Most People Use Low-Carb Diets to Lose Weight. “Do This Instead,” According to a Genetic Health Expert.
Is a low carb diet safe? Will it work for you?
No matter what celebrity trainers and Instagram gurus say, the answer is… “it’s complicated.”
But put simply, the only way to know for sure is with a DNA test.
First, let’s look at 3 signs you should not be following a low-carb diet.
1: You’re a vegan or vegetarian.
While it’s technically possible to eat a low-carb, plant-based diet, you’ll have a much harder time getting a sufficient diversity of nutrients.
A nutrient-rich plant-based diet contains grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruit, most of which have at least enough carbs to keep you out of “ketosis.”
“Ketosis is a natural metabolic state. It involves the body producing ketone bodies out of fat, and using them for energy instead of carbs,” according to Healthline.com.
But ketosis only happens if your body has low levels of carbs, and even broccoli has too many carbs per calorie for ketosis.
So while you can limit your carbohydrate intake on a plant-based diet, it can easily lead to dangerous nutritional deficiencies.
2: Your DNA makes certain nutritional deficiencies more likely.
Many nutritional deficiencies can make it harder to safely follow a low-carb diet.
B vitamins, including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate, as well as minerals like iron, magnesium, and selenium are found in grains.
Grains, like cereals, bread, oats, and rice, are full of carbohydrates.
“People tend to think of deficiencies as the result of a bad diet, but that’s not always the case,” says LifeDNA’s co-founder, Cyril Moukarzel.
“Some genetic variations make it harder for your body to process and utilize certain nutrients, so even if you have a diet that seems perfectly balanced, you can be suffering a serious deficiency under the surface.”
Taking a DNA test with nutritional analysis is the only way to be sure what diet and foods will work best for you.
3: You’re using a low-carb diet as an alternative to a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise.
It’s easier to change the food you eat than it is to change your entire schedule to include an hour of exercise a few times a day.
When trying to lose weight, diet is considered more important than exercise, but that’s only true for burning fat: you can cut out more calories by eliminating two cups of soda than you can burn from jogging for half an hour.
In terms of your overall health, low-carb and low-calorie diets can be dangerous to your heart, lungs, muscles, and brain.
Discover the Perfect Foods for You with an Instant DNA Report.
If you’ve taken a DNA test through 23andMe or Ancestry.com, you can upload your raw DNA data to generate a personalized nutrition report.
If you don’t have a DNA test, LifeDNA will send you a test kit for just $9.