Posted on 07/16/2002 2:03:31 PM PDT by Varmint Al
If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it. They spend 30 years ridiculing Robert Atkins, author of the phenomenally-best-selling ''Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution'' and ''Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution,'' accusing the Manhattan doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the unrepentant Atkins was right all along. Or maybe it's this: they find that their very own dietary recommendations -- eat less fat and more carbohydrates -- are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America. Or, just possibly this: they find out both of the above are true.
When Atkins first published his ''Diet Revolution'' in 1972, Americans were just coming to terms with the proposition that fat -- particularly the saturated fat of meat and dairy products -- was the primary nutritional evil in the American diet. Atkins managed to sell millions of copies of a book promising that we would lose weight eating steak, eggs and butter to our heart's desire, because it was the carbohydrates, the pasta, rice, bagels and sugar, that caused obesity and even heart disease. Fat, he said, was harmless.
Atkins allowed his readers to eat ''truly luxurious foods without limit,'' as he put it, ''lobster with butter sauce, steak with bearnaise sauce . . . bacon cheeseburgers,'' but allowed no starches or refined carbohydrates, which means no sugars or anything made from flour. Atkins banned even fruit juices, and permitted only a modicum of vegetables, although the latter were negotiable as the diet progressed.
Atkins was by no means the first to get rich pushing a high-fat diet that restricted carbohydrates, but he popularized it to an extent that the American Medical Association considered it a potential threat to our health. The A.M.A. attacked Atkins's diet as a ''bizarre regimen'' that advocated ''an unlimited intake of saturated fats and cholesterol-rich foods,'' and Atkins even had to defend his diet in Congressional hearings.
Thirty years later, America has become weirdly polarized on the subject of weight. On the one hand, we've been told with almost religious certainty by everyone from the surgeon general on down, and we have come to believe with almost religious certainty, that obesity is caused by the excessive consumption of fat, and that if we eat less fat we will lose weight and live longer. On the other, we have the ever-resilient message of Atkins and decades' worth of best-selling diet books, including ''The Zone,'' ''Sugar Busters'' and ''Protein Power'' to name a few. All push some variation of what scientists would call the alternative hypothesis: it's not the fat that makes us fat, but the carbohydrates, and if we eat less carbohydrates we will lose weight and live longer.
The perversity of this alternative hypothesis is that it identifies the cause of obesity as precisely those refined carbohydrates at the base of the famous Food Guide Pyramid -- the pasta, rice and bread -- that we are told should be the staple of our healthy low-fat diet, and then on the sugar or corn syrup in the soft drinks, fruit juices and sports drinks that we have taken to consuming in quantity if for no other reason than that they are fat free and so appear intrinsically healthy. While the low-fat-is-good-health dogma represents reality as we have come to know it, and the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in research trying to prove its worth, the low-carbohydrate message has been relegated to the realm of unscientific fantasy.
Over the past five years, however, there has been a subtle shift in the scientific consensus. It used to be that even considering the possibility of the alternative hypothesis, let alone researching it, was tantamount to quackery by association. Now a small but growing minority of establishment researchers have come to take seriously what the low-carb-diet doctors have been saying all along. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, may be the most visible proponent of testing this heretic.... complete article at Frontpage magazine.com
It makes me wonder about all of the other "religions" out there... Tree huggers preventing clear cutting and watching the trees burn. Eco freaks preventing drilling for our own oil and watching the countries that pollute and use the money to attack us. Gun grabbers taking our Second Amendment rights and watching crime increasing. If a lot of people believe something for a long time, it doesn't make it right.
The problem is, it takes time to adjust one's eating patterns to ignore the carb cravings and, instead, stuff your face with meat and cheese.
The medical community will eventually realize that sugar is a bigger killer than tobacco.
The "caveman diet" will help you lose weight quickly and feel much better in the process.
AH HA!
I KNEW it wasn't the tobacco. ;^)
The is not one, NOT EVEN ONE successful study in all these years, despite the millions of dollars spent in this country and abroad trying to link a high fat high protein diet, (read Atkins here), to coronary heart disease. The Framingham Heart Study, the Techumseh Study, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, The WHO Coronary Prevention Study.........they all came back with big fat zeros. (Go Here to Read it For Yourself)
I am a convert, and I will use the diet to be a drug free diabetic for as long as I can.
I follow a modified Atkins now, which is to NEVER eat protein and carbohydrates at the same meal. I love popcorn, but I never eat it within three hours of a meal. I've managed to keep the weight off.
The hardest thing to do, however, is to break that carb addiction, which is exactly what it is.
My triglicerides dropped from 156 to 56, my total cholesterol went down, and my ratio of bad to good cholesterol, as well as total to good chol. improved.
It might not work for everyone, but I know people that have really benefitted from it.
Fat RINOs eating blubber to stay healthy. Who would have ever thought that even one of them had that much commonsense.
A billion Hindu adherents in India say it's wrong to eat beef. A billion Muslim adherents world wide say it's wrong to eat pork.
When does majority vote constitute scientific proof of anything?
There's enough anecdotal evidence to stir doubt among the medical community that eating "low fat" is actually having the opposite effect.
I know enough people who have dropped carbs and eat "the caveman diet" that it convinced me that sugar is dangerous and fat is not.
Why do you think farmers feed grain and potatoes to animals?
(Hint: it ain't to make 'em skinny)
Oooo. Careful Saundra, you are really hanging out in the breeze asking for riotous comments with this one.
You want to join the Bod a Thon? Check with Homeschool Mama on rintense's nightly Dose (A Day in the Life of President Bush thread). We've decided to head the President's call to get healthier.
Amen to that! My blood sugar was out of control. I couldn't keep it under 200 and I was spiking to around 400. My mother spent weeks in a diabetic coma and I was afraid I was heading for the same thing. I went on the Atkins diet and started a daily workout and lost over 110 lbs. The Atkins diet cured my diabetes symptoms...no medication, my BP is normal, no more meds...I had sleep apnea and used a Cpap debive to sleep, but no more and I was on medication for acid reflux...no more. I think Dr. Atkins helped to save my life.
So, eat some apricots or prunes or plums. I never gave up fruit; so I didn't reach ketosis. That means I lost weight slower.
I also didn't give up wine either. But eliminating starchy carbs like bread and potatoes and corn helped me lose 15 pounds in three months.
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