Exercise & Low-Carb Diets: Phinney, Wortman, Westman

Shelley Schlender conducted interviews with Dr. Stephen Phinney, Dr. Eric Westman and Dr. Jay Wortman earlier this year during the 2006 NMS Scientific Sessions. The interviews were aired on the KGNU radio show How On Earth, For Your Health in February.

The intro: Ask most health experts how athletes should eat, and you’re likely to hear about a high carbohydrate diet—fruit, pasta, bagels, granola bars, rice. But if all this is true, how do you explain the Inuit of Northern Canada and the Arctic, who could run 30 miles a day beside their sleds, eating a diet that was 85% fat, 15% protein, and carbohydrate free? How do you explain an explorer named Stephanson who lived among the Inuit, ate what they ate, and stayed healthier than explorers eating European food? What about the professional cyclists who ate Inuit style? The more they adapted to a high fat, very low carb diet, the more they could exercise just as fast and long as they had when they were eating mostly carbs. Up next, we'll talk with three experts on low-carbohydrate diets and exercise for both the high-performance athlete and for people working to reverse health problems.

You can hear the complete show here: KGNU: How On Earth - Exercise and Low-Carb Diets.