Low-Carb vs. High-Carb: Which Diet Should You Eat? The Surprising Truth

By John Fawkes  life.spartan.com

Everyone reading this is probably familiar with the food pyramid—the one that has grain and potatoes on the bottom, meat close to the top, and added fat and oil at the very top. Historically, doctors and the USDA have generally recommended a high-carb, low-fat diet, in line with the food pyramid. A low-carb diet, with high-fat intake, was not something you’d normally expect to hear your MD recommend. However, the food pyramid never had a very solid basis in science—it primarily reflected which industries spent the most money on lobbyists. And in the last few decades, several movements have arisen to push back against the high-carb dogma. In most cases they’ve ever tried to turn it on its head, advocating instead for a high-fat, low-carb approach to eating. Neither group is entirely correct, but there is an answer to the question of how much carbohydrates you should consume—it’s just a little more complicated than “a lot” or “very little.” Here’s what the research says about low-carb vs. high-carb diets.