1. Become Informed
Read about various low carb diets, or zero in on one. Ideally, read one of the books and become familiar with the principles. Above all, don’t fall for the common myths about eating low carb – such as that there are no vegetables or fruit, that it can’t be healthy, that it has to be boring, etc. Like other ways of eating, low carb eating can be healthy or not, balanced or not, and there is certainly no reason for it to be boring. Rest assured that science is on the side of cutting carbs – perhaps not for everyone, but for many of us.

2. Start Making Easy Changes
While you are learning about low-carb eating, you can start to make some changes towards reducing unhealthy carbs in your diet. Choose one or two things to change at a time. You may be surprised that some results can be achieved with less effort than you thought.

3. Decide on an Approach
There is no one low carb diet. The popular plans span a range of carb levels and food choices, though essentially all of them cut out most sugars and starches. Again, the best thing to do is to read one of the books – go to your library and browse, and zero in on something that looks doable to you. Essentially all of the popular books can be purchased used online for very little money.

Alternatively, if you just know you’re not the kind to read a book and follow someone else’s idea of a diet, the “No White Diet” works for many people. Basically, you just stop eating food with sugars, white flour (pasta, bread, cake, donuts, etc), white rice, and potatoes (some include milk). This effectively cuts back on the carbohydrate in your diet, especially the high glycemic types. Just realize that there are also white foods, such as tofu, cauliflower, and onions, that are low in carbs and good for you!

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we eat low-carb diets to keep our blood sugar normal and stable. To fully understand the connection, it’s helpful to first familiarize yourself with how the body processes blood sugar.

What Do Carbohydrates Have to Do With Blood Glucose?

Everything. All foods with carbohydrate — whether rice, jelly beans, or watermelon — break down to simple sugars in our bodies. This is what causes our blood glucose to rise. The carbohydrate in most starchy foods (potatoes, bread) is simply a collection of long chains of glucose, whichbreak down quickly and raise blood sugar.

What Do Our Bodies Do When Blood Sugar is High?

When our blood sugar goes up, our body responds by secreting insulin to stabilize it. The sugar is then taken out of the blood and converted into fat; insulin’s primary function is facilitating the storage of extra sugar in the blood as fat.

What are the Problems with Blood Sugar Going Up?

For many people, this system works fine. Sometimes, though, people reach a point in their lives when it goes awry (or it doesn’t work well from childhood). This is called insulin resistance, and one of the consequences is that there gets to be too much insulin in the blood as the body tries harder and harder to bring the sugar down.

When insulin is high, weight gain is more likely, since a main function of insulin is fat storage. Conversely, people with high insulin levels are more likely to lose weight on low-carb diets.

Keeping blood glucose normal has other health benefits, such as the prevention of heart disease and diabetes. Even non-diabetics have an increased heart disease risk with higher blood glucose levels.

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