Are Low-Carb Diets Healthy?

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“Low-Carb” does not provide a sufficient description of someone’s diet to determine how healthy it is.  Just as some carbohydrate-rich foods are more nutritious than others, the same holds true for foods high in fat or high in protein. When someone lowers the amount of carbohydrate in their diet there are other changes that occur simultaneously. If carbohydrate-rich sources are lowered with no changes in the remainder of the diet, than overall calories will decrease and the proportion of fat and protein will both increase. If carbohydrate rich foods are replaced with increased amounts of other foods, total calorie intake may remain similar but the proportions of fats and/or proteins will be even higher.

Regardless of total calorie intake, some types of fats and proteins, and some food sources of these macronutrients, are healthier than others in terms of their overall nutrient profile. Therefore, for a Low-Carb diet to be healthy, the choices of foods rich in fats and proteins must also be taken into consideration. In other words, two people could be consuming the same level of carbohydrate, and even be choosing the same nutritious sources of carbohydrate, and yet the overall healthfulness of one diet could be greater than the other: consider nuts and seeds and avocadoes vs. processed whipped cream out of a can as fat sources; or consider organically grown soy beans or grass-fed, pasture raised beef vs. a hot dog made from animal sources of questionable origin and what appears to be an excessive number of additives as protein sources.