An Article Destined to Confuse and Mislead

Article Title – Low Carb Diet May Aid Your Metabolism

Here is the first sentence of the article:

“Eating low-carbohydrate meals may lead to healthy changes in a woman’s metabolism that don’t occur when consuming higher-carbohydrate meals, a small study suggests”.

Immediately it gives the reader the impression that low carbohydrate meals are healthier than high carbohydrate meals.  It is also another example of a reductionist view of nutrition that focuses on a single nutrient taken out of context of the big picture.

The study reported that when people ate three meals containing just 30 percent carbohydrates over a 24-hour period, they had a 30 percent reduction in their after-meal insulin resistance and insulin levels.

When people ate three meals containing 60 percent carbohydrates over 24 hours, there was no such reduction in insulin resistance or insulin levels.

The study included 32 healthy postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 65. None had signs of diabetes or prediabetes.

The low-carb meal was 30 percent carbohydrate, 25 percent protein and 45 percent fat that included olive oil.  The meals included items such as macaroni and cheese, sausage and ham, chef’s salad, fruit, a veggie burger and soup.

The higher carbohydrate meal was 60 percent carbs, 15 percent protein and 25 percent fat that included egg salad on a multigrain bun, bacon, ham and cheese sandwich, carrot sticks, bananas, coleslaw, orange juice, skim milk, graham crackers, pretzels and vanilla ice cream.

Bananas, carrot sticks, and the veggies in the coleslaw can count as whole plant foods.  The multi-grain bun and graham crackers may count as minimally processed plant foods if each were made of 100% whole grains.  The rest of the listed foods are garbage.

The two diets both stink!

I hope that most people who read the article recognize this.  But there are always    people who just read the headline and the first few sentences.  Those inclined to reject the whole food plant based (WFPB) message will have their confirmation bias strengthened.   Those considering transitioning to a WFPB diet may become confused.

It’s very clear that the study did not compare a version of a low-carbohydrate diet with a WFPB diet.   It compared two crappy diets. It also did not look at disease outcomes.

It’s just another useless nutrition study.