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People on low-carbohydrate diets are more dependent on the oxidation of fat in the liver for energy than those on a low-calorie diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a small clinical study.The findings, published in the journal Hepatology, could have implications for treating obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, said Dr. Jeffrey Browning, assistant professor in the UT Southwestern Advanced Imaging Research Center and of internal medicine at the medical center. "Instead of looking at drugs to combat obesity and the diseases that stem from it, maybe optimizing...

FOR the past century, the advice to the overweight and obese has remained remarkably consistent: consume fewer calories than you expend and you will lose weight. This prescription seems eminently reasonable. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to work. Neither eating less nor moving more reverses the course of obesity in any but the rarest cases. ...There is considerable evidence that the obesity epidemic is caused by a hormonal phenomenon, specifically by the consumption of refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars, all of which prompt (sooner or later) excessive insulin secretion. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage....

Certain kinds of carbohydrates may play a role in the development of age-related macular degeneration, an incurable degenerative eye disease that is a leading cause of blindness in older adults. A new study has found that eating carbohydrate-rich food with a high glycemic index — a measure of a food’s potential to raise blood glucose levels — is associated with the development of the disorder. The glycemic index is a measure of how fast carbohydrates are metabolized — the faster they are broken down into glucose, the higher the glycemic index. Simple carbohydrates, like those in cakes and cookies, cheese...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

POLICE have clashed with protesters at the front gates of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music ahead of a speech there by US Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice. Anti-war activists were rallying against US involvement in Iraq as Dr Rice prepared to deliver a speech at the conservatorium. About 50 protesters gathered outside the building in Macquarie St and were met by police on foot, on horseback, and with dogs. Police used the horses to push the protesters back, as a police helicopter hovered over the scene. Police made no early arrests but had to go to the rescue of The...

Carb-conscious Americans continued to flatten Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, as the onetime Wall Street darling yesterday posted a loss of $3 million in the third quarter. That bad news sent the stock reeling 16 percent — or to just above the $7 price of a dozen assorted sweet things. The struggling doughnut chain has lost more than 75 percent of its market value since last year as people have suddenly stayed away from the glazed treats in droves, and opted for healthier snacks. As a result, each Krispy Kreme store has seen $10,000 a week in revenue waddle out the...

Low-Carb Craze Fails to Cross Atlantic By FRANCES D'EMILIO/Associated Press Aug. 8, 2004 ROME (AP) -- Continental low-carb? No thanks. We'll have slabs of black bread for breakfast, rigatoni with broccoli and hot pepper sauce for lunch and a plate of shrimp paella for supper. While recipe books for diets like Atkins and South Beach are gospel for many in the United States, the American craze for low-carb versions of brownies, breads and pasta hasn't crossed the Atlantic to the Continent. Only Britain, where junk-food habits and ample figures often mirror those of their American cousins, is turning into an...

I probably shouldn't admit this to you younger readers, but when my generation was your age, we did some pretty stupid things. I'm talking about taking CRAZY risks. We drank water right from the tap. We used aspirin bottles that you could actually open with your bare hands. We bought appliances that were not festooned with helpful safety warnings such as, "DO NOT BATHE WITH THIS TOASTER." But for sheer insanity, the wildest thing we did was - prepare to be shocked - we deliberately ingested carbohydrates. I know, I know. It was wrong. But we were young and foolish,...

WASHINGTON, July 12 - The Department of Agriculture announced plans on Monday to revisit the Food Guide Pyramid, an icon that was developed to help Americans use dietary guidelines to eat healthfully. Introduced 12 years ago, after almost $1 million was spent debating the shape of what was supposed to be the government's primary nutrition education device, the pyramid has not accomplished its goal, the department acknowledges. "We've got to reverse some trends," Eric Hentges, executive director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the Agriculture Department, said. "We've got to connect with individuals. We've got to be...

Longest scientific study yet backs Atkins diet 12:21 18 May 04 The claimed benefits of the controversial low-carbohydrate Atkins diet have been reaffirmed in two new studies, one of which is the longest study to date. "I think it's good news for Atkins dieters," says Linda Stern, who led the first study of 132 obese patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia, US. The diet was devised by the late US doctor Robert Atkins. To lose weight, devotees avoid carbohydrates and consume more protein and fat instead. Both new studies found that subjects on the Atkins diet shed...

FEB 5, 2004 High-carb foods fight back Hit by low-carbohydrate diet trend, producers want to dispel myth that high-carb food is bad IF FOOD scientists can create a seedless watermelon, surely there must be a way to take the carbohydrates out of potatoes? Mr Frank W. Muir, president and chief executive of the Idaho Potato Commission, admits that the thought has crossed his mind. Like orange, wheat, pasta, bread and rice processing companies, his organisation markets a product that is deeply out of favour under the low-carbohydrate diets that have swept much of the country into a steak-and-egg-eating fervour, and...

And the Lord spoke, saying, "Thou shalt feast upon my creations until thy belly becomes too fat and bloated to see thy feet. Then thou shalt make a pilgrimage to Borders, and there thou shalt find the holiest book to relieve thy fast-food indiscretions." What the good man upstairs is talking about, my babies, is the high-fat, low-carb Atkins diet, the latest underground craze to go public since Saddam. The Atkins diet consists of eating fatty, high-protein foods while waving bye-bye to carbohydrates and sugars. Carbohydrates are those things found in bread, pasta, potatoes, fruits, etc. Instead of cereal for...

<p>Everyone from Subway Restaurants to Anheuser-Busch is jumping on board the low-carb bandwagon this New Year just in time to help folks with that evergreen resolution to shed unwanted pounds.</p> <p>But dieter beware. Cutting carbohydrates is no magic ride to thin, fit, and healthy. Not at least according to nutritionists who simply refuse to budge from their trying old weight loss formula: Eat less and exercise more.</p>

<p>For the past year, he has been keeping track of the carbohydrates in everything he eats, from vegetables to low-carb cereal.</p> <p>Perry, who lost 12 pounds in 12 months on the meat-lovers' Atkins diet, expects to do this the rest of his life "because it's second nature now." Even the mad cow scare hasn't frightened him away from beef.</p>

  Breadmakers feel pain from Atkins diet By DAVID SHARPThe Associated Press11/8/2003, 1:18 p.m. ETPORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Some bakers around the country are seeing a similar drop in business: With millions of people trying the diet created by the late low-carb guru Dr. Robert Atkins, overall bread sales are flat or down slightly, while bread-bashing seems to be at an all-time high. A sign in Stephen Lanzalotta's bakery reads, "Senza il pane tutto diventa orfano." In Italian, that means, "Without bread everyone's an orphan." But fewer customers are buying his European-style breads and pastries these days — thanks to...

Embarrassment, Health Issues Prompted Dieting Many people have struggled to drop a few pounds, but what happens when you need to lose several hundred pounds? Several years ago, Steve and Melissa Horstman of Boone County, Ky., decided that they didn't want to live with their weight problems anymore, and they used the emotional pain over being overweight to reach their goals. Melissa and Steve met on the Internet several years ago and soon learned of their common bond: obesity. "When you weigh 150 pounds over, you don't go out and socialize," Melissa said. The couple met, dated and married, but...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - The dietary establishment has long argued it's impossible, but a new study offers intriguing evidence for the idea that people on low-carbohydrate diets can actually eat more than those on standard lowfat plans and still lose weight. Perhaps no idea is more controversial in the diet world than the contention — long espoused by the late Dr. Robert Atkins — that people on low-carbohydrate diets can consume more calories without paying a price on the scales. Over the past year, several small studies have shown, to many experts' surprise, that the Atkins approach actually does work...

Jeff Endervelt's interest in low-carbohydrate foods began as a personal quest when he experimented with the Atkins diet and spin-offs that helped him shed 20 pounds. As chief executive of Atlanta-based Blimpie International Inc., Endervelt saw a market worth pursuing when his customers started asking for submarine sandwiches on something other than white bread. A sandwich shop called Blimpie's might seem an unlikely destination for dieters. It is now also the only national restaurant operator testing a separate menu targeted at the low-carb, high-protein eating craze. The Blimpie Carb Counter Menu, launched this month in parts of New York's Long...

<p>WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Nutritionists are urging the top 10 U.S. hospitals to ban the Atkins diet, reports said Friday.</p> <p>The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine announced Friday in Washington it hopes the hospitals will emulate England's Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which is eliminating the controversial diet from its menus, fearing a link to kidney damage.</p>

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (Reuters) - It has been months since Tina Moore last bit into a bagel or a slice of toast. "Protein is good. Carbs are bad," says 41-year-old Moore, who altered her diet five years ago in a bid to lose weight. Moore, the owner of a hair salon, is one of the estimated 15 million-plus Americans seen as devoted followers of dieting guru, Dr. Robert Atkins, who recommends eating protein for those who want to rid themselves of unwanted weight and keep the pounds off. "Carbs and sugar ... they give you a quick high, then you...

Arthritis cause 'identified'Scientists claim to have discovered a cause for the debilitating condition rheumatoid arthritis. US researchers suggest it could be because the body stops being able to deal with naturally occurring carbohydrates properly. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects around 387,000 people in the UK, is characterised by inflamed joints and can lead to severe damage. There have been advances in the treatment of RA, but less is known about potential causes. " It is difficult to distinguish what is cause and effect when it comes to looking at the autoimmune responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis " Arthritis Research Campaign...

f 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...