titled "Carb Craze or Carb Crazy."
  • She argued that America has become the latter, falling prey to misleading marketing by a low-carb industry now running into the billions of dollars.
  • "The problem with low-carb diets is that we've become obsessed with weight loss instead of overall health," she said.
  • Maccarone began her lecture by comparing the marketing of low-carb foods to the trend in the 1990s to market low-fat foods, even though those products often packed lots of calories.
  • She pointed to research done by www.consumerlab.com, an independent testing organization, that found as many as 60 percent of low-carb nutrition bars give erroneous information on their packages.
  • The "net carb" content listed on many of these bars is also misleading.
  • According to manufacturers, net carbs consist of total carbohydrates minus fiber and sugar alcohols.
  • It's OK to subtract fiber, Maccarone said, but sugar alcohols such as glycerol have little impact on overall carb content.
  • Also, although sugar alcohols have been used in small amounts in items like chewing gum for years, researchers say little is known about the long-term effects of consuming large amounts of these substances.
  • The FDA hasn't approved it, but the companies are still labeling that way."
  • She also said many low-carb diets are nutritionally deficient.
  • The Atkins diet, for example, advocates no more than 20-60 grams of carbohydrates per day during the diet's first few weeks.
  • Cutting out fruits because they contain carbohydrates can also cause serious nutritional deficiencies.
  • Maccarone spoke as part of the Aspen Valley Hospital and Aspen Given Foundation's "Brown Bag" lunchtime lecture series.

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