Posted on 05/21/2003 2:20:12 PM PDT by Johnny Gage
Two Studies Vindicate Atkins Diet
May 21, 2003 4:00 pm US/Central (AP) A month after Dr. Robert C. Atkins' death, his much-ridiculed diet has received its most powerful scientific support yet: two studies in one of medicine's most distinguished journals show it really does help people lose weight faster without raising their cholesterol.
The research, in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, found that people on the high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet lose twice as much weight over six months as those on the standard low-fat diet recommended by most major health organizations.
However, one of the studies found that the Atkins dieters regain much of the weight by the end of one year.
Atkins, who died April 17 at age 72 after falling and hitting his head on an icy sidewalk, lived to see several shorter studies that found, to researchers' great surprise, that his diet is effective and healthy in the short run.
Although those reports have been presented at medical conferences, none until now has been published in a top-tier journal. And one of the studies in the journal lasted a year, making it the longest one yet.
"For the last 20 years that I've been helping people lose weight, I've been trashing the Atkins diet -- without any real data to rely on," said Dr. Michael Hamilton, an obesity researcher who was not part of either study. "Now we have some data to give us some guidance."
Now, he said, he would neither trash it nor endorse it. "I'm going to say I don't know. The evidence isn't in," he said.
One study ran six months and was conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department; the yearlong study was led by Gary D. Foster, who runs the weight-loss program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Atkins' diet books have sold 15 million copies since the first one was published in 1972. From the start, doctors branded the Atkins diet foolish and dangerous, warning that the large amounts of beef and fat would lead to sky-high cholesterol levels. In both studies, the Atkins dieters generally had better levels of "good" cholesterol and triglycerides, or fats in the blood. There was no difference in "bad" cholesterol or blood pressure. Dr. Frederick F. Samaha of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who led the VA study, said both studies indicate that people do lose more weight on Atkins, "but the difference is not great."
The 132 men and women in the VA study started out weighing an average of 286 pounds. After six months, those on the Atkins diet had lost an average of 12.8 pounds, those on the low-fat diet 4.2.
The other study involved 63 participants who weighed an average of 217 pounds at the start. After six months, the Atkins group lost 15.4 pounds, the group on the standard diet 7.
But at the end of a year, the Atkins dieters had regained about a third of the weight. Their net loss averaged 9.7 pounds. The low-fat dieters had regained about one-fifth of the weight, for a net loss of 5.5 pounds.
The year-end difference was not big enough to tell whether it was caused by the diets, Foster said.
About 40 percent of the patients dropped out of each study. And while supporters of the Atkins diet say it is easier to stick with, people on the Atkins regimen were just as likely to drop out as people on the standard diets.
The important finding, Foster said, is that the Atkins diet appears to be a healthy short-term way to lose weight. Nobody has studied it long enough to tell whether it is a healthy way to maintain that loss, he said.
Collette Heimowitz, director of education and research at Atkins Health and Medical Information Services, said people there were not surprised by the weight loss and improved cholesterol.
"But I'm thrilled that serious researchers are taking a hard look at the program, so that health care professionals and physicians would find comfort in offering Atkins as an alternative to the one-size-fits-all hypothesis of low-fat, low-calorie," she said.
The studies did not convince Kathleen Zelman, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
"There's never been any denying that low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets such as Atkins do, absolutely, cause weight loss," she said. "But do they hold up over time and can you stay on them over time?"
From Foster's study, it does not look like it, she said.
Oh, pooh! I'm sick of all these goofy diets! Who knows what kind of harm they do in the very long run?
I could go on but you're capable of reading your own posts (I think).
I HAVE read descriptions of the diet.
This explains a lot. Accurate descriptions of the Atkins diet are hard to find, even in low carb circles. "Atkins friendly" articles often contain significant mistakes. The most common error is the author's claim that all carbohydrates are severely restricted and that some food groups such as fruit are even eliminated. Another common error is the author's claiming that the Dr. Atkins diet started out as no carb and that he added carbs in later versions. I will never understand why these myths still abound, but physicians, scientists and journalists continue to perpetuate them.
I have watched the long-winded commercials advertising the diet in detail
This explains even more. If you're talking about the infomercial I'm thinking of, these did not feature Dr. Atkins and were not endorsed by him. I watched one of these in a hotel room a few years ago, and the man doing the selling mischaracterized the diet more than once. I can understand why you have misconceptions. Twinkie, THIS is why the Atkins dieters start crying, "Read the book! Read the book!" when people comment on the diet negatively and we can tell they don't understand it. Most people arguing against the diet or questioning it don't even understand what a typical Atkins meal looks like.
And if eating the Atkins way makes one so irritable that they have to nitpick typo errors endlessly, DELIVER ME FROM IT!
The only thing that makes me irritable is when people who have read snippets about Atkins in Ladies Home Journal or have seen blurbs on the Today Show come on these threads and try to act like they know more about nutrition than people who have used the Atkins diet to successfully counter high blood sugar, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, reflux and other ailments.
You made this statement referring to the "regular food" your cousin ate to lose weight. Just because a regular cheesecake is high in fat doesn't mean it's allowed on Atkins.
I'm glad to see you can do internet searches and come up with a sample Atkins menu. Maybe you've learned something.
My doctor recommended against continuing on the diet, as its reliance on meats runs counter to the idea of reducing purines in my diet. Alcohol is also prohibited during attacks, and needs to be reduced in general to reduce the risk of future attacks.
Yes. Too bad they waited until he died to publish these studies.
Although I have to admit, I was late to jump on the bandwagon, but mostly because of the way the diet is popularly portrayed as the "steak and eggs diet."
I'm very sorry to hear that. That's a pretty high dosage. Am I correct in understanding that you were down to 5mg/day prednisone while on Remicade? If so, why not continue with Remicade?
Have you tried all of the diets?
I highly recommend "Waist Watchers" sodas (WAIST Watchers, not Weight Watchers). It's made with Splenda, so it's worry-free and aftertaste free. Rootbeer tastes like the real thing. Vanilla Cream is very good if you like cream soda. The Cherry is a good substitute for Dr. Pepper, and the lemon-lime varieties are also very good. The Cola is disappointing though.
Should I laugh or cry?
LUNCH: Two fried hamburger patties, (the lean beef still has plenty of fat), salad with no croutons and loads of blue cheese dressing
DINNER: Two fried pork chops, salad with no croutons, broccoli with loads of butter, more blue cheese dressing on the salad, cheesecake with no crust and no sugar
Eat this way for a week and see how good you feel.
Compare this to a low-fat menu:
BREAKFAST
6 oz. calcium-enriched orange juice
1 cup plain bran cereal with a sprinkle of raisins
1/2 cup skim milk
1 multi-vitamin tablet
LUNCH
Green salad with mandarin orange slices
3 thin slices low-fat deli ham
1 apple
3 oz. low-fat Cheddar cheese
8 oz. skim milk
DINNER
8 oz. broiled chicken breast, skinned
1 cup string beans
1/2 cup baby carrots
1/4 cup wild rice
1/2 cantalope with 1/4 cup low-fat frozen yogurt
Great eating if you're a mouse. If I ate that breakfast I'd be hungry an hour later and starving two hours later. Same with lunch. I'd also feel light-headed and weak. With Atkins I'm never hungry between meals and I never experience light-headedness or fogginess.
In the restaurant, I pile butter and sour cream on top of the potato. Generally, by the time I work my way to the actual potato, I don't want but a few bites.
I also need for other people to order dessert so I can have a bite or two.
But this sort of thing is the only time I have to control portions--I can have as big a steak as I want.
You can have chocolate, but you have to sweeten it artificially. And even the real Reece's cups don't have all that much sugar. You just have to stop with one small one.
I know three dieticians. One is overweight, one morbidly obese, and none of the three can make an edible meal. Right now dieticians are out selling "Syndrome X", which is just a modified Atkins.
After a year of very slow weight loss, I am now on maintenance. Here is my sample menu--
Breakfast, almost always a big one--Goldiburgers (minced pork from the BarBQ outfit in my town, mixed with a beaten egg and parmesan cheese, grilled like a burger). Two slices Nature's Own Toast (five impacting carbs each slice). Big bowl of fresh strawberries, a little Splenda, some heavy cream.
Lunch--Wasn't hungry, but it's not good to eat nothing. So I do what I do most days when I'm on the road, I munch on nuts. Yesterday it was pecans.
Snack--got hungry late afternoon--I keep salad greens ready to go, so I made a green salad with rich Paul Newman's creamy Caeser dressing and had just a bit of 4% cottage cheese. Dinner--still not very hungry, but family is, so I grilled some fish and made lots of broccoli and some artichokes. Ate all I wanted, with plentiful butter as a seasoning.
I happen to be more restricted as to carbs than most people on Atkins--generally, Maintenance allows for more than I can have.
Should I laugh or cry?
The appropriate response is to shake your head sadly and have another handful of pecans.
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