domingo, 6 de janeiro de 2013

The Status of Low Carb in Brazil - January 2013

In my opinion, low carb diets are not well known in Brazil. No major public figure has yet adopted a low carb diet. No well known Medical Doctor defends low carb diets (as Tim Noakes does in South Africa). Most people in Brazil still think low carb, high fat diets are unhealthy.

For example, Gary Taubes' books have not yet been translated into Portuguese (Brazil's only language). As most Brazilians can't read English, the fact that Amazon Brazil sells Taubes's books in English is not very helpful.

Curiously, Robert Atkins's books have been translated into Portuguese in the past and are still available in some used book stores. Atkins Diet is relatively well known. There is a Wikipedia entry on Atkins Diet in Portuguese and many sites with recipes and other information. But the Atkins Diet is usually seen as a diet only for weight loss, not for general health.

But the Internet saves us. There are some good Brazilian blogs about low carb and paleo diets.

The oldest is probably this one: Paleo Brasil http://primalbrasil.com.br/. The authors (Bruna and Caio) are two business administrators that became interested in a low carb lifestyle and decided to share their experience with Brazilians. Its first post was in August 31st, 2011. There is a post called The Primal Diet: an Introduction, written on September 1st, 2011, which was probably the first description of a low-carb diet in Brazilian Portuguese.
One of the authors (Caio Augusto Fleury) recently  (October 2012) published the first book on paleo diets in Portuguese. It is called "The Diet of Our Ancestors". It is not very popular yet.

But the blog about low carb diets that probably has more views and more impact in Brazil is called Low-Carb and Paleolithic Diet http://lowcarb-paleo.blogspot.com.br. It is written by a Medical Doctor, José Carlos Souto. The first post was written on December 17th, 2011. In this post, Dr. Souto tells us that he discovered Gary Taubes book by chance, while listening to the Skepticality podcast. Dr. Souto is a urologist (if he were a nutrologist people would listen more to him) but he can read English (not all Brazilian medical doctors can). He has read a lot of books and papers on low carb diets. And he understands Science. His posts have lots of comments. Some of them are testimonies, which show that some Brazilians are having success with low-carb diets. Up to now (January 6th, 2013), he has written 98 posts. And he is also active on Twitter and Google Plus.

José Carlos Souto, MD, who maintains one of the most popular low-carb blogs in Brazil.



Danilo Balu, who has two degrees, one in Sports and other in Nutrition, has written some interesting posts on why people get fat. It is not exactly about low-carb diets, but he has analyzed, in 2012, Gary Taubes's work in a series of posts called "Reasons that make us fat may be wrong": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Previously, he has written "Eating less and exercising more does not make you lose weight"


There other interesting blogs and some other health professionals who know what a low carb diet is and how it can be helpful. And I hope much more will appear in the following years. In due time, I will report them in this blog.

PS: There is a group on Facebook called Paleo Brasil with 122 members (as of Jaunary 8th, 2013)

If you know a good Brazilian blog on low carb diets, tell me in the comments.

5 comentários:

  1. " Not very popular yet.." but not for too long, hopefully! hahaha

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  2. Not sure if this site is still active: https://vidaprimal.wordpress.com/

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  3. I love your optimism! I agree that in time, low carb diets will catch on in Brazil. There is a new Paleo diet blog that I just came across the other day. The authors name is Gustavo Martins and from looking at the website, his goal seems to be to educate Brazilians on the Paleo diet. The website is called Dieta Paleo Beneficio http://dietapaleobeneficio.com

    It's worth a look...it looks visually nice and they have over 100 likes on their Facebook page.

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