Low Carb vs Low Fat Diet

It is emblazoned in the headlines on TV, the news, advertisements, magazines and just about every form of media outlet imagined; the US percentage for obesity has reached an all time high. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 35.7% of adults in the U.S. are obese. This rise in obesity is directly related to the rise in chronic diseases and preventable deaths; conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer all can be linked to obesity. These facts have caused fear within the U.S. society and people have become obsessed with losing weight, unfortunately they are looking for the fastest ways to do it. Out of this new health craze many new fad diets have arisen. According to the Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012 a fad diet is “A nutritional regimen, generally of an extreme nature, intended to produce results more quickly than a traditional diet-exercise combination; often of a dubious nature.” Fad diets often have detrimental effects on health. Two of the more recent fad diets to hit society are the low-carbohydrate (low-carb) and low-fat diets. People get so obsessed with the weight loss they forget that carbohydrates and fats not only play a role in weight management but equally so in chronic disease prevention and energy; all these factors are critical in total health. Reducing carbohydrates or fats may seem like a quick way to lose weight, but when the effects of both nutrients are compared, it is obvious that a balance of both is necessary for optimal health.

Fad diets are nothing new; hundreds of various diet fads have come and gone in the U.S. for decades. As each new fad arises studies are often conducted to substantiate their effectiveness. Many of these studies have been done on the effects of the low-carb diet in comparison to the low-fat diet, the results show that over a long term neither results in more weight loss and neither is superior,(Moyad). In fact...