Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert on the harm that comes with low-carb, high-fat diets

Low-carb diets are often favoured as a means of managing insulin and sugar levels - but they come with their own drawbacks.

New research out of Australia shows low carbohydrate and high fat diets increase risk of type 2 diabetes.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara unpacks this research and examines the impact of various low-carb diets. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joining me now to talk wellness is Erin O'Hara, Natropath.
Good morning, Good morning. Oh, you've got one of those
topics that we all love to talk about, diets and
with a low carbohydrate, high fat diets increase risk of
type two diabetes.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, there's a really interesting study that has just been released.
It's actually a study that's been done over a long
period of time in Australia and they found that those
that follow a low carbohydrate diet, which they classify as
less than thirty eight percent of carbohydrates, had a twenty
percent increase of developing type two diabetes compared to people

(00:51):
who have had more than fifty five percent of carbohydrate
in their diet. And that's a really interesting thing because
usually when someone has diabetes, the number one thing that
people would do is cut back on carbohydrates. So it's
interesting that the study found that to actually increase the
chances of getting type two diabetes, even though we would

(01:11):
usually use a low carbohydrate diet to manage diabetes.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
So do they know why that is?

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, it's interesting it's actually more to do with the
high fat components. So if you're doing more a low
carbohydrate diet like a keto diet, which is low carbohydrate,
high fat, particularly saturated fat, then that would actually increase
sometimes people's body weight and cause more obesity problems, which

(01:37):
then would lead to more increase in type two diabetes,
which is very different if you're doing a low carbohydrate
diet and still sort of managing your calories and also
your amount of saturated fat you're having in that diet.
So there's different ways of doing low carbohydrate diets.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
You mentioned keto diet, there are there a variety. What
are the sort of low carb diets might well be
talking about here.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, so low carb diet usually would be a keto
diet would be high high fat, so your main amount
of calories that you're having is percentages from fats, where
you could do a low carbo hydrate diet and have
a higher amount of protein, which is usually more my
favorite way of doing it. But also how you're kind
of eating, what types of foods you're eating in that

(02:24):
diet also affects how well it works. So usually if
you're doing a low carbohydrate diet, you would probably have
a better result for reducing your risk of type two
diabetes if you were keeping your amount of fat low
in it, so more having higher amounts of protein to
obviously not feel hungry, because you can't just live on

(02:44):
low calorie vegetables, so having some more protein and reducing
their amount of saturated fats, and if you are having
fats in it, using more things like nuts and seeds
and avocados, which are more good fats for your body.
Why people generally on a low carbohydrate diet is it
for weight loss? A lot of people do it for
weight loss, and it's interesting that there's real mixed research

(03:06):
around weight loss and low carbohydrate diets, and for some
people it does work really well. But actually the amount
of carbohydrate that's recommended in your diet is between forty
five percent and sixty five percent of your calorie intake,
which I personally think is quite high, and I think
it's about you know, getting that balance right at the

(03:27):
end of the day. It is really calories and calories out.
So if you are doing a low carbohydrate diet, you've
still got to watch how many calories you're eating across
the day. Otherwise you actually won't lose weight, so it's
about keeping that balance right. And then it's also to
do with the types of carbohydrates you're having, because you
can have more process carbohydrates things like sugars and fizzy

(03:51):
drinks and white bread and white flour, or you can
have carbohydrates which would have a higher component of fiber,
which is going to be a lot better for you,
a lot more manageable for keeping that balance right in
the diet, which would come from root vegetables and fruits
which are actually really good to carbohydrate sources, and that

(04:11):
would be more leading into maybe a slightly lower carbohydrate diet,
but more Mediterranean style diet, which would be my sort
of favorite way for managing sort of that weight as
well as keeping the regulation for insign regulation for reducing
your diabetes rest too.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Just really quickly, how much carbohydrate should be in a
balanced diet.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
How much is round between forty five and sixty five
but I personally it would depend on the person forty
five sixty five percent of the total calories, so if
you're not. Some people do really well on a higher
carbohydrate diet, so that's where it's very personalized, and other
people actually do better on slightly lower carbohydrate diet, and
it really depends on age race how active you are.

(04:55):
So if you're really active, you're going to need a
little bit more carbohydrate because you're going to burn it
off when you move your body and keep moving your
body for burning the calories as well. Thank you so much.
Erin we'll catch techniques.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.