Diets without sugar, the risk that you did not know: nothing else to lose weight, what your body risks

They only create the illusion of losing weight quickly, because it is true that one dries up quickly, but as soon as they are suspended, all the kilos too much and even more. The diets low in carbohydrates for years very popular, starting from the ketogenic one, have been rejected by the medical science, because they are bad for your health, they are useless, dangerous and pathogenic, and above all they do not guarantee the slimming effect, indeed, in the long run they cause a greater weight gain compared to the initial situation.

On the occasion of the 40th national congress of the Italian society of human nutrition (Sinu) held in Genoa two weeks ago, "low carb" diets, or low-sugar diets, have been criticized for altering the well-being and health of the people who practice them, as you always consider a wrong choice and an incorrect nutritional proposal for weight loss purposes. This food model has favored the emergence of numerous diseases characteristic of the welfare society, such as obesity, metabolic pathologies, cardiovascular diseases and tumors, as well as having a direct action on the appearance of psychological and behavioral disorders caused by the chronic lack of carbs. Carbohydrates, in fact, are essential elements of many cells of the body, mainly those of the brain, red blood cells and muscles, which need this nutrient, in whose absence they begin to suffer and give clear signs of carbohydrate scarcity, causing classic symptoms of hypoglycemia and fasting such as weakness, sweating, lack of concentration and attention, drowsiness, headache, irritability and blurred vision.

Carbohydrates should normally correspond to at least 50-55% of the total daily calories, a percentage that increases proportionally to the hours and intensity of the physical activity carried out, up to 80% in professional athletes. Unfortunately, many diets (Dukan diet, Atkins, Tisanoreica, zone diet and so on) have become popular because they promised results in a short time with few sacrifices, underestimating that what these diets have in common is the potential harmful effect on health, in addition to an ephemeral weight loss. When the decline in the body is fast, in fact, the brain immediately understands the changes in the size of the body, lowering the metabolism to try to save as much energy as possible, and having a slowed metabolism means that as soon as more energy is reintroduced, the cells become greedy, so as to quickly regain the lost weight, verifying the so-called "yo-yo effect", considered one of the major cardiovascular risk factors. Our body needs a balanced diet with all the macronutrients, ie carbohydrates, fats and proteins, as well as all the micronutrients, ie vitamins, minerals, fibers and phytochemicals in the right proportions to maintain the state of health and to function at its best. , because each of them has a different and precise function: carbohydrates are the source of ready energy, fats are slow-use energy reserves, and have regulatory functions, while proteins have a structural function for all tissues and are the basis essential of neurotransmitters, enzymes and hormones. The acute or chronic lack of even one of these nutrients compared to the daily quantity required pushes the body to activate compensatory mechanisms and activate secondary metabolic pathways, which can cause physical and psychological problems, as well as favoring the onset of metabolic diseases not without complications.
Diets that are too rigid, with excessive sugar loss, not only do not help weight loss, but are counterproductive, as they do not allow the metabolism to adapt to the new food style: contrary to what is believed, it is not the fat mass that decreases with hypoglycid diets, because our body, perceiving the new diet as fasting, tends to preserve the adipose tissue, which represents its energy reserve, generating damage to the muscle mass and slowing down the metabolism, with the consequence that the decline farm stops at a certain point. Furthermore, the correct amount of calories to be reduced and the way in which nutrients are distributed are not factors that can be standardized, as they vary from person to person, so the diet must be recommended by a nutrition specialist.

Considerably reducing carbohydrates, or eliminating them from the diet, activates a compensation mechanism to look for energy from proteins that do not have the production of energy as the main function: this determines an imbalance in the ratio between nutrients, with proteins and fats that rise at very high percentages, exceeding the daily requirement of the body, and the excess of proteins and fats, if it is not well balanced with the number of calories to be introduced, not only does it not cause weight loss but, on the contrary, it can increase the reserves of adipose tissue, much more difficult to dispose of. So the belief that carbohydrates should be excluded from the diet to lose weight is wrong, as is the fact that eating sugars at dinner makes you fat. Nothing could be further from the truth: it does not matter what time of the day you eat carbohydrates, but rather how many are introduced daily and how many total calories our diet is made up of.

It should be emphasized that energy consumption during sleep is not so different from that of a sedentary morning activity, such as sitting in front of the PC, and thinking that taking carbohydrates before going to sleep and in the absence of large physical activities increase the odds being transformed into fat is a hoax. For a balanced diet it is important not to deprive yourself of essential nutrients, not to consume them in portions that are inadequate to your body, age and motor activity, because generally you get fat because of an incorrect distribution of nutrients compared to the needs of the body, and if you eat more than necessary, the increase in body fat is independent of the composition of the diet and also of the sugars introduced, because the total calories are the count. Those who have tried a hypoglycidic or aglycidic diet in the long run have been disappointed, because the initial weight loss is followed by the subsequent increase in the kilos, with the complication of loss of muscle tissue and mood depressive effects.

by Melania Rizzoli