If my post about diets wasn’t enough, today we talk about the no-carb one. I am always a bit reluctant to write about nutrition, because it is a complex topic and I am not an expert in that field. But hey, here the matter was just reading a few peer-reviewed articles…and that can be achieved by many :)

What’s a no-carb diet

It’s a type of diet, iso or hypocaloric, that strictly minimizes the carbohydrate intake (below 10% the recommended requirements). Among the banned food we find: pasta, rice, cereals in general, bread, legumes, simple sugars (sucrose, honey, syrups…), veggies with relatively high content of carbs (potatoes, pumpkin…), fruits, yogurt etc…Among the allowed food we have: meat, fish, avocado, coconut, three nuts (almonds, walnuts…), eggs, cheese, butter, olive oil…

Why, after all the discussion on diets, am I talking now about the no-carb one? As I have already explained, I am a bit skeptical about diets that stigmatize a food in particular. And the no-carb diet gets rid of a macronutrients that, as per the nutritional guidelines, should represent 45-65% of the daily intake.

Let’s take a step back

Everything started when someone I know ( ;) ) decided to follow a-no carb diet. What astonished me was that that person is a great pasta and bread lover. But lately he felt as exceeding and, having heard about the no-carb, he pushed the button reset on carbs and simple sugars. Now, my first question was: why not just limiting the excesses? Why such a drastic change? But that was that. And actually, after a month of no-carb, the person in this story lost a few kilos and admitted to feel better.

In the meanwhile, I received a reader’s request to post yummy, tasty and quick no-carb recipes (something easier, noooo? :D) I already thought about a nice pumpkin and taleggio casserole, when I discovered that cucurbitacee are not part of the no-carb :(

My opinion (and the one of scientific community) on the no-carb

After all this talk about no-carb, I couldn’t help with doing a bit of research and shed some light. If you surf in the web, the scientific literature proliferates of articles and systematic reviews on these types on diets.

It is well established that a hypocaloric no-carb diet helps with loosing weight. Guess why? Because, it is, indeed, a hypocaloric diet! You can follow a low/no-carb, a protein or a Mediterranean diet, but if your calories intake is less than your expenditure, you’ll eventually loose weight (yes, calories count! :)).

Studies on large number of people showed that a isocaloric no-carb diet has the same effect on the control of the weight than a regular carb diet. What Hall and coworkers also noticed is that the individual difference in the weight loss or gain can significantly fluctuate.

That is a common problem with many ipocaloric diets. A few people can find a specific diet beneficial, while others do not. This variability is the reason why, after years of studies and systematic reviews, we can’t define which diet is the best (no-carb, Mediterranean, protein…).

The other factor that must be taken into consideration when approaching extreme diets is the health condition od the person. The studies I mentioned were on healthy people. People suffering from hypertension, kidney failure, high cholesterol, diabetes (and I could continue) should definitely consult with a doctor prior to starting peculiar diets. The do-it-yourself is not a great idea in this case.

Conclusions

I hope that this article helps you understanding how complex and demanding is validating a diet hypothesis. For the time being, the theory on the no-carbs remains as such, given that, according to the data we have, is not superior to other diets to control the body weight. Then, who knows, new studies might affirm the opposite in the future. It’s the beauty of science :)

If you are interested in the topic, I recommend you the talk of Bressanini on (odd :)) diets (only in Italian, sorry!).

What’s about the recipes???

Despite all my skepticism on the no-carb diet, I can’t ignore a reader’s request for a recipe (I should really open a column “Reader’s Requests” :)). Therefore, I am twisting my brain to produce some delicatessen that is “yummy, tasty, quick and no-carb”. If the vegan lasagne and shortcrust were already a challenging exercise, this is going to be even more tricky! As they say here: wish me luck :)

References

Oh et al. Low carbohydrate diet

Hall et al. Gastroenterology, 152, 2017, 1718-1727

Gardner et al. JAMA, 2018, 319, 667-679