Hello, this is Monica Reinagle, and you're listening to the Nutrition Deva

podcast. Thanks for tuning in.

I don't have to tell you that we live in a deeply divided nation. Now don't worry, I'm not venturing into politics here.

I'm talking about the never-ending debate about whether you'll lose more weight

by cutting carbs or by limiting fat. There have been dozens and dozens of studies

and numerous meta-analysis pitting the two approaches against one another.

And they've been evaluated not just for weight loss, but other measures of health, such

as cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and body composition

as well.

Each side has put some points on the board, but neither one of them is running away with

the game.

Part of the problem is that the terms's low-fat and low-carb are used somewhat indiscriminately.

Diets that are described as low-carb in the medical literature might get as few as 10% of

their calories from carbohydrates or as much as 35% of calories from carbohydrates and

the same goes for low-fat diets.

But an even bigger problem is that

categorizing diets simply by how much

carbohydrate or fat they contain is like trying to categorize novels simply by how many

nouns and verbs they contain. You can follow a low carbohydrate diet and eat bacon cheeseburgers without the bun, of course, every

night for dinner.

Or your low-carb menu could feature grilled salmon and

you could be getting most of your non-carbon hydrogary calories from fat

...