I suppose that maybe Atkins had a hard time making money on people not eating as much corb-heavy food.
Which sucks, because I lost 60 pounds and managed to get off my diabetes medication by switching to a low-carb diet. They do work for some people, although I was getting sick of them being touted as the One True Way of Dieting. There is no real One True Way, you gotta find what works for you, and Atkins works for me.
}:-)4
As most of us predicted here on this forum - it was just another fad that would not work and then would fade out.
We must fight back.
That said, I personally know people who lost major amounts of weight on the Atkins diet; they swear by it. My own suspicions are that high protein diets may result in weight loss, but are nevertheless unhealthy. What good is it if you lose 45 pounds and gain a 200+ cholesteral level.
My guess is that Atkins may work best and be healthiest when you avoid egg yolks, fatty meats such as beef, and stick to chicken and pork.
Lots of mis-reporting here.
Yum, yum, I'm going for four barrels.
Yum, yum, I'm going for four barrels.
Atkins was right on - Americans are just too sugar-addicted and lack the self-discipline to stick with the diet for the several months it tales to achieve real results.
It must be the same idiots rejoicing who were the same idiots shoving carb heavy 'low fat' sugar loaded foods down everyone's throat. The Atkins diet is still going strong, but in a fair market the best products survive not the first ones. Pasta, potato, and bread makers head better get innovative, or a lot more of them (as have) are going to go belly up.
I bet the Kidney and Heart Associations are also rejoicing. The Atkins low carb diet sent many women to the hospital with kidney stones. The body has to have enough carbs to function properly.
BTW, I skipped the induction phase which I think was totally unnecessary. I just dropped my carb intake to about 100 grams a day and did a five-mile walk every day.
Where I think the Atkins company went wrong was when they started introducing all those low-carb "candy bars" and other such junk.
When the Atkins Diet was associated with a healthy diet of meat, cheese, fish, nuts, olive oil, lamps, yogurt, and berries, it was good. But then when Atkins put their name on all those "low-carb" junk foods, they started losing a lot of credibility.
Another successful lo-carber here, I lost a lot of weight with the lifestyle. It's NOT A "DIET", in that you do it for a few weeks/months, then stop. You have to commit to doing it for good, otherwise, don't bother. It's not for everyone. Everyone has unique body chemistry and a different genetic background, some do great on it, some don't do well at all.
The recent "fad" was more harmful than good, because people "did lo-carb" without finding out what the true lifestyle is - they'd load up on the so-called "carb free" food, which was'nt, and GAIN weight. It's the same BS as the so-called "fat-free" food - sure, they took the fat out (and the flavor), but loaded it right back up with cheap fructose syrup and sugars. I laughed out loud in the grocery when I looked at a so-called "lo-carb" bread, and saw that one slice had more sugar and carbs than are allowed in two days doing strict lo-carb.
I did lo-carb to control my weight, and I continue to do it for two reasons:
One, cutting sugar and wheat from my diet made me think better, feel a thousand times better, I have more stamina, more energy, and most of all, it changed my emotional state. I went into lo-carb after pulling out of yet another cycle of depression, one I'd been fighting since high school. It was'nt serious, in that I never thought of killing myself, or anything, but I'd just get bummed out, unmotivated, negative, cranky...changing to lo-carb changed all of that. I'm now happy again, just being. I'm positive, I'm rarely if ever depressed. People remark not only on the weight loss, but the change in personality for me. Oh, and my teeth, breath, and body odor disapeared, what i thought was irritibal bowel syndrome disapeared, I no longer eat a bottle of tums a day, and I sleep 5 hours, on the dot, don't need an alarm clock, and I wake up feeling refreshed and alert. Before, I was a 8-10 hour person, got up groggy and bitter, and don't talk to me before noon kind of person. I've had my physical every year, my doctor was THRILLED with the results, and I went from borderline you-might-have-a-problem high-ish blood pressure to what my doctor called "perfect". My cholesteral ratios are fine.
My social life also VASTLY improved, if you know what I mean. (I'm single..nudge nudge, wink wink)
Two, sugar (cane and fructose-derived) and starch are evil, in the amounts this culture eats on a daily basis. There are ZERO reasons for the amounts we eat, other than food manufacturers very cynically and greedily know that the sweeter food is, the more people buy, and fructose is a cheap flavoring agent and filler. I will not EVER return to a diet that has sugars and white processed flour - when I do go off, which I do every once in a while, the sugars I go for are fruit, and flours are whole-wheat, or ryes.
It's sick, how it makes me feel now. If I have carbs, especially sugar-rich foods, I feel ill within 20 minutes. I can feel my blood pressure rise. I'll feel sick for 24hours, until I can get the crap out of my system. I'll sleep like crap, too. That's what makes it easy for me, how **bad** carbs make me feel. I question other people these days, and a lot of the time, I can pinpoint "feeling crummy" to an overindulgence of crap food.
There's a rule of thumb for lo-carb - shop along the outside aisles of a grocery, anything in the aisles besides coffee, frozen veggies, peanut butter and nuts, and artiicial sweeteners, is not allowed. Most eerything in the center aisles is bad.
Do what i did. Read the labels on everything you buy, and eat, for a month. Add up how much sugar and processed flour and preservatives and additives and junk you consume.
Me, I eat meat, fish, lots of veggies, fresh ground coffee with whipping cream and Splenda, nuts, cheese...I eat WELL. It's mostly fresh, it's got very little preservatives, and it all tastes good - that's another thing, when you drop sugar, you find how much your tastebuds have been coated and numbed by sugar. I LOVE pepper now. I hated it my whole life. Fresh steamed brussel sprouts (no butter, salt or pepper) are DIVINE.
Lo-carb isn't for everyone, but for me, it was a miracle. You can parrot the "it's bad for you!" mantra as much as you like, but I did the research, and I'm LIVING the changes it did for me. Like I said, it's not for everyone. Besides, beyond nutrients that I can and do take through supplements (like potassium), can you really say that a diet based on fresh meat, fresh poultry, and fresh veggies is bad? Why do we NEED flour, or sugar? Fruit, you can argue, and during "maintainence", you can eat berries, and limited amounts of fruit.
The only answer I've been able to find, is the Government pushes grains and corn, to spur the sales of the same for subsidized American farmers, and because the multi-billion dollar conglomerates want to sell you the corn (fructose) and processed white flour.
I never met a carb I didn't love!