If a high carb,WITH EXERCISE,that will work,and if it works for you,thats great.It works for a lot of active people,I dont deny it.
But it doesnt mean its a low weight diet,it isnt.Hence the obesity epidemic that needs to be addressed,it isnt just how much you eat,if you have to starve yourself or not feel satiated to keep weight down on carbs,or eat more carbs to meet your bodies needs,and you arent doing 30 minutes of cardio a day,your wt is going up.
For starters,lets define 'healthy' Is it ideal body wt? Is it muscles and strength? Most folks would say so. Macronutrients.
But is it immune health too,IMO thats a critical aspect,what fights disease,repairs cells,protects from autoimmune disease.Thats Micronutrients.Vegetables.
I feel health involves all of the above. Therefore,for the rabid Paleo the only issue I have with it is if you arent getting micronutrients (vegetables) too,it is not boosting or supporting your immune system,a big failure in this aspect.So Paleos,listen to your Mom and eat your vegetables.
A big failure nowadays is the obesity epidemic.
Ask any Paleo and almost to a tee they will tell you changing from a high carb low fat diet to high fat and low carb,wt melted away,no other changes,they DO lose wt.
So Im stuck on high carbs is a weighty diet.
Next argument is 'a calorie is a calorie' Only it isnt. Why do Paleos lose wt when they are eating the same number of calories a Carbo is? It appears that the body metabolizes carbs differently from proteins and fats.
Here is a study explaining the effects
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/9Some excerpts.....
Three groups were studied: A low carbohydrate group (LoCHO = 1800 kcal for men; 1500 kcal for women), a low fat group (LoFat, 1800 and 1500); a third group also consumed a low carbohydrate diet but an additional 300 kcalories were provided (LoCHO+300, 2100 and 1800). The order of average amount of weight lost was LoCHO = 23 lbs, LoCHO+300 = 20 lbs LoFat = 17 lbs. This work received a good deal of attention in the popular press. Media reports, however, included comments of experts that "It doesn't make sense, does it?" "It violates the laws of thermodynamics. No one has ever found any miraculous metabolic effects." ([5]). If this is an accurate quotation, it is odd indeed. Miraculous, or otherwise, a metabolic effect was found.
The seriousness of the obesity epidemic suggests that we attack it with all the means at our disposal. Metabolic advantage with low carbohydrate diets is well established in the literature. It does not always occur but the important point is that it can occur. To ignore its possibilities and to not investigate the precise conditions under which it appears would be cutting ourselves off from potential benefit. The extent to which metabolic advantage will have significant impact in treating obesity is unknown and it is widely said in studies of low carbohydrate diets that "more work needs to be done." However, if the misconception is perpetuated that there is a violation of physical laws, that work will not be done, and if done, will go unpublished due to editorial resistance. Attacking the obesity epidemic will involve giving up many old ideas that have not been productive. "A calorie is a calorie" might be a good place to start.
