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Ongoing research for why calorie restricted diets work suggests a new way for healthy eating, without the deprivation of calorie restriction or every-other-day fasting.

By Tim Lundeen  Beginning Noozer
Published: 05 November 2007 01:38 pm

- The diet

The idea is very simple: eat low carbohydrates every other day. One day you eat whatever you like, with at least 130 grams (520+ calories) of carbohydrate; the next you restrict carbohydrates to 50 to 60 grams (200 to 250 calories). Alternating normal and low carbs should result in excellent blood markers for risk factors for disease, and should result in a much better chance for a long and healthy life, without deprivation or hunger pains.

As with any diet, you should make sure you get enough omega-3s. The best solution, given the preponderance of grain-fed low-omega-3 meat, dairy, and eggs today, is to take supplements, making sure you get at least 1.5 grams of DHA (a long-chain omega-3) per day.

If you have damage to your insulin/glucose metabolism, then you also need to watch your blood sugar on the normal carbohydrate days. The warning signs for damage are any excess weight or a little pot belly. These mean that you should restrict carbohydrates on the normal days so that your blood sugar stays below 120, and probably want to eat no more than 150 grams (600 calories) of carbohydrate on the "normal" days.

In addition, it is always a good idea to minimize sugar and refined carbohydrates. These foods are addictive and create strong cravings, so it can be hard to stay on plan. They also create high blood sugar and insulin surges, which increase the rate at which you age. Also, many people develop wheat allergies as they get older, so minimizing wheat helps a lot of people feel better.

Weight loss

Most people will lose weight on this diet, and my weight is dropping towards what I weighed when I was 20, which is nice to see. However, this is not really intended as a weight-loss diet. It is intended as a healthy way to live on an indefinite basis, for the rest of your life

Staying on course

You shouldn't feel hungry on this plan. Eat as much protein and fat as you need to feel full, just watch the carbohydrates. Limiting carbohydrates will automatically adjust your appetite down, and you will feel full with much less total calories. The whole point is to be healthy without discomfort.

Snacking increases hunger and makes it harder to manage your diet, so just eat meals.

Eat protein with all of your meals, as this helps stabilize blood sugar and mood.

Eat breakfast and dinner, with more of your carbohydrates at breakfast. I think lunch is optional; I find that skipping lunch helps me keep my average blood sugar and insulin levels lower. (Skipping lunch will give you hunger pains the first few days till your body gets used to it.)

A metabolic trick that increases seratonin so helps you feel better and have more impulse control is to eat part of your quota of carbohydrates at night, 3 hours after your last meal. This is the one exception to no snacks and protein with your meals — you can eat fats with these carbs, but no more than 10% protein. This boosts your brain's production of seratonin and helps you wake up in a good mood and feel good all day. (Hat tip: Kathleen DesMaisons at Radiant Recovery.)

It is very helpful to track your fasting blood sugar. It should be 85 or below. Just buy a cheap glucose meter, the same one used for diabetes. Test your blood sugar in the morning after you get up. If it is more than 85, then move more carbohydrates from dinner to breakfast/lunch, or reduce total carbohydrates (staying over 500 on normal days, under 250 on low-carb days).

You don't have to worry about fat calories, eat what you feel like eating. (As long as you don't eat too much polyunsaturated fat, fat does not appear to be a risk factor for illness). Avoid/minimize omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, as typical foods have very high omega-6, and omega-6 competes with omega-3 for processing. (You need both omega-6 and omega-3, but in a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Typical American diets today are 5:1 to 20:1, really messed up.)

Caveats

You may need to adjust the low and high carbohydrate levels based on your size and metabolism. (If you are diabetic not taking insulin, then you probably can't eat more than 100g/day of carbs without getting blood sugar over 140, and you will likely need to eat more small meals throughout the day.) The goal is to be in ketosis on the low-carb days, and on a glucose metabolism on the high-carb days.

If you are very much overweight or older, you should phase this diet plan in gradually, working on reducing carbohydrates on both normal and low-carb days till you get to your goals. Gradually switch to more complex carbohydrates: whole grains, vegetables, and fruit, and reduce sugar, flour, white rice.

If you have a metabolic problem such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, or liver disorders, then this diet plan may not be suitable for you: definitely talk to a doctor who is knowledgeable about nutrition and your specific problems. Make sure they are knowledgeable, because good doctors for nutrition/metabolism issues can be hard to find. (A good site if you have diabetes is Jenny's blog and web site.)

If you are pregnant or want to get pregnant, stay on normal carbohydrates (but still minimize sugar/flour/white-rice).

Finally, this diet idea has not been tested. It certainly looks from what we know today that it will work, and I'm trying it for myself. I'll report my blood marker tests after my weight stabilizes, which should be in a few months. Whether it works or not, I can't see any reason that it would be unhealthy, based on everything I've read in the area.

Background — the science

The history of calorie restriction dates back to 1934, when Clive McCay and Mary Crowell noticed that lab rats lived up to twice as long when they were fed a severely restricted diet. Subsequent research found this effect in many organisms, and today there is a very active research effort to understand the mechanisms behind it.

Calore restriction dramatically reduces the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. If we could find a supplement that has these effects without the deprivation of a restricted diet or fasting, it would be a blockbuster drug. People are looking hard, because there is a lot of money to be made if they succeed

However, today, there are only two ways that are known to produce these beneficial effects. One is calorie restriction, eating a high-quality diet with 20% to 40% fewer calories than normal. The other is every-other-day fasting, with no limit to calories on the days you eat. Both of these diet strategies result in good BMI (body mass index) and excellent blood markers for everything we know how to measure. It is just that they are not so much fun, and can take a lot of time to manage.

One common mechanism behind both calorie restriction and every-other-day fasting is their effect on mitochondrial efficiency. Mitochondria are organelles in your cells that convert food into an energy source that the body can use directly. In the process, they create a very small amount of highly-reactive byproducts that cause age-related damage. One of the most dangerous byproducts is methylglyoxal, which is known to cause damage from AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts) and can damage DNA leading to cancer. For example, with uncontrolled diabetes, methylglyoxal levels climb significantly and cause much of the damage from this illness.

Both fasting and calorie restriction increase the efficiency of your mitochondria, so that they produce much less methylglyoxal, and so slow down the rate at which you age from this particular pathway. (Hat tip: Fight Aging here and here.)

The immediate thought is that lower glucose must be good, and we should all go on a ketogenic (Dr Atkins type) diet immediately, and just stay there. The problem is that long-term ketogenic diets, while they increase mitochondrial efficiency, also lead to higher methlyglyoxal, from some other pathway. So staying on a ketogenic diet long-term could to increase the rate at which you age and increase your risks for illness.

However, even though there are risks from long-term ketosis, ketosis is good for your mitochondria.

The obvious solution is to alternate ketogenic (low-carbohydrate) with glucose-based (normal carbohydrate) days, and this should result in the best of all worlds. We'll see!