Atkins Attack (High Carb fantasy destroyed)

Fox News ^ | January 30, 2004 | Steven Milloy

[jimkress]

Already-confused dieters are no doubt reeling from reports this week of a new study linking a high-carbohydrate diet (search) with weight loss.

Rather than well-conducted scientific research, though, the new study appears to be merely a junk science-fueled attack by government nannies on politically incorrect low-carbohydrate regimens like the Atkins Diet (search).

[jimkress]

The priesthood of the High Carb Pyramid is exposed as snake oil grifters, again!

[Sam Cree]

As one who has successfully tried both low fat and low carb diets, I can say that the low carb is easier, by alot. But the difference that strikes me hardest is how much healthier and calmer I feel on low carb than I do on low fat. Low fat can be unhealthy, IMO.

However, IMO, if we merely avoid sweets, sodas, refined starches, and trans fats, that would go a long way toward making us all much healthier, not to mention slimmer. Unfortunately, these things are staples of the modern diet.

[marktwain]

Since a pound of fat represents about 3,500 calories, it’s no wonder why those in the high-carbohydrate group lost weight. It was because they ate less, not because of any magical effects of a high-carbohydrate diet.

But why did they eat less? Because it was a high carb diet, and most people find that fat tastes good! Most people lose weight on high carb diet because they consume less calories, and they consume less calories because they don't want to eat as much. Duh!!

Sometimes science needs to reinforce the obvious. Eat less calories, exercise, and you lose weight. It has worked for me for 15 years.

[jetson]

However, IMO, if we merely avoid sweets, sodas, refined starches, and trans fats, that would go a long way toward making us all much healthier, not to mention slimmer. Unfortunately, these things are staples of the modern diet.

That's it in a nut shell. Don't eat over processed flours and stay away from sugar. If you have gas from either end means your system is firng improperly. Most people can detect what foods are bad for them just by these indicators. Heartburn is another indicator. Eat less and eat healthy and don't drink booze like a fish and a body can look and feel pretty good.

[randita]

(The irony of course is that obesity has supposedly skyrocketed while America went low-fat.)

The New Atkins book devotes a chapter to this phenomonon.

Nothing vouches for a diet like personal experience. As one who has tried low fat diets to the point of starvation practically with meager results and finally gave the Atkins a go, I can attest to the fact that Atkins works for me. I didn't lose weight extremely rapidly, but I did lose weight steadily over a 4 month period and have maintained it for 4 additional months.

Contrary to the nannie's bantering, Atkins does not have to be high fat. You are allowed red meat, but you don't have to eat it. You are allowed heavy cream and real butter, but you don't have to consume much of them. My husband saw a significant drop in his cholesterol after being on Atkins for a couple of months.

[ctonious]

Although I lost quite a bit of weight on Atkins - I had a number of significant health side effects which caused me to abandon it. However, it amazed me back then, which was a few years ago when Atkins was considered a voodoo diet, that the government and "scientists" absolutely refused to look at the data.

Somebody once said that there are three stages to any Great Truth. First, Snickering Ridicule...then when the idea gets traction - Vicious Attack...and finally, when it breaks through...the former detractors dismissively mutter "Yeah, well everybody knows THAT", and slink off to throw rocks at other concepts they don't understand.

[Aquinasfan]

The priesthood of the High Carb Pyramid is exposed as snake oil grifters, again!

Zzzzzz. Time (and the American public) has passed them by. They're an anachronism, and they know it.

[Aquinasfan]

Somebody once said that there are three stages to any Great Truth. First, Snickering Ridicule...then when the idea gets traction - Vicious Attack...and finally, when it breaks through...the former detractors dismissively mutter "Yeah, well everybody knows THAT", and slink off to throw rocks at other concepts they don't understand.

Bingo!

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Although I lost quite a bit of weight on Atkins - I had a number of significant health side effects which caused me to abandon it

Two questions:

1. What were those side effects?

2. The resumption of eating bags of white flour and sugar eliminated them how?

[Ditter]

If I read you correctly you have that backward.
High carb diets do not satisfy your hunger for very long. Eat a packet of instant oatmeal, a banana & a glass of orange juice for breakfast & in 2/3 hours you are going to be starving.
Your blood sugar shot up after you ate then it plummeted & you are looking for more food.

If you eat protein for breakfast you don't even think about food till mid afternoon, then a small protein rich snack can hold you till dinner. Keep this up & you end up eating less food & your stomach shrinks. Once that happens, eating less is easy. When you are eating less the weight comes off.

[ClintonBeGone]

Somebody once said that there are three stages to any Great Truth. First, Snickering Ridicule...then when the idea gets traction - Vicious Attack...and finally, when it breaks through...the former detractors dismissively mutter "Yeah, well everybody knows THAT", and slink off to throw rocks at other concepts they don't understand.

Good point. You see that type of behavior here all the time.

[Mr. Mulliner]

More attacks from the high-carb nannies.

[FITZ]

It seems like a diet balanced in protein, fats, and carbs would be best. It's calories more than anything -- and like you said --- just give up all junk food, all processed food.

[The_Victor]

As it turns out, study subjects in the high-carbohydrate groups consumed about 400-600 calories less per day than those in the control group. Over the 12-week period of the study, then, the average study subject in the high-carbohydrate group consumed about 42,000 calories less than the average study subject in the control group.

I'm not trying to defend the researchers here, but this does not make for bad science. The control group eats a "normal" diet, and the dieters eat the prescribed "high carb" diet. One would expect the control group to consume more calories than the dieters. Low carb dieters also consume less calories than the "normal" diet as well. Less food intake kinda defines a diet. Duh.

[SamAdams76]

It's basically the same traditional "low-fat" diet that the doctors have been parroting for decades. Sure, you can lose weight if you stick to it. I tried it a dozen times over the past 20 years and was never able to stick to it. Eating less and eating high-carb foods always made me constantly ravenous and I eventually went off the diet in a big way, piling the pounds on even more. Maybe it was a lack of willpower.

At least that is what I thought - lack of willpower. But I tried the low-carb thing last April and haven't gone off it since. No willpower? I get up at 5AM just about every morning (including cold winter mornings) to walk 3-4 miles. I then walk another few miles at lunch or after work. So much for lack of willpower but I must say that the low-carb diet gives me the energy to do this. On the high-carb "low-fat" diets, I was always tired (and hungry).

Also it's no problem sticking to the diet. Instead of bran muffins, rice, corn (which is actually a grain), oatmeal and breads, I eat eggs, yogurt, broccoli, meat and fish, olive oil, cheese and nuts pretty much every day. Most of these foods are considered "high in fat" by the health Nazis but I lost 105 pounds eating that way. Now I am at my ideal weight and BMI for the first time since I was about 21 years old. And I feel like I'm 21 years old too.

[b9]

I'm having amazing success with giving up bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, chips, crackers, cookies, cakes, ice cream and candy, and not eating after dinner.

It's a self-styled plan, sort of Atkins I guess, but very easy to stick with and sooo satisfying.

[jimkress]

Read the article. The 'researchers' denied the caloric intakes were different. They claimed all groups had equal caloric intake so high carbs/ low fat were the causal factor for the weight loss.

[b9]

Sam, you were one of the inspirations that helped me several months ago when I saw your profile page. Nothing speaks louder than success!

[The_Victor]

Read the article. The 'researchers' denied the caloric intakes were different. They claimed all groups had equal caloric intake so high carbs/ low fat were the causal factor for the weight loss

OK, I read it again. This is the only claim (Made by AP not the researchers).

“In the midst of the low-carb craze, a new study suggests that by eating lots of carbohydrates and little fat, it is possible to lose weight without actually cutting calories ¯ and without exercising, either,” reported The Associated Press this week.

Am I just missing the line that supports you assertion?

[ko_kyi]

I explained the low-carb idea to someone like this:

Imagine a hunter-gatherer society, the kind that humans lived in until organized agriculture hit the scene. Imagine they live in a climate where foods are seasonal, and in winter food can be a little scarce. In the winter you primarily eat meats and stuff you preserved from summer, such as nuts, maybe dried fruit, smoked fish, jerky, etc. Maybe for the first month you had wild onions or other roots, but they ran out fast. Now you are low-carb, and by the end of winter you are probably pretty lean. Come spring you eat lots of greens that you find, as well as the game and fish. Finally from late summer through fall the sweet fruits appear, and you gorge on all that sugar. Your insulin response helps you stuff yourself silly, and you pack on pounds for a couple months - just in time for winter, You will need the fat all that sugar helped you pack on because lean times are ahead and it is back to low-carb.

Modern diets are the "late summer gorge" year-round.