Katherine B. Chauncey - Low-Carb Diet For Dummies

Less than 30 percent of American adults are sufficiently active in their leisure time to achieve health benefits. Thirty-one million Americans aged 50 or older aren’t physically active at all. Even light activities such as standing or walking around the house are better than no activity at all. If you aren’t very active, start gradually and build up.

Look at the following categories of activity and mark the one that comes closest to describing how you spend your week. Unless you’re in the active or very active category, plan to up your exercise by one level:

Sedentary: Watching television, driving a car, sitting at work, playing video games, sewing, reading, writing, texting, or talking on the phone. No program of regular exercise.

Light exercise: Ironing, dusting, doing laundry, loading/unloading the dishwasher, preparing and cooking food, walking 2 miles per hour for 10 to 20 minutes three to five times per week.

Moderate exercise: Dancing, gardening, doing carpentry work, mopping/scrubbing, bicycling, jogging or walking at 3 miles per hour for 20 to 40 minutes three to five times per week.

Active: Heavy work, aerobics, tennis, skating, skiing, racquetball, brisk walking at 4 miles per hour for 30 to 60 minutes three to five times per week.

Very active: Bicycling 15 miles per hour, running 6 miles per hour, swimming, or participating in martial arts, for 45 to 60 minutes three to five times per week.

Stress is unavoidable, but it can be good or bad. Normal transitions in life like getting married or having a baby bring about stress. A job promotion that calls for a move to a new city brings about stress. Other kinds of stress can bring prolonged responses. An unpleasant coworker or difficult job situation is there every day. You have to manage a decrease in your finances every day. Significant stress events like the death of a spouse or child never fully go away. Stress is part of living.

Many people drink alcohol at some point in their lives. Some only drink during social occasions and others may have an evening glass of wine. Moderate alcohol consumption of no more than one drink per day can offer some heart benefits. The following figure shows what qualifies as a drink. However, the benefit is not so great that a nondrinker should consider drinking alcohol. About one-third of individuals who drink alcohol will develop problems with alcohol. Drinking problems can increase your risk of serious health problems (both physical and behavioral) and accidents or injuries.

Illustration by Liz Kurtzman

If you want to drink alcohol, moderate consumption is considered safe. Moderate drinking is considered two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women or lighter-weight men. A drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1½ ounces of hard liquor. Be sure to count these beverages in your daily five carbohydrate choices. Each one counts as one carbohydrate choice.

How you deal with the stress is what’s important. Some people respond to stress by eating poorly, being physically inactive, smoking, or drinking alcohol. Others criticize their spouses, yell at their kids, and kick their dogs. And some employ the silent treatment — keeping everything bottled up inside when they’re about to explode. All these reactions take their toll on your body.

Short-term responses to stress can be a headache, stomachache, diarrhea, constipation, or vomiting. Longer-term responses affect blood pressure and sleeping and increase your risk for depression, heart disease, and susceptibility to colds and infections.

Eating and bingeing just compound the stress. The temporary comfort provided by the food is followed by guilt for overeating. Stress is pent-up energy that needs to be released. When stress comes, step back, take a deep breath, and go for a walk. Buy yourself some time to relax and decompress.

If your problems with stress are far more serious, talk to a trusted friend, your religious leader, your healthcare provider, or a professional therapist.

A low-carb diet, especially one like the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan, can help the following conditions:

Overweight (BMI of 25 to 29.9)

Obesity (BMI of 30 or greater)

Type 2 diabetes

Insulin resistance

Heart disease

High triglycerides

Low HDL cholesterol

High blood pressure (but only if the low-carb plan allows fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains, nuts, and seeds)

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a disease in women associated with insulin resistance

If you suffer from any of the preceding conditions, going the healthy low-carb route may be exactly what your body needs. However, if you have kidney problems, you may want to find another eating plan.

As with any diet plan, be sure to consult your healthcare provider or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) to determine if this plan is safe for you to follow given your specific health situation. (For the full story on the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan, check out Part 2.)

Part 2

IN THIS PART …

Know what foods you can eat freely on a low-carb diet.

Manage the starchy carbs and discover how to control them.

Understand dairy food benefits.

Appreciate the benefits of healthy fats and identify which fats to avoid.

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