Sustainable Weight Loss

Is A Low-Carb, High Protein Diet really Effective for Weight Loss?

September 26th, 2006

Author: Foras Aje

Is A Low-Carb, High Protein Diet really Effective for Weight
Loss?
You may have heard that to increase muscle and to lose
weight you need to increase your protein intake. When I
first heard that I thought…wait a minute the same thing
that is going to make you bigger is supposed to make you
’smaller’…I asked the trainer this question and he looked
at me dumbfounded but it left me to thinking…”besides
sounding absurd, will this method actually be safe?”

Although we all know we require a certain quantity of
protein every day to be healthy and because of propaganda to
this effect, a lot of people view the daily consumption of
high-protein foods such as meat and dairy as highly
beneficial. However, judging from the failure of most if not
all the people I have personally known attempting to lose
weight on a high-protein, low carb diet, it may be time to
revise our ideas about protein.

>From what I have seen (upwards of six cases I have been able
to observe among friends, family and co-workers) it will be
safe to answer the question heading this article with a
simple No!

Not only is a diet high in protein NOT the best at all for
weight loss, according to many naturopaths, such a diet may
even be detrimental to ones overall health.

Because of its complexity, excessive protein along with
fatty foods are the most difficult foods to digest and tend
to leave one tired all the time. Moreover the common
putrefaction of protein while being digested creates many
acids in the body and has been known to lay the foundation
for cancer.

This is not to say that proteins and fats must be avoided,
quite the contrary, what should be the goal in consuming
these foods should be taking in exactly what the body needs
and no more. The Max Planck institute has proven that,
considering that the body recycles most of its protein for
its own needs, 25g of protein a day is more than enough.

According to T.C. Fry, a well known Naturopath and pioneer
in drugless healing, there are several cultures such as the
Caribbeans, who subsist on a Manioc-based (root-vegetable)
diet and get about 12 g of protein a day. Quite similarly,
an aboriginal tribe living in the Mountains of Hagen was
discovered to live on about 80-90% of their diet being Sweet
Potatoes, the rest mostly leafy veggies, bananas and the
like. While I lived in Nigeria for 17 plus years, most
people hardly ever even consumed milk or cheese (they were
too expensive) and families strictly rationed the
consumption of animal flesh to about the size of medium size
lemon per person every other day. All these groups of
people, with their root vegetable diets are obviously in
great health, accomplishing great physical work.

Moreover, Mother’s milk, which for a time is a baby’s
perfect food, has about 1-2 % protein content. (Only fruits
and veggies resemble it in their composition) Any reasonable
person will be able to deduce that a growing baby needs more
protein than a full-grown adult, yet human babies, just like
with our distant cousins: the Apes in the wild, do just fine
on breast milk and on the subject of apes who share about
98% of our DNA, do you know the Gorilla, the strongest
primate, has been known to bench press upwards of about 4000
pounds! What does this creature live on? According to Dr.
George Schaller and Dian Fossey, two great primatologists,
this powerful relative lives on mostly fruits and leaves.

Now, considering all the factors above, when it comes to the
right diet for weight loss, I would recommend a Mucus-less
or Mucus-poor (raw and cooked fruits and veggies) over any
other mere fad in the quest of attaining fitness and health.
Of course, if the consumption of animal flesh must be
continued, I would also advise that it be done at a minimal
quantity and only one kind of animal flesh every so often.

In my opinion, consumption of fresh home-made salads,
mono-meals of fruits, snacks on dried fruits such as dates,
a few nuts and maybe even a short juice fast, as a choice
for a diet (along with some form of exercise) will be the
best path to attaining safe and healthy weight loss.

Foras Aje is an independent health researcher and author of
Fitness: Inside and Out, a book on Natural Health. For
additional information on safe weight loss go to:
“http://www.bodyhealthsoul.com/weight%20loss.htm”>http://www.bodyhealthsoul.com/weight%20loss.htm

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