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Is ultra low carbing even that healthy in the long run?? I've seen sites that say, initially the results are impressive but over time ultra low carbing can do more harm than good.
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The point to ultra low carbing i.e. 30g or less of carbs per day is that the body responds by producing ketones, known in the literature as a low carbohydrate ketogenic Diet (LCKD).
There is a lot of discussion about whether it is healthy or not. The fact is that nobody knows for sure either way. There are no long term studies evaluating ketogenic diets. The longest are a year.
One of the other factors that prevent proper study is that the dropout rates for ketogenic diets are very high. Only a few dedicated individuals are able to stick to them for any length of time. Long term Ketogenic diets have been studied in children with epilepsy where they are associated with reduced bone growth, but here again dropout rates are very high. Children on ketogenic diets end up shorter then children who aren't
Calorie restricted Ketogenic diets produce more weight loss, and improve cardiac risk factors (triglycerides particularly) more than other diets, although by the year mark there is little difference between ANY diet, and they all show the characteristic weight gain which begins at the 6-9 month mark.
The potential risk for a long term ketogenic diet is nutritrional deficiency - by virtually eliminating a food group, greater care must be taken to ensure that dietary intakes are adequate. A dietary intake of just 30g would eliminate a substantial proportion of normal fruit and vegetable intake as well as eliminating all cereal intake, potatoes, and legumes. A typical 150g apple would contain around 15g of carbs which would be half your daily allowance of carbs. This is however a "theoretical" risk - what applies to children with epilepsy may not/probably does not apply to normal/overweight/diabetic adults.
