Holidays can hurt low-carb dieters: expert

Last Updated: 2003-10-28 14:39:05 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Followers of the ever-increasingly popular low-carbohydrate diets may gain more than the average amount of weight when they sit down to this season's holiday meals, according to one expert.

The danger? Overeating, she said, when low-carbohydrate dieters pack their plates with the foods they have been denying themselves all year, like potatoes, cookies and cakes.

A recent report found that people tend to gain an average of around one pound every holiday season. While that amount may seem slight, the study also discovered that people rarely lose that extra weight, causing it to accumulate year after year.

Americans are "literally, as we say, packing on the pounds," Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center told Reuters Health.

And given their risk of overindulgence, people following low-carbohydrate diets may gain even more than the average amount this holiday season, Heller predicted.

Some tips Heller offered to keep your belly from ballooning during the upcoming season: don't starve yourself before a big meal; try not to gorge on holiday treats; keep up your normal exercise habits and monitor how much alcohol you drink, which can also increase your calorie intake.

"Eat normally over the holidays," she advised.

And this year's New Year's resolution for low-carbohydrate dieters should be to abandon their overly strict regime, Heller added.

Carbohydrates are not evil, she said--in fact, they serve as our bodies' primary source of fuel for the brain and muscles. Weight gain comes from eating too much of anything, not from eating carbohydrates, Heller noted.

For instance, the average American diet often contains too many carbohydrates, she said. Cutting that amount down to 50 or 55 percent of your total food intake may feel like a low-carbohydrate diet, "when actually we're just getting into the realm of reasonable," she said.

And not all carbohydrates are created equal, she added. Helpful carbs include whole grains, such as whole wheat bread, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta. Alternatively, it is best to avoid carbohydrates made from refined white flour, such as white bread, pasta and sugary cereal, Heller said.

"We don't want to avoid (carbohydrates), because our bodies need them. We just want the right kind," she said.


http://www.reutershealth.com/archiv...028elin003.html