Articles

Getting started with low carb can be a little daunting for some people. In the midst of all of the options and questions, there is one thing that separates successful people from people that throw in the towel.

On March 1, 2008, Doc Joe weighed a ponderous, pachydermian and unhealthy 340 pounds. One year later he weighed in at 210 pounds. He not only lost weight --- he regained his health, fitness and wellness.

Hank Garner was in his late thirties & his health was a wreck. In his first column for CarbSmart, Hank documents his 130 lb. weight loss success and the major setback that almost derailed him for good.

Until our generation, no human society has ever lived on a high carbohydrate diet. We are paying the price for this ill-conceived experiment on humanity with higher and higher rates of obesity - including childhood obesity - and rapidly growing rates of type 2 diabetes. In her first column for CarbSmart.com, Rebecca Latham chronicles the decline in the health of our generation and why it happened.

It seems I'm doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic. I do usually learn from my mistakes. But sometimes I try something, look back to analyze it, and realize it's really not that different from the other things I've tried. “Hello Abby. Will you be staying long?” There are lots of reasons why I believe I'm abnormal, but today I'll just highlight one of them. We can save my various other flaws for analysis at a later date.

I got basic blood work done recently, and in the interests of full disclosure I felt I ought to share the results with you. I am 53 years old, and have been eating a low carbohydrate diet for 17 years, or 32% of my life.

Weight-related lack of self-esteem can stop anyone from achieving their success with the low carb lifestyle. In her first column for CarbSmart.com, Susie T. Gibbs shows us that winning the attitude game means more than starting you journey of reaching your goal of losing weight, it involves beginning the journey to self-love.

This success story starts with Susan being 380 pounds on her 40th birthday. Like many of us who have struggled with weight, she didn’t like being in photos and avoided them when possible. So when she got her photos back from the celebration, she didn’t recognize herself. “I not only looked bad, I felt horrible” says Susan.

Carbohydrate restriction is such a dramatically effective intervention that many medications will need to be adjusted immediately. This is particularly true of all blood sugar medications

Dr. John Briffa in a recent article poses that if a type 1 diabetic eats less carbs, they will balance their blood sugar levels just like type 2 diabetics do with a low carb diet.

A Swedish study suggests that perhaps in the context of a high carbohydrate diet, increasing saturated fat intake may raise total cholesterol, but does not tell us if that rise is comprised largely of LDL or HDL. It demonstrates no increase in atherosclerosis as a result. It doesn’t tell us anything about the effects of a low carbohydrate diet, because there’s no mention of anyone in the study actually eating a low carbohydrate diet. And because it is an observational study, it proves nothing. Nothing at all.

The first time I associated macadamia nuts with the low carb lifestyle was when I read Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. If I remember correctly, macadamia nuts were his favorite snack. He loved the taste, he loved the texture, he loved the fat.