We love to look into diets to learn their science and help people decide if they want to try them! Generally, we recommend eating a varied diet and enjoying the foods you like in moderation. If you like it, have it. Pay attention to the portion size, account for it in your day and enjoy it! Don’t eat mindlessly. By enjoying your food and making conscious choices, you can manage your weight and blood sugar overly restrictive. You simply have to plan ahead.
However, some people do better with a specific diet! Some people like eating with an outline and find it easier than calculating each meal. We get that. That’s why we like to look at trendy diets to learn if they are healthy or fad diets that could be detrimental.
The slow carb diet is also known as the four-hour body diet. It was created by entrepreneur and lifestyle guru Timothy Ferriss. He claims that people who follow it can expect to lose 10 to 20 pounds of fat without exercising in a month.
The diet has five basic rules to follow. A person following the diet doesn’t eat simple carbs. They do eat very repetitive breakfasts. They drink calorie-free drinks plus one to two glasses of dry red wine a night. They don’t eat fruit. And they have one day off where they are supposed to overeat.
People following the diet can eat as much animal protein as they like. They can also have unlimited legumes and vegetables. They are supposed to limit fats and spices. Fruit, dairy and refined carbs are off limits except on cheat days when Mr. Ferriss suggests people should “go nuts.”
Mr. Ferriss acknowledges that the diet has nutritional gaps. He recommends specific supplements to make up the difference. Bizarrely to us, while garlic is one of the spices he recommends limiting, he then recommends taking garlic extract as a supplement.
Looking at the rules, the very first thing that pops out to us is that a person isn’t allowed fruit but can have two glasses of wine. A serving of grapes has 62 calories, 16 grams of carbs and one gram of fiber. Two glasses of red wine has 250 calories, 7.6 grams of carbs and no fiber. It seems odd that you can’t have grapes that are filled with vitamin K and manganese, but you can have wine that lacks nutrients.
Simply reading over the rules, you can see that this diet will cause short-term weight loss. “Almost any time you eliminate an entire food group, such as fruit and dairy, you will lose weight,” said registered dietary nutritionist Keri Gans.
Some rules in the diet, while strict, aren’t necessarily terrible. Cutting out all processed carbs “eliminates common sources of calories and potential blood sugar spikes, which can lead to overeating and cravings,” said registered dietician Scott Keatley. You’re fine if you replace them with something healthy in the gap. However, removing fruit and dairy cuts out a lot of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. All the fiber in the diet comes from legumes.
This diet is not sustainable. The idea of a cheat day might sound fun. And it might make it seem like it could be maintained. But if you have blood sugar concerns, you won’t throw caution to the wind and do whatever you want on day seven. The highly restrictive nature of the diet will make you quit.
Registered dietitian Brigitte Zeitlin suggested that if you want to follow a diet, you should pick one that talks about including food, not cutting things out. It’s about “concentrating on foods you should be adding in versus taking out,” she said. “Keep your grains and fruits to two servings each per day and don’t forget to add in more water, along with sleep and physical activity.”
