Cutting Back Carbs? Think Again!

            Kwashiorkor is a malnutrition that occurs when there is a deficiency of protein in your diet. You many times see children with Kwashiorkor with 'inflated' looking stomcahcs. It is very rare in children in the United States, but is very common where there has been famine, a limited food supply, and where people receive low levels of education (people do not understand how to eat a proper diet when they are undereducated). Based upon the previous sentence, you can understand why Kwashiorkor is predominantly found in very poor, third-world countries. Often times during an environmental disaster, such as a drought, earthquake or hurricane, there is a lack of food which then leads to more cases of Kwashiorkor. There are very few reported cases of children with Kwashiorkor in the United States, however there may be as many as 50% of elderly people in nursing homes that do not receive enough protein in their diet.  Commonly, when there are cases of Kwashiorkor in children in the United States, there is also extreme child abuse and neglect.

            There are three main types of food that provide energy to the body – protein, carbohydrates and fats. Humans and animals do no produce protein, therefore we need to obtain it by ingesting foods such as cheese, egg, fish, meat, milk, legumes and nuts, which are all very high in protein. You probably already know that protein is a very essential part of your well-balanced diet, but you may be wondering how your body uses protein. Well, your body uses proteins to build, maintain and repair cartilage, muscle and other tissues in your body. Proteins called antibodies help fight off diseases that try to attack the body. The proteins in our blood, called hemoglobin, carry oxygen from our lungs to other body tissue. Did you know that hormones are a type of protein? They control processes such as growth, development, and reproduction. If you do not obtain enough protein, your body will use proteins from the cells of your liver and muscle tissue, which can permanently damage those tissues and even be fatal.

            Proteins produce about 1,800 calories of energy per pound, the same amount provided by carbohydrates. So, this means that if you are thinking about losing weight, then you can completely cut out carbohydrates and just eat a lot of protein? Wrong! There are so many dangers from eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet! Many people think that cutting back on carbohydrates will help them lose weight. They are actually correct. If you stop eating carbohydrates, you will see a dramatic amount of weight loss when you step on the scale, but don’t let it fool you!

            A low carb diet will deplete the healthy glycogen stored in your muscles and liver. So you are losing muscle and also dehydrating your body, which makes the scale drop significantly even though you haven’t exactly had fat loss. Did you know that metabolism (metabolic rate) happens in your muscles? Since you just suffered from muscle loss due to the depletion of muscle glycogen, your metabolism slows down, which means few calories burned. Thus, over time it is much harder to keep the weight off because your metabolism is slow and you are fatigued, so you don’t have the energy to exercise. You now are a storage center for all that protein that you are eating, which, if you remember, has the same amount of calories as carbs.