Authors:
Oct 2022, Chengdu, China
There is substantial evidence that low-carbohydrate diets are more effective in promoting metabolic health than traditional high-carbohydrate diets and even low-fat diets.
New research conducted in recent decades has shown that low-carb diets can dramatically improve metabolic health. This includes decreasing blood pressure and blood glucose levels, as well as reducing visceral fat, which can lower inflammation and even reverse the course of chronic diseases.
Carbs and Insulin
Scientists and doctors who study low-carb diets believe that the main reason low-carb diets promote health is due to the fact that less carbohydrate leads to lower insulin levels.
Insulin is an important hormone in the body that regulates energy storage and blood sugar levels. After a diet, when carbohydrates in food are broken down into glucose, insulin secretion is stimulated, and insulin levels will rise. High levels of insulin can lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, which in turn can cause chronic diseases.
On the other hand, when people start a low-carb diet, insulin levels decrease almost immediately, promoting the release of fat and its use for energy expenditure. This triggers the release of abdominal fat, which can lead to weight loss.
Low-carb intake also does not cause blood sugar to rise or fluctuate dramatically, and it can help reduce insulin resistance, which reverses chronic diseases that develop over time.
This theory has been extensively used in clinical trials and actual treatments, and if you’re interested, you can read about the “carb-insulin” model theory and clinical trials by Dr. Ludwig, a renowned professor at Harvard University.
It is crucial to note that patients being treated for diabetes (with oral medications or insulin injections) require professional guidance when practicing a low-carb diet, particularly regarding blood glucose changes. While many clinical trials have shown that long-term hypoglycemic events are unlikely, necessary monitoring and precautions are essential.
High-carbohydrate diets and chronic disease
One consequence of decades of low-fat diet propaganda is that people have been unconsciously (or even intentionally) steered toward cheap carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates, as they reduce their fat and partially saturated-fat meat intake. Compared to previous generations, the modern diet is heavily filled with refined carbohydrate foods.
What can be seen is that today, with the strong promotion of low-fat diets, the incidence of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases is not only not decreasing but increasing at an unprecedented rate, which has not been seen in thousands of years of human evolution. Many scientific studies aim to find “cures” for chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes in the field of genetic engineering. Yet the simple fact is that there is no evidence that human genes have changed in the last few decades.
So what is causing today’s chronic disease outbreaks? Many scientists and doctors have turned their attention to high-carbohydrate diets, or high sugar diets as they are often called.
Many people do not understand that reducing sugar intake means eating less white sugar, sucrose or sweets. In fact, the end products of carbohydrates are all sugars. The end product of metabolizing a bowl of white rice, a slice of bread, and a bottle of yogurt contains a lot of glucose, fructose, and other simple sugars, and much more sucrose than you are likely to eat on a daily basis.
Reducing sugar intake has become today’s nutritional health consensus, but reducing carbohydrates doesn’t seem to be. They are so closely related that simply reducing sucrose intake without limiting carbohydrate intake would not actually make a substantial difference.
The End. Oct 202
低碳水饮食为什么能促进健康？（1）
2022年10月
有大量证据表明，低碳水化合物饮食比传统的高碳水饮食，甚至比低脂饮食更有效地促进代谢健康。
近几十年的新研究表明，低碳水饮食可以极大的改善代谢健康，从血压和血糖水平的下降，到内脏脂肪的减少，都可以通过低碳水饮食实现，从而降低炎症和逆转慢性疾病的进程。
碳水和胰岛素
研究低碳水饮食的科学家和医生们通常认为低碳水饮食促进健康的主要原因是：碳水的减少意味着更低的胰岛素水平。
对于有代谢综合症，特别是患有糖尿病的人而言，胰岛素不是一个陌生的概念。它是人体内最重要的激素之一。我们知道在饮食后，当食物中的碳水化合物分解成葡萄糖时，胰岛素的分泌将被激发，胰岛素水平将会上升。
胰岛素是调节能量储存和血糖水平的激素。它告诉细胞储存或释放能量。事实上胰岛素能降低血糖的现象正是身体存储葡萄糖能量的表现。在胰岛素的作用下，葡萄糖也就是血糖将被送进细胞储存起来，变成糖原或甘油三酯（存储在不同的细胞其形式不同）。
在高碳水饮食后的一段时间（几个小时或更短），由于胰岛素的大量分泌和作用，这可能会导致血液中的血糖快速下降，从而使人产生饥饿感和对甜食的渴望。通常在那个时候，人们会再次进食。这就形成了一个导致体重增加的恶性循环。
当胰岛素水平高时，身体的细胞将倾向于储存，而不是释放，进而更不会燃烧能量。当长时间处于高胰岛素水平，尤其在胰岛素抵抗状态时，身体的脂肪（皮下脂肪和内脏脂肪）将会不断累积。
相反，当人们开始低碳水化合物饮食时，胰岛素水平几乎会立即降低。这可促进脂肪的释放并使其用于能量消耗。这通常会引发脂肪释放，尤其是腹部的脂肪。
另一方面，低碳水摄入不会使血糖升高或剧烈波动。一段时间后，人们将减少对甜食的依赖，从而打破之前的恶性循环，降低胰岛素抵抗，进而逆转长期形成的慢性疾病。
这个理论已经大量的用于临床实验和实际治疗，如果您感兴趣，可了解哈弗大学知名教授路德维格博士的“碳水-胰岛素”模型理论和临床实验。
需要说明的是，正在治疗糖尿病的患者（无论是使用口服药还是注射胰岛素）在实践低碳水饮食的时候，需要专业人士的指导，尤其是需要关注血糖的变化。虽然许多的临床实验表明，长期低血糖事件发生的几率不大，但必要的监测和预防措施是必要的。
高碳水饮食与慢性疾病
数十年的低脂饮食宣传带来一个后果，那就是人们在减少脂肪和部分含饱和脂肪的肉类摄入时，不自觉地被（甚至是被有意的）引导向了廉价的碳水化合物，尤其是精致的碳水化合物。与上几代人相比，现代人的饮食中大量充斥着精致碳水化合物食品。
可以看到的是，在大力推广低脂饮食的今天，肥胖、糖尿病和其他慢性疾病的发病率不仅没有降低，反而以前所未有的速度增长，这在人类几千年的进化过程中是没有出现过的。许多科学研究希望在基因工程领域为慢性疾病，例如肥胖和糖尿病找到“解药”。然而一个简单的事实却是在过去几十年中，没有证据显示人类的基因发生了变化。
那么是什么，或者是哪些因素导致了今天的慢性疾病的爆发？许多科学家和医生都把目光投向了高碳水化合物饮食，也就是人们常说的高糖饮食。
许多人不理解，以为减少糖的摄入就是少吃白糖，蔗糖或者甜食。实际上，碳水化合物的最终产物都是糖类。一碗白米饭、一片面包和一瓶酸奶代谢后的最终产物含有大量的葡萄糖、果糖和其他单糖，而且比你每天可能吃得下的蔗糖要多得多。
减少糖的摄入已经成为今天的营养健康共识，但是减少碳水化合物似乎还不是。它们二者的关系如此紧密，如果只是单纯的降低蔗糖的摄入，不限制碳水化合物的摄入，实际上不会有实质的改变。
全文完
