Low Carb Diets Create Challenges For the Planet and Personal Health
Low carbohydrate diets may be beneficial for some people who need a means for some short term weight loss. These diets, however, do not solve long term problems of weight maintenance and likely have adverse effects on health during the long term. Consumption of whole plant foods is associated with health while consumption of diets high in animal protein and fats are not. In a global sense, the adoption of sustained low carbohydrate diets which come primarily from animal foods create significant challenges for the planet and also other health issues for humans such as antibiotic resistance.
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As a physician who has followed a very low carb diet for six years and has also conducted a dietary trial (not published yet) I know that the diet is sustainable. I also know that it takes some specialized knowledge to stay on this kind of diet, especially around issues like electrolyte balance, magnesium and dietary fats. I am happy to report that I have an excellent lipid profile while continuing to eat lots of saturated fat and cholesterol. This is long after my weight stabilized after the first couple of months. I also have very low inflammatory markers and a HgA1c of 5.1 on zero medications after starting out floridly diabetic.
The question of environmental sustainability is a different issue. For one thing, protein consumption does not go up on a proper low-carb diet. One will increase dietary fat after weight loss plateaus, however. So the question is where to get the fat. Animals and seafoods were the traditional sources prior to the advent of industrial vegetable oils. Olive oil is perhaps a major exception. In either case, perhaps it boils down to a choice as a planet: feed a large population on an unhealthy, high-carb diet or feed a smaller population on a healthy, high-fat diet. However, these issues, important as they are for environmental sustainability, are not relevant to the discussion at hand about whether the diet is healthy for individuals. Clearly it is.
Many low Carb diets are not meat heavy but substitute vegetable protein and complex carbohydrates for processed low fiber carbohydrates. The South Beach diet is a prime example and is universally acknowledged to be healthy. The good for the planet argument is pure "tree hugger" propaganda.
The argument that animal based sources of fat and protein automatically create challenges for the planet and personal health does not make sense in light of what grass farmers such as Joel Salatin (Google "Polyface, Inc.") and researchers such as Stephen D. Phinney and Jeff S. Volek (Google these names) have demonstrated. Proper management of grazing land and livestock produces animal foods of superior nutritional value and sequesters carbon in the soil to boot. On the other hand, the mono culture raising of crops such as wheat, soy, and corn for industrial food manufacturing, concentrated feeding operations, or directly for human consumption is both energy intensive and toxic for the environment - not good for the planet.