Carbohydrates and Fat in the Low-Carb Diets and Low-Fat Diets

Low-carb diets vs low-fat diets

Carbohydrates

The carbohydrates also known as sugars make up for the most abundant and important organic compound on the biosphere. Made up with carbon, hydrogen and oxygen hence its name, normally it is found on the structural parts of vegetables and also tissue deposit in animals called glycogen after being absorbed and processed by the body as glucose.

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This act as a natural source of energy for all vital cellular activities and also are considered as an economic energy source for our diet. When the necessary demand has been met for maintain stable body tissue it happens to becomes part of adipose tissue, the hydrocarbons contribute 65-67% of the required energy according (Saris, W.2000)

Between the best know carbohydrates, we have several types of sugar, starches and cellulose, which are important for maintaining life in plants and animals. The carbohydrates tend to give energy through their oxidation properties, carbon supply for the cellular composition, storage, and making some tissue parts. The hydrocarbons together with lipids, proteins, nucleic acids and other compounds that constitute biomolecules that are closely associated with living organism (Seager & Slabaugh. 2013).

The carbohydrates are broken down and absorbed quickly in the digestive system due to the fault of molecular complexity that allows the ability to be processed very fast by the organism. Some of the common foods constituted with carbohydrates we can classify them in simples and complex, the first are the sugar, honey, fruits, syrup, soda, jelly, and alcoholic drinks that of course have a good taste but the excessive consume can cause a big consequence known as the activation of a hormone called insulin that descend the sugar levels in the blood, a flaw on the secretion of this hormone could exponentially increase the levels of glucose on the blood causing one of the most common incidence disease which is the diabetes mellitus.

We say that the simple carbohydrates has a high caloric contribution for a low nutritive value and must be taken with moderation and in an appropriate time for it can be digested correctly. The complexes are found in bread, pasta, cereal, rice, vegetables, corn, barley, and oats, among others.

The organism uses the energy coming from the complex carbohydrates little by little, that's why they are slow absorption. They break down in glucose more slowly than the simple carbohydrates give a constant progressive current of energy for the whole day. It's always more recommendable to consume that type of carbohydrate than the simple one.

According to obtained information we can argue that the carbohydrates are very important as sources of energy for physical and mental activities due to the brain that is the organ which consumes bigger quantities of glucose for its functions. Sin embargo, a low sugar diet or a moderated consume of this compound can decrease the risk of having related diseases with the increase of sugar in the blood (Diabetes Mellitus), metabolic disorders and obesity problems that affect the majority of the countries, most importantly the United States of America, that has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world.

And so, we ask ourselves, how does excessive carbohydrate consumption affect obesity? When the organism obtains the necessary glucose quantity, the excess of this starts to accumulate and deposit mainly on the liver and the muscles when they reach their capacity limit, the glucose sticks to the adipose tissue increasing the triglycerides and cholesterol levels in the body, generating grave consequences on the circulatory system. That's why we must maintain our levels of sugar in the blood below 100 mg per deciliter (Tirosh, A 2005). Controlling our feeding habits is fundamental for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Fats

O the other hand, fats and lipids are the same as carbohydrates; they are important components in the diet that contribute more concentrated energy. They are degraded in fatty acids then slowly absorbed by the digestive system, and last, they are stored in the gallbladder. The excess usually stays underneath the skin increasing the adipose tissue and therefor the body mass like in the case of people with overweight, another possible go to area for this compound are the arteries, maximizing the risk of having cardiovascular disease like arterial hypertension or coronary disease. These compounds don't participate in the brain metabolism because they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier because of its high density.

The fatty acids do not dissolve in water and facilitate the important vitamin transport for the organism like vitamin A and D. is important knowing the types of fat that exist, effects that they cause on the organism and the food in which we find them, for example, the saturated fats are harmful for our health because they increase the LDL levels (Low Density Lipoprotein) in the blood, increasing the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease. The common source of this type of fat is meat from animals, fried food, lacto products and its derivatives (milk, cheese, butter, etc.) the unsaturated fats decrease the LDL levels in blood but also some action has been attributed to the elevation of the HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) in blood.

Between the rich foods in unsaturated fatty acids, we can mention vegetable oils like olive, peanut, nuts, almonds, hazelnut, fish and seeds. The trans-fat found in pre-fabricated food like cookies and crackers are considered currently as the fat that cause greater prejudice to our health (they increase the LDL and decrease the HDL). Its high consumption strongly predisposes the development of cardiovascular affections (Rienzi, 2014).

The healthy limits for the daily fat intake are located in a 30% of total calories as total fats, and a 10% of total calories as saturated fats. (Rienzi, 2014).

Tendency and argument

In spite of acknowledging the importance of maintaining a balanced diet and the adequate contribution of the main organic compounds that constitute the nutritional pyramid as are the proteins, the fats, and carbohydrates. Is necessary to consider that the excessive consume and inadequate for some foods that have these components, can generate grave consequences for the health of people.

The carbohydrates and fats supply the organism big quantities of energy to bring about activities as of low and high intensity, but here we don't just limit the physical part, this food supplements intervene in all the activities that requires abilities and mental skills increasing the understanding capacity and comprehension of the studied subject.

However, analyzing the behavior of the body over the carbohydrates is easy to deduce that these are broken down faster than the lipids, that's why is deduce to a low fat diet would make a better lifestyle for people, also of decreasing the risk of having chronic cardiovascular disease like the arterial hypertension and coronary diseases that can cause a decrease of blood flow not only in the heart but any other organ. With a diet low on fats it can decreased the high levels of obesity and mortality in the United States and any other country that has these high levels of obesity.

The components in what are transformed the carbohydrates cause less difficulty in health than the fatty acids the enter the organism due to the majority of them cause LDL o badly called "bad cholesterol" that the platelets of fat adhere to the walls of the arteries, obstructing them and decreasing the oxygen and nutrients supply for the later death of cellular tissue.

The moderated and controlled consume of carbohydrates in recommended hours supply big quantities of energy, which result in major benefit to implement diets that imply the elimination and decrease of the fat consume for the risks that these can generate in the human body, reason shy, the recommended tendency and by which we bow to must assume a low fat diet, and not with that we can say is necessary to eliminate them in a 100% of a balanced diet, because the body requires fats to accomplish its function which is to supply energy, regulate the corporal temperature and supply the necessary nutrients.

Currently the rhythm of the fast life of persons that live in developed countries and the overcrowding of restaurants and fast food franchise of fast food, particularly in the occidental hemisphere, affects the feeding habit, provoking the ingest of food on bad hours of the day and elevated consume of harmful fats for the organism, as saturated fats and trans fats are, they are found in fast food like meats, pizzas, Chinese food, hamburgers, fried chips, hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, cakes, among others that are highly processed food and low cost on the market, which makes an easy access to the people in big cities.

It's important to highlight that there are investigations that are focused in the study and analysis of percentage individuals with overweight in the territory of the United States. That's why:

"In the past 4 decades, the prevalence of obesity among adults aged 20 to 74 years in the United States increased from 13% to 31%. In the United States, obesity results in an estimated 325000 deaths annually and accounts for about 5.5% of total direct health costs. At any given time, approximately 45% of women and 30% of men in the United States are attempting to lose weight Numerous diets have been proposed to promote weight loss." (Nordmann, A. J., Nordmann, A., M., Keller, U., Yancy, W.S., Brehm, B.J., & Bucher, H.C. 2006, p285).

The authors point out that the last years have been an important increase in the number of people with overweight in the United States and the pattern doesn't limits an specific age but it reaches to individuals of all ages resulting in a number of significant deaths to the nation, that also generate big costs of medical attention, indicating that there are not only health problems but also creating high expenses that can be avoided if they implement programs and projects of health and nutrition attention, made for people that suffer with overweight, changing their lifestyles.

One of the advantages that we have in the era is that society, especially women have created the need to look god and feel good through workout and healthy diets in fats and calories, which is beneficial because it decreases the risks of having cardiovascular diseases and related disease with the increase of fat in the blood like atherosclerosis that obstructs arteries causing a heart attack later to come death.

The decrease of body mass provoked by certain diets can lead to the prevention of many diseases like the diabetes type 2, and some metabolic disorders and at the same time better the control of arterial hypertension, reducing the morbidity and cardiovascular mortality in developed and developing countries.

Is a goal analysis of random controlled essays, few tests were found to support different diets of the low fat diets for the reduction of weight. (Nordmann, A. J., Nordmann, A., Briel, M., Keller, U., Yancy, W. S., Brehm, B. J., & Bucher, H. C. 2006). The studies and results presented by the authors reveals that the weight loss reduces the risk of having cardiovascular or metabolic diseases and that the more recent controlled analysis show the best way to lose weight is with diets low on fat and not with diets low on carbohydrates as it wa thought.

The importance of fat in diet, and its role of cardiovascular prevention, is one of the nutritional topics best studied, always being reviewed. Now we know, especially because of the related studies with the Mediterranean diet, which the quality of the fat is more important than the quantity.

In this sense, the saturated fats and the trans-fat are implicated in the formation of plates below the intimate layer of the arterial wall increasing the risk of heart attack, that's why it's recommended for the design of a healthy diet, said nutrients must substitute the carbon hydrates or the unsaturated fats, maintaining the fat consumption in < 10% and the trans < 1% of the caloric intake. (Fernandez, 2011).

Recent population studies use models of Mediterranean diets, they are securing more each time the importance and incorporation of the unsaturated fats that include vegetable, salmon, seeds, and nuts oils with others key nutrients for the prevention of chronic diseases of modern societies. On the other hand, an especial polyunsaturated fatty acid derived from the unsaturated fats, the omega 3 series, are gradually converting into key nutrients of a healthy diet, especially in kids.

That's why reasonable consider that societies, strongly implicated in spreading the benefits of a healthy balanced diet low on fats as tool for preventing the cardiovascular diseases, develop a consensus to spread the new knowledge about the importance of getting a balanced and adequate contribution of fat in diets on industrialized populations.

Conclusion

The increase of obesity in people around the western world during the last years, makes the creating of attention mechanism of integral attention in the area of private and public health, that involves the evaluation and diagnose of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic and deficiency disorders in the elimination of wastes by the liver and kidney, all this with the purpose of stimulating the planning and programming of related guides with a balanced diet through the intervention of nutritionist and specialist in the health area to help the obesity control, a situation which its success will depend on the motivation of the patient for losing weight and the intrinsic characteristics of the diet plan which implicates a drastic reduction of fat unsaturated consumption backing up with the efficiency of the own applied method.

The treatments with low hydrocarbons diet, have been proposed as an alternative these last years with the goal of substituting the traditional hypo caloric and hypo lipid diets for reducing the risk of having diabetes type 2 or arterial hypertension, but since the majority of the authors and our own interpretation aren't as effectives as low unsaturated and trans fats that harm the physical and mental conditions of people.

Vary analytics and interpreted studies address their effectiveness comparing with other nutritional strategies. Independently of other metabolic considerations, it is verified that the achieved decrease of weight on people in a certain determined time is superior with low fat diets in comparison with diets low on carbon hydrates and other nutritional alternatives or diet plans.

Definitely additionally with all voiced, not only the related factor in the bad feeding habit that involves the excessive consume of fats influences the apparition of chronic diseases, but also there exists other factors like genetics, the sedentary lifestyle, alcoholism and the addiction to drugs can cause or accelerate the alteration of the organism normal function.

We recommend the incorporation of healthy foods with high protein and energetic value in proper hours that supply sufficient quantity of nutrients to the menu of the American homes and the rest of the countries with high obesity levels, at the same time we recommend the reduction and if possible the elimination of processed foods of the diet to improve people's lifestyle and health.

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