The War On Fat: Researchers Chew The Fat On Merits Of The Atkins Diet

USA Today ^ | August 7, 2002 | Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY staff writer

[Bella_Bru]

One of my uncles has Celiac's disease. He was always sickly as a child, and always super skinny, due to illness. Unfortunately, growing up in an Italian home was making him sicker. It wasn't until he was 30 that the doctors figured it out. He has been eating what his nutritionalist describes as "the caveman diet" for over 20 years now. He feels (and looks) MUCH better. And, he is the only one of his siblings who does not have Type II diabetes.

[Bella_Bru]

I'd really miss beer. But I wonder, for those who have used this and other low carb diets, are you allowed the no-nos in small amounts at all, or will it completely throw off the diet? If you have to completely abstain, I give all of you all the credit in the world!

[Aquinasfan]

It wasn't until he was 30 that the doctors figured it out. He has been eating what his nutritionalist describes as "the caveman diet" for over 20 years now. He feels (and looks) MUCH better. And, he is the only one of his siblings who does not have Type II diabetes.

I'm 40 and I just got diagnosed. It makes me wonder how many latent cases are out there. Supposedly 1 in 200 people have it, but I don't know anyone else who is officially diagnosed.

I have a theory that all of the "beer bellies" out there are undiagnosed celiacs. I know plenty of people that drink a lot of beer that don't have "beer bellies." I remember how my stomach would bloat after eating pasta or pizza. Hmm...

[chilepepper]

I think we are starting to see the big-business backlash against the Atkins diet... recall, folks, that the food triangle from the FDA came from the big grain state influence peddling in washington.

the whole "low-fat" house of cards is starting to teeter and there is a LOT of money at stake to keep the status-quo

I find it laughable that this USA Today hit piece against Atkins DOES NOT MENTION ANY DANGER FROM HEART DISEASE OR HIGH COLESTROL, which is of course the "common sense" danger that the average person might ascribe to the Atkins diet...

Is that the WORST problem they can pin on Atkins? That in itself speaks VOLUMES about how far off the mark modern low-fat nutrition is...

[laredo44]

I've dieted a bit off an on over the past 30 years, and the ONLY type of diet I've been successful with is the high protien, low carbohydrate. I lost weight with a pre-Atkins variant in the mid-1960s and kept the weight off for 8 or 9 years before I was in a situation where I ate a more carb rich diet and got fat again. Used Atkins to take the weight off and did pretty well till the huge popularity in the mid-80s of the low fat high carb, which my wife unfortunately still believes in. Just doesn't work, for me at least. Bring on the protein!

I've also lost weight on a high protein/low carb diet. What perplexes me, is with the variety of humans around the world, why the professionals claim a "one size fits all" concept of diet in the first place.

[FatherTorque]

I'd really miss beer. But I wonder, for those who have used this and other low carb diets, are you allowed the no-nos in small amounts at all, or will it completely throw off the diet? If you have to completely abstain, I give all of you all the credit in the world!

My wife got us started on this diet about 3 weeks ago. I was 5'9" and weighed 177, not obese but I had a little beer belly. We threw out all the chips and crackers and such and gave it a try. I weighed in this weekend at 169 and I drink prolly 2 or 3 beers a day when I get home from work. We don't follow it strictly, we still have corn sometimes and had a pizza the other weekend. We both feel better and will continue with it.

[Always Right]

There is nothing miraculous about the Atkins diet, but if you put people on a low-calorie diet, they lose weight, says Keith Ayoob, a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. "It's the number of calories, not where they come from."

Is this guy that ignorant of the Atkins diet. Atkins does not reduce the number of calories, he reduces the amount of carbohydrates. So it is does have to do with where they come from.

[Fabozz]

"how can a person live without chocolate? It just isn't right..."

A number of companies (including Russell Stover, Brachs Whitman) make sugar-free chocolate these days for diabetics, made with sweeteners like maltitol that taste as good as sugar but do not affect insulin levels. On a low-carb diet, these chocolates are essentially free.

[farsighted]

Well said! I have been on Atkins for 3 months. I've lost 40 pounds and I haven't felt this good in a long time. I recently started dirt biking again after a 30 year layoff and I am having a blast. I'm happy with my weight so my carb intake has risen with fruits and vegetables ... but I still stay away from the poisons - sugar, bread, fries, pasta. I am very active - kayaking, running, biking - so I am not afraid to eat to "fuel up". Four eggs and four slices of bacon for breakfast are not uncommon before an outing.
The diet/exercise game is cruel. You feel terrible because you are dieting and the added weight makes exercise painful on stressed joints. With Atkins I shed weight fast without the torture of food deprivation. I was amazed how quickly I got back into shape. I am in better shape at 50 than I was at 40.
I miss the convenience of high carb foods more than I miss the food. A quick bowl of cereal for breakfast beats frying eggs and cleaning up the mess afterwards. All the convenient snack foods are high carb. Sigh ... the price of being lean, mean and obscene!

[bothsidesnow]

We have been on Atkins for three weeks also..I have 4 glasses of cabernet sauvignon each night6-9PM hubby has 4-5beersMillers Lite(3carbs each).and we are losing weight
steadily.

Bought Atkins ketchup(before ONLY used Heinz)..Atkins' is very good.

Oh, the lobster & butter!!

GREAT WAY TO EAT.

Lizzie

[Bella_Bru]

I thikn there are probably a lot of people with undiagnosed, MILD celiacs. My uncle's was quite severe. By the time he was properly diagnosed, he was down to about 95 pounds, and he is 5'6".

It's not something many doctors think of when they here their patients ailments. Too bad, because much like lactose intolerance, a change in diet is all that is needed to clear up the problem.

[Bella_Bru]

Thanks for the info!

[Marie Antoinette]

Miller Lite is about 3.2 carbs, and the new Michelob Ultra is even lower. Once off the strictest portion of the diet, start adding (low glycemic) things back into the diet.

Some folks simply can't lose weight with alcohol in their diet. I've found I'm not one of them :-D

[jennyp]

And, here's a tip I learned the hard way: NEVER eat carbohydrate snacks alone. Always have them with a meal or "cushion" them with a protein/fat addition. This slows down the insulin spike and creates less metabolic havoc.

I just discovered Atkins candybars! Walmart was selling them (and another brand, CarboLite) for $.96 ea. for a little over 1 oz. bars. Both brands are goooood! They're sweetened with Splenda of course, and also something called Maltitol, whose carb numbers are recorded as "Sugar alcohol" on the nutrition label and apparently don't count towards the "Net Effective Carb" count. So each candybar has 2g net carbs.

[jennyp]

My migraines and acid reflux are gone

1/2 of my initial weight loss came back after 2 years, but even if it all came back I wouldn't switch back to the Food Pyramid diet, because of the constant heartburn!

[Zon]

Another point in favor of the Atkins people is the sick way the no-fat Nazis view their little dogmas as a quasi-religion. Yechhhhh!

Their self-serving agendas are more important than their touted concern for people's health.

Now two new studies show that those who follow the diet can lose significant amounts of weight, but other research is raising concerns about the safety of the program, linking it to an increased risk of kidney stones and bone loss.

Two new studies and several deaths prove that drinking too much water can be fatal. More people have died as a direct result from drinking water than have died from using the Atkins diet.

Some of the nation's leading obesity researchers and nutritionists are outraged by the diet, arguing that it runs contrary to the advice of most major health

Outraged that they're being exposed as incompetents. Outraged that a highly successful diet is gaining market share as it debunks the government subsidized/protected sugar and grain growers.

How did those people get labeled as "leading researchers"? They were designated not by the accuracy of their research, rather, they gained the label by towing government propaganda supporting sugar and grain growers .

The findings are reported in the August American Journal of Kidney Diseases. "We think the diet's combination of low carbohydrates and high animal protein results in sufficient acid to increase the risk for certain kinds of kidney stones," she says.

Drinking water increases the risk of dying from drinking too much water. Obviously the benefits of drinking water outweigh the risks.

"Do people really want to give up bananas and their favorite fruits?" Ayoob asks.

Do recreational drug users really want to give up their favorite drug -- alcohol and caffeine being the most abused drugs, second only to sugar abuse? Many people have gladly quit consuming those toxic substances.

Let me be the first here to make a full-fledged attack on the above pinheads that call themselves nutritional scientists, who operate in the fine tradition of the morons that nearly executed Galileo.

Morons did in Socrates and Jesus -- Galileo was more fortunate.

Memo to morons: Just because you don't know WHY the Atkins diet works don't mean it don't. So why don't you "scientists" try the Scientific method for once - and DO find out why.

The reason why is self-serving agendas subsidized by government grants and farm aid. That's what makes them losers -- eschewing their rational scientific minds.

A natural diet consisting of mostly meats (with their attached fats) and vegetables is the way humans have eaten forever. If breads and sugars were natural foods, the metabolism would have no problem handling them. But as it is, a shot of sugar/flour spikes insulin (this includes today's luscious, hyper-fructose fruits), which in turn drives down blood sugar and causes lethargy and confusion quickly.

chilepepper: the whole "low-fat" house of cards is starting to teeter and there is a LOT of money at stake to keep the status-quo

Should the lawsuits against fast-food restaurants ever get to court the nutritional facts will be in the lime-light. Mercat can you weigh-in (no pun intended) on this issue?

SamAdams76: Then how is it that my grandmother managed to live to 90 (and is still going) despite making biscuits and gravy every morning for 70 years now?

LindaSOG: There are exceptions to everything! My great-grandpa Louie smoked 40 cigarettes a day and was healthy as a horse when he died in a car accident at the age of 96.

Your response is so obvious yet SamAdams76 feigns ignorance. It appears that he prides himself on playing dumb.

[SamAdams76]

Your response is so obvious yet SamAdams76 feigns ignorance. It appears that he prides himself on playing dumb.

Not playing dumb but stating facts. Fact is that eating bread has not been proven to be bad for you. Many people (including my grandmother) has made it to their 90s despite bread being in their daily diet. Now perhaps I can agree with you that a large amount of processed foods are not healthy. I avoid the kind of processed foods you find in most convenience stores (Drake's cakes, Hostess Twinkies, etc.) But it's quackery to suggest that bread is killing us simply because it does not come naturally like animal fats and vegetable (which my grandmother also ate a lot of).

[OldBlondBabe]

The Atkins diet worked for me...

[Prolix]

Bread is actually an excellent food if it is made from whole grains. It may be more fattening than the leaf and fresh fruit based diet of other primates since it is a concentrated source of calories in comparison to fruits and vegetables but, this concentration of calories provides a great convenience - a convenience that the most successful civilizations have taken advantage of for millenia.

Humans are omnivores not carnivores. Try hunting as a true carnivore, such as a wolf, does. You'll realize quite quickly that you do not have the teeth or claws necessary to kill and eat any catch larger than a squirrel or a rabbit. We are more designed to eat plants, eggs, insects, and very small animals. If a human's digestive system is able to adapt to a meat based diet that would be a "happy accident."

I for one will continue to enjoy my bread - both liquid and dry. I've never gained any unwanted weight that I can attribute to bread eating. My paunch is a result of two things:

1. Eating in restaurants - it's always more food than I need.
2. Sedentary lifestyle.

[Zon]

Sam Adams76: Then how is it that my grandmother managed to live to 90 (and is still going) despite making biscuits and gravy every morning for 70 years now? 46

LindaSOG: There are exceptions to everything! My great-grandpa Louie smoked 40 cigarettes a day and was healthy as a horse when he died in a car accident at the age of 96.

Zon: Your response is so obvious yet SamAdams76 feigns ignorance. It appears that he prides himself on playing dumb.

Not playing dumb but stating facts.

If you weren't playing dumb then admit that you knew your "grand-mother" comment was not an argument at all because it has no bearing on the issue. Else wise you were feigning being dumb.

Many people (including my grandmother) has made it to their 90s despite bread being in their daily diet.

So have many people that smoked cigarettes lived into their nineties. You used a narrow subjective perspective to base your 46 argument. Stating facts from your immediate family. But that's okay, as far as facts go on this thread -- whether narrow or wide-scope perspective --  the low-carb high-protein facts have the others outnumbered ten to one. Free markets -- as this forum is -- decisively lean that way.