Next year, health officials will set new dietary guidelines that will significantly affect what the American public will eat on a daily basis.
Some are hoping that with the popularity of keto, health officials will strongly consider the inclusion and recommendation of the low-carb diet.
Crusade Against Carbohydrates
The current health guideline cites the Mediterranean diet, which is heavy in healthy fats and whole grains, as an example of a healthy diet. Vegetarian, which obviously excludes meat products from everyday meal plans, is also recommended by experts.
However, people who follow a low-carb diet believes that the rising obesity rate across the United States is proof that the current dietary guideline does not work for everyone. According to Nina Teicholz who has written about low-carb diet in the past, the goal is to "get away from a one-size-fits-all diet."
The low-carb diet restricts a person's consumption of carbohydrates, including pasta and bread. A person who eats about 2,500 calories a day is only allowed to consume around 750 calories or less than 30 percent of carbohydrates each day.
Aside from weight loss, the popular meal plan promises to increase a person's good cholesterol (also called high-density lipoprotein), reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, lower blood pressure, and improve symptoms of metabolic syndrome. It can help prevent diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The keto diet, which also limits a person's intake of carbohydrates, has been used to treat epilepsy.
Arguments Against Low-Carb Diet
However, nutritionists said that many people find it difficult to stick to the low-carb diet. People should make lifestyle changes that they can stick within the long run.
Moreover, some experts warned that the low-carb diet is quite new and, therefore, its long-term impacts on health has not yet been fully observed.
John Ioannidis, a health policy researcher at Stanford University, would prefer that instead of adding the low-carb diet, health officials should simplify the guideline. The current guideline already recommends that the public should limit their consumption of meat and butter. The U.S. health officials have also warned about sugar since the 80s.
"If we eat more, that will make us obese," he commented to Associated Press. " That's 100% correct."
The low-carb diet and other eating styles will be reviewed for the 2020 version of the guidelines.
