Why Low Carb Diets Might Be Making You Sick
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 3. 09. 2022
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Could low carb diets be making you ill?
Low carb diets get a lot of media hype at the moment. Recreational and professional athletes alike are trying them, as well as plenty of celebrities too.
In this video I wanted to go through a study which investigated whether low carb diets affect iron regulation and immune response.
Whilst the results of one small study aren't always applicable to a general population we definitely should consider whether it may be affecting our health. And if you're a triathlete or runner, cyclist - or basically any other athlete - a low carb diet is something you might have considered.
Low carb diets for athletes might be a bad idea as we'll discuss in this video.
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Hi! I'm James. I'm a Sport and Exercise Nutritionist and I make videos on nutrition to give people simple, clear and easy to use information on a range of subjects. I focus on triathlon and how triathletes can use nutrition to help properly fuel their training and racing.
In my day job I work as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in General Practice, or Family Medicine for those of you not in the UK, and work in a busy NHS GP practice. I'm a Specialist Paramedic by background and have full independent medicine prescribing rights.
Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Family Medicine, BSc, PGCert
Registered sport and exercise Nutritionist (SENr)
Advanced Diploma of Nutrition, MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Nutrition Consultant for Hurry The Food Up
Great Britain Age Group Triathlete
Qualified L2 British Triathlon Coach
I am not affiliated or sponsored by any brands, companies or products that I mentioned or show in my videos. My aim is to make these videos free from any sort of bias!
These videos shouldn't be taken as direct, personal advice on medicine or nutrition but more for information purposes based on the latest research and evidence. Unless otherwise clearly stated, this information is more suited to adults as under 18s have different requirements and considerations. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have as an individual though!
Contact: James@nutritiontriathlon.com - Sport
I have been full carnivore for 26 months and Iâve lost 50 pounds and I have zero inflammation left in my back from a herniated L4L5 and Arthritis. Also my fatty liver and skin issues have completely healed. I have put on 15 pounds of muscle and went from being unable to put on my shoes due to my back pain to being able to deadlift 500 pounds for 10 reps on the hammer strength deadlift machine. Iâm 44 and former Army Infantry and Iâm actually stronger now than when I was in the infantry in my 20âs! Carnivore is the way! I drive Uber full time and drove hundreds of Covid infected people to hospitals and never even got a mild cold. Eat liver and beef itâs the key to immune system strength.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it's always interesting to hear from people following different diets. I'd be curious to know, along with changing to a carnivore diet, did you change anything else? Did you eat more or less vegetables?
The difficulty is always knowing what the most influential factor is. In your case, is it actually because you lost 50 pounds of weight?
We also can't just say one person's experience is the one to go with, because everyone is different. That said, there is a significant amount of evidence against a diet like the carnivore diet and instead how beneficial plant-based diets are...!
Very informative & well spoken presentation
Thank you!
Not quite sure if a 4 week period was sufficient to elicit a proper fat adaptation response. It would be interesting to see the results of an at least 3 month study, which is about the time it would take a typical athlete to fully adapted to a LCHF diet. Interesting video, thx
I'd agree that longer would be helpful, however in practice that's extremely difficult. It's a limitation of controlled trials - the longer you do them for the more expensive and the higher the risk of drop outs and errors occurring
I found LCHF+ intermittent fasting great to loose weight after winter. But I got into energy levels issues within 2 to 3 weeks of training plan when I tried to continue low carbs diet. I agree with you, good balanced nutrition during training plans and races works best. But when busy (E.G. full time job, kids, part-time college and limited time for training) LCHF and intermittent fasting is very good too.
Absolutely. I think if done properly and for the right reason there is a justification for a lot of different diets (perhaps not all!). But whilst training for performance and with a high volume of training I think LCHF is a recipe for disaster.
Iâm having a nightmare. I am a woman in my late 30s, I read all this positive stuff about keto, I was always against it as I was running 40k a week. Due to poor mental health (depression) I decided to give it a go and have eaten keto for the last 6 weeks on top of my normal vegan diet. Iâve been vegan 20 years, never had an issue with energy levels or appetite. Now though, Iâm struggling to run, but everything I read just says wait it out, or Iâm doing keto wrong.I donât feel any better mentally, Iâm still depressed, my BMI has gone from 19.1 to 18 (or just under) but I feel stuck as every article says that it works for everyone, so I feel like Iâm failing and if I were to stop now, what it the good bit starts tomorrow and I just have up a week too early? Whatâs your opinion?
Hi Joss. I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. My honest opinion would be to find a registered sports dietitian or nutritionist who has experience with both vegan and ketogenic diets (if you want to follow a keto diet), and if you haven't already, speak to either your family doctor or a mental health professional with regard to your depression.
Ketogenic diets do 'work', but that depends on your definition of work.
I have two big concerns here
1) you were already eating a vegan diet and therefore your diet is restricted
2) your BMI has dropped from 19.1 to 18
I suspect you are in a significant energy deficit from swapping onto the keto diet - you are not getting enough calories.
That will in part be why you are feeling bad and struggling with your runs. If you really want to follow this ketogenic diet then you need more calories.
However, depending on what intensity you are running at, no matter how 'fat adapted' you become you will always find higher intensity difficult. If you have followed a ketogenic diet you should absolutely have adapted enough, so 'waiting it out' is a bad idea.
Quite honestly, my personal opinion is that I would not suggest a ketogenic diet to someone running 40k a week unless there was a medical reason to. Better to fuel your training well, develop a good relationship with food and work on your mental health alongside it.
I'm not sure if that answers things for you, but I hope I've given you something to think about. I would really encourage you to seek qualified help to talk through pros and cons of each diet and to work on your mental health.
Wishing you all the best with whatever you decide, Joss.
@@NutritionTriathlon thank you so much for your detailed reply. Really good advice all round. Iâm going to get booked in to see my doctor asap, maybe ask for my bloods done to see if thereâs a reason I started feeling different in the first place. Nice to hear a different view on waiting it out keto-wise, general internet keto people seem really one-sided in all of this. I never used to tire running and only ever was limited on miles per week due to a full-time and high stress job, never exhaustion before this. I definitely feel worse and yes it is probably is due to calorie intake. This was all in an effort to to try feel better and thought it may have the added bonus of improving my long runs, but suppose it does not work for everyone and I have kind of realised how silly this is to try carry on when literally nothing positive has come from it. Thank you for such a considerate, well thought out balanced answer. Itâs really appreciated.
You're very welcome. Unfortunately you will almost always find strong advocates for diets online - it's a bit of a tribe mentality. I'm not against different diets as such, but they should be carefully considered and supported, and often the risks aren't worth it! A 'standard' diet will be more than suitable for most people đ
Good luck đ
Did the study specify which foods were the basis of their low carb diet? It seems like the proponents of low carb diets are very specific about which types of food to eat. "Low Carb" as a descriptor is too vague to draw meaningful conclusions, and the potential issues with iron regulation make me very suspicious of the design of this particular low carb diet.
No, it didn't. Simply that the meals were all created by an accredited sports dietitian. You may know differently me, but 'low carb' is a necessary descriptor - there is not one low carb diet accepted as 'the' low carb diet. What specific foods would you have wanted to see, and what is it that makes your suspicious about this low carb diet?
In this study, it was not the iron content of the foods which were an issue as such, but the mechanism that low carb in itself seemed to trigger. I'm not aware of any evidence to suggest that any different foods under the 'low carb' bracket that may have had a different result... But I'd love to hear if you know more!
Bill Gates mate. Next youâll be saying we should be eating plant based meats. Guess what, over 100s of thousands of years of human history we predominantly sourced energy through ketosis. They wouldâve had to have lots of stamina. I think you should talk to an actual expert like Zoe Harcombe instead of referring to this one-off statistically insignificant study. There are virtually NO significant randomised controlled trials in nutrition. Weird but true and yet the USDA has legal guidelines on what to eat (which are to a high degree taken on by a lot of western nations)âŠ.hmmmm sounds a bit dodgy to me
"There are virtually NO significant randomised controlled trials in nutrition."
That's a very bizarre thing to say. There are plenty of randomised controlled trials which are absolutely fantastic.
If you watch the video you'll notice I clearly say that we shouldn't take the results of a single study in isolation. This simply adds to a growing body of evidence that low carb may have negative effects and we need to weigh up the pros and cons.
Talk about our ancestors all you want, we have to use what evidence we have available now...
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