Low-Carb Diets & Metabolic Syndrome: Disease Risk May Decline As Carbs Do

low-carb diet metabolic syndrome sugar pattern of fork and spoon

Low-Carb Diets & Metabolic Syndrome: No Sugar? No Problem!:

So can diet actually make a difference?

How many times have we all heard about the rare-as-hens-teeth plan or individual with surprising results,

Only to find out they seem unobtainably extreme?

And even if you could get close, aren’t diets just for vanity & the sake of looking-good?

Although those results seem far-off, they aren’t as distant as you might think.

And if an OSU research team can generalize their findings, you might be surprised at the effects a little change can make, especially for health-risks…

We’re On A Road To Nowhere?:

Let’s just admit it, tracking is key.

With almost any aspiration, goals can seem far-off and planning and methods unclear.

So how are you going to think about something that is long and arduous if everything seems vague and gloomy?

Well OSU researchers are here with a ray of light.

Because the short-answer for their small study is that on a 4-Week very-low-carb diet plan, more than 50% of subjects reversed the Metabolic Syndrome they had.

And that means a potential reduction for several health problems.

Read on to find out more…

A Good Plan Is Almost All You Need:

Let’s be clear, there are several great practices out there for losing both weight and fat,

Especially plans that Christian Bale doesn’t use.

One of them is the basically-miraculous Intermittent-Fasting.

And if you can get past the hell of the first 2-3 days, you’re pretty-much set.

Especially to the tune of things like:
1) Better Controlled Blood-Sugar
2) Reduced Fatty-Liver Disease

And more!

And as amazing as that is especially if your doctor permits it for you,

More research on Carbs is coming in from OSU that you should also listen to.

Slow That Glucose Down!:

So in small tests on 16 subjects over the course of 4 weeks each,

Jeff Volek’s team had those subjects try 3 separate plans: High-Carb, Medium-Carb, & Low-Carb.

All were done with pre-made meals portioned exactly for each individual.

The Carb-Levels for each were: 420g/day(1680cal.), 235g/day (940cal.), and 45g/day (180cal.) for each level respectively.

At the low-end that means only 6% of the calories were from carbs, so probably almost no Sugar.

To put that in-perspective for normal people in the “standard’ 2,000 calorie diet,

That means 120 calories from carbs, or 30g/day.

This could be wrong, but it seems that would mean for OSU “Low-Carb” = Keto Diet (without them using that exact term anywhere).

Lower Carbs, Lower Metabolic Syndrome. Results Are Results!:

So regardless of anyone’s terminology,

The diets, with 2-week washout-periods in-between each,

And engineered so that No Subject Lost Weight

All showed good results, with the Low-Carb being the best.

And because 1 subject reversed their Metabolic Syndrome even after the “High-Carb” diet,

That shows you that many people are getting too damn many carbs and also WAY too much sugar!

Furthermore, 3 more subjects reversed their Metabolic Syndrome after the “Medium-Carb” diet!

So then, it’s no surprise that more than 50% of subjects reversed the same matrix of unhealthy-factors in Just 4 Weeks,

On the much-more austere (sugar-wise) Low-Carb plan.

You Can Do It!:

So take heart!

Under the right professional-supervision You Absolutely CAN make progress!

And as we teased at the beginning, this set of amazing results is not just for something shallow and vain.

Metabolic Syndrome is a set of health-metrics that all point to bad outcomes.

If you have:
1) High Blood-Pressure
2) High Blood-Sugar
3) Excess Body-Fat
3a) (especially around the waist)
3b) This means: Waist-Size 40+ for Men and 35+ for Women
4) Abnormally Low “Good Cholesterol”
and
5) High (fat in the blood) Triglycerides,

The Health-Risks Of Metabolic Syndrome:

Then you have what obesity researchers call “Metabolic Syndrome”.

And solving it is not just about vanity.

Because it has been strongly-correlated to the following health problems:
1) Diabetes
2) Heart-Disease
3) Cardiovascular-Disease
4) Stroke
5) (likely) Inflammation-Related Diseases due to excess hormones from bodyfat

So reducing their probability for people at-risk in just 4 weeks is pretty incredible!

The Bonus:

Not only did the subjects reverse their current problem-status,

But the Low-Carb crew also had:

1) Lower Triglycerides
2) Better Total Cholesterol Scores
3) Lower Saturated Fat in the Blood
4) Larger Fat-Particle-Size in the Blood (which reduces cardio-disease risk)
5) Improved Fat-Burning
6) Better Blood-Sugar Levels

However, the plans they were on were unlikely to be long-enough to change other things.

That is why neither their Blood-Pressure, nor Insulin-Resistance changed.

The factors that change those would probably take a lot longer to modify,

And would likely require a serious reduction in body-fat over the course of 1 year,

Given the fact that the Average Body-Fat % for the subjects was 40%, with a variance of about 8% one way or the other.

So that is Obese, and not as-quickly solved as Metabolic Syndrome.

The Aftermath:

Let’s all say it together: Keto Is Hard.

But the study shows that in 4 weeks you can absolutely change your life.

What if the subjects then got on to a more reasonable plan afterward?

Like one that Maximizes Fullness, where Sugar is Minimized, they aim for Slow Weight-Loss, and getting 20-30% of calories from Healthy-Carbs like Fruits & Vegetables?

Or even like Dr. Satchin Panda’s discovery of just having the same # of calories on your plan, but eating them in the Intermittent-Fasting method?

Then after your initial “Band-Aid” of what OSU calls “Low-Carb” and we’re probably calling Keto,

Then you can have the best of both worlds, avoid the big problems quickly and get better every day one baby-step at a time.

Either way, Dr. Volek’s team has shown just-about the most amazing results for reducing disease-risk from Metabolic Syndrome, and the serious importance of watching and reducing dietary-carbs and sugars as much as reasonably possible.

Photo Credits: “spoon fork and icing sugar”, by Conger Design