Carbohydrates are the latest nutrient to be blamed for the rising incidence of
obesity in the US. Tired of playing the low-fat game only to see our belt sizes increase, Americans have looked for other macronutrients as the reason behind their growing waists. And they have often found at least short term weight loss success following such high-protein, low-carb diets as the Atkins and South Beach. Fueled by this success, restaurants and food companies have found ways to market just about everything from beer to bagels as being low in carbs. Are carbohydrates really that bad for us, or is this low-carb craze just another ill-fated curve ball?
Carbohydrates and their role in obesity will be the topic of the opening session of this year's annual Lillian Fountain Smith Conference June 10 and 11 in Fort Collins. Chris Melby, professor and head the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University, will open the conference with a talk titled, "Carbohydrates: The New Cause of Obesity?" His presentation will focus on issues of body weight regulation and health related to high- and low-carbohydrate diets. He will explain how high-carbohydrate, high-calorie diets lead to rapid fat storage and also will talk about some of the long-term negative consequences to health associated with following low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets.