>Have any of you any experience of putting people on high protein diets with
>little CHO?
>
>I have read that most subjects (who were probably insulin sensitive
>Caucasians)
>find this sort of diet nauseating and that experiments are usually terminated
>early.

I hope we can find a way to draw out Michael Eades, who has been a member
of our list for quite some time but has been quiet so far.  He's a
physician with considerable experience treating his patients with
high-protein, strictly carbohydrate-limited diets, with quite positive
results.

Unfortunately, finding supporting research on this matter is very
difficult.  This sort of diet has a very bad reputation, at least in the
United States, but there is very little supporting research to back up this
extremely negative view.  There is also very little peer-reviewed medical
research which compellingly supports a positive view either.  This is
because there is a lack of much research at all, and much of what has been
done is many decades old now.

For example, it is frequently claimed that high-protein, strictly
carbohydrate-limited diets cause ketoacidosis and muscle deterioration.
There is no research which can be taken seriously that backs up these
common claims; about the only examples that are ever mentioned are studies
of very low carbohydrate ketogenic diets, but all such studies also
involved severe calorie limitation--I have yet to see one which involved
more than 800 k/calories of total daily intake, and some involve as little
as 400 k/cals per day.  Similarly, while very low carbohydrate diets
sometimes cause nausea, no one has ever bothered to document how common
this really is, or how severe it usually is.  It certainly does not affect
all subjects this way but no one's bothered to document more than that it
does do this to some subjects, without even bothering to analyze whether
those who do get hit with nausea find it debilitating or only mildly
annoying.

On the other hand, while a small handful of popular writers, including some
physicians (e.g. Michael & Mary Dan Eades, Robert Atkins, Richard
Bernstein) have claimed significant health benefits from this sort of diet,
again there is very little in the way of clinical, peer-reviewed research
to back up their claims.  In fact, while physicians like Eades and Atkins
claim to have treated literally thousands of patients with this kind of
diet, improving all sorts of serious health problems, none have bothered to
date to compile serious statistical information and submit for peer review.

I can point out research which suggests that diets high in carbohydrate
and/or low in fat raise risks for diseases like cancer or heart disease
(upon request).  I can point to research which shows improvements in
athletic performance from very low carbohydrate diets.  I can point to
individuals I know (including myself) whose health improved remarkably
after using strictly carb-limited, high-protein diets, including the
results of my own survey of nearly 100 such people (most of whom are of
European extraction but have weight problems, by the way).  But compelling
data is limited--which is most frustrating for many of us.