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Monday, November 5, 2007

Low Fat Diets

There are diets with very low fat content that promise the moon. One example is Dr. Dean Orbish's Eat More, Weigh Less. In this diet of very low fat content, the hype is that one has quite a selection to choose. There will be a sense of abundance. And one will never feel deprived. They say further that the diet has such low fat content one will get full before consuming more calories.

How about the Pritkin diet? How does that measure up? The promise here is that it is the world's healthiest diet. It promises a lot. Apparently, it touts itself as a secure and reasonable way to change one's lifestyle. It is supposed to add years to one's life and help reverse symptoms of a number of diseases including diabetes.

Do very low food diets work? This type of diet recommends food consumption from fat to be 10%. We know that some people food consumption with calories from fat is as much as 30%. Others even consume as much as 40% of calories from fat.

Diets with very low fat can help lose weight. Fat has nine calories per gram compared to proteins and carbohydrates which have 4 calories per gram. So reducing the calories from fat to only 10% will give you room to eat more while consuming lower calories.

There another reason why diets with very low fat can help lose weight. The body burns more energy in digesting proteins and carbohydrates than it does so with fat. The third reason is that diets with very low fats contain more fiber so one feels full earlier in the meal.

Are diets containing very low fat healthy though? These diets are about 70% carbohydrates. This can increase the blood sugar and triglyceride levels and lower the good cholesterol so this type of diet is not advisable for those with diabetes or prediabetes.

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