Humphries - The low carb long term lifestyle : [with a twist of Mediterranean to add zest to your eating]

Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets are very effective and very popular. The reason is simple: they enable you to lose weight quickly. However, this quick weight loss comes at a heavy price: the foods you are allowed to eat become boring and unpalatable after a while and, worse still, the regime can cause long-term health problems.

This book provides the answer to both these problems. With its innovative diet plan, you will not only achieve quick weight loss at first, but you will also eat appetising, enjoyable meals from day one. The recipes are designed to reflect the delicious style of Mediterranean cooking and they include those high-fat foods we all love.

You can still eat butter, cream and olive oils in moderation so you wont feel deprived of treats. But in addition, every phase includes the recommended five-a-day helpings of fruit and vegetables, so youll still be getting plenty of the vitamins and minerals you need.

The plan is divided into four stages, starting with an initial two-week, rapid-weight-loss phase that is planned down to the last detail, giving you mouth-watering recipes for every meal from breakfast to dinner.

Phase 2 offers a healthy, satisfying and delicious, long-term eating regime in the form of a pick-and-mix selection of recipes that will allow you to progress gradually and sensibly, towards your desired weight.

The third phase then adds in extra carbohydrate treats to make eating and drinking even more enjoyable and the plan ends with Phase 4, which is made up of easy-to-follow guidelines designed to help you maintain the new you.

This section is your eating plan for life but dont be put off by that. The recipes Ive put together make up balanced, gourmet main meals that everyone will enjoy, with small portions of carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta or potatoes so, once youve reached your goal, there is no reason for you to start to gain weight again.

There are many different weight-reducing diets to choose from. Some are designed to shed weight quickly, some slowly; some are intended as a quick fix, other are more long-term. Whichever type you choose, it is a good idea to learn as much as possible about the principles of the diet and how it is likely to affect you.

The better you understand how a regime works, the more likely you are to have success in using it. It is also important, particularly if you intend to continue to diet for more than a week or two, that you choose one that gives you all the nutrition your body needs in order to stay healthy. Unlike other low-carbohydrate plans, this one does just that.

A low-carbohydrate diet is a very effective way to achieve weight loss. It is based on a few very simple principles.

Carbohydrates are the starches and sugars contained in foods such as breads, cakes, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. When we eat carbohydrates our body breaks them down into glucose to use as energy. If we eat more carbohydrates than our body burns, they are stored in the body as fat. But if we eat less than our body requires, the body is forced to burn body fat instead for energy. This has the effect of reducing our body weight.

To help the body absorb the glucose from the carbohydrates and turn it into energy, our pancreas produces insulin. The more starch and sugar we eat, the more insulin is produced. Insulin also helps the body to store any unused glucose as fat. If we severely restrict our intake of carbohydrates, the body reduces its production of insulin and so does not store body fat.

Reducing our intake of carbohydrates is a very efficient way of losing weight. In addition, once the body is free from large quantities of carbohydrates, blood sugar levels remain constant and our craving for sugary snacks is reduced, as well as any serious hunger pangs clearly, a useful aid for dieters.

It is not a good idea to cut out carbohydrates entirely, however. Our bodies do need a small amount of glucose for some vital functions. This may be provided by the intake of a small quantity of carbohydrates or, alternatively, proteins, which can be processed by the liver and turned into sugar.

One of the less attractive side effects of a low-carbohydrate diet is ketosis. This occurs when the liver begins to produce chemicals called ketones, from fatty acids for energy. Any unused ketones cannot be turned back into fat and stored, so are excreted from the body in the urine.

Ketosis causes severe bad breath and a metallic taste in the mouth. Some diets encourage such symptoms since they indicate that your body is burning fat. I do not agree and I prefer that ketosis should be avoided. If you start to experience unpleasant symptoms when your carbohydrate intake is very low, eat a small raw carrot or half a red pepper. This will add 45 g of carb to your diet. You will still lose weight, although perhaps a little less rapidly. You can do this every time you suffer the symptoms.

Note: Ketosis is not the same thing as ketoacidosis, a dangerous condition that is suffered by people who have diabetes, when the blood pH becomes acutely acidic and blood sugar levels soar. This may occur either because the body is not producing insulin or because it is not using it correctly, so it is not processing sugar for energy. The body then produces ketones for fuel instead.

Cutting down carbohydrates drastically for a short time for quick weight loss is perfectly acceptable but you should not maintain it for too long or you will become lethargic and ill. Your body needs nutrients from all the food groups to maintain health and vitality, and so any diet even a weight-reducing one should include reasonable proportions of all the main food groups given below. The diet plan in this book aims to do this.

Proteins
These are used by the body for growth and repair and, when necessary, for energy. The best sources are fish, lean meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, soya proteins, such as tofu, and Quorn, which is made from a fungus. Pulses dried peas, beans and lentils are good sources too, but they are also high in carbohydrates. When on a low-carbohydrate diet, you should eat more proteins than usual in order to maintain the energy levels that your body needs.

Carbohydrates
There are two types of carbohydrate. Complex carbohydrates are all the starchy foods such as bread, pasta, rice, cereals (including breakfast cereals) and tubers such as potatoes.

Simple carbohydrates are sugars and include those naturally found in foods like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk as well as refined sugars used in cakes, biscuits (cookies) and sweets (candies). Nutritionally, the starchy ones and the natural sugars in milk, fruit, etc., are usually considered good foods and are used by the body for energy. Refined sugars contain only empty calories they do not contain any valuable nutrients and should be avoided.

On a weight-reducing, low-carbohydrate plan, this food group is reduced drastically in the first phase of the diet, but then re-introduced slowly, in limited quantities. The body cannot function properly without carbohydrates in the long term.

Vitamins and minerals
These are vital for general health and well-being. Many vitamins and minerals are found in fruit and vegetables. Choose fresh, frozen or those that are canned in water or natural juice with no added sugar and, ideally, no added salt. It is recommended that everyone eat at least five portions a day.