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

[an amused spectator]

The Atkins low-carb, high-fat diet is supposed to be simple, but it's raising complex medical and nutrition questions. 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.

[an amused spectator]

The introductory "hit" paragraph astonishingly doesn't match the in-depth information presented later in the article.

The War on Fat is a fraud perpetrated soley to tax consumers on the food they eat, ala the tobacco war theft.

[an amused spectator]

An Atkins diet guide

Foods typically allowed on the Atkins high-fat, low-carb diet:

• Steak
• Bacon (limited to two slices)
• Pork chops
• Fish
• Lamb
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Cheese (limited to 3 ounces)
• Regular high-fat salad dressings
• Olive oil and other vegetable oils
• Butter
• Two to three cups of vegetables such as lettuces (endive, radicchio), asparagus, snow peas, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower and peppers
• Beverages such as club soda, cream (limit to two to three tablespoons a day), decaffeinated coffee or tea
• Fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, melons and peaches

Foods limited on the Atkins diet:

• Sweets (candy, cake, cookies)
• Potatoes
• Rice
• Pasta
• Cereals
• Crackers
• Breads (whole grain, French)
• Some vegetables such as carrots, peas and corn
• Fruits such as bananas, apples, raisins, figs and papayas

Here's a sample daily menu for the induction phase of the Atkins diet:

Breakfast
    Two hard-boiled eggs
    Smoked salmon and cheese roll-ups

Lunch
    Homemade chicken soup

Dinner
    Broiled steak
    Oven-fried turnips
    Arugula and Boston lettuce salad

Snack
    Turkey, Romaine lettuce, mayonnaise roll-up

Source: Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins

[P7M13]

what's your take on this?

t

[SamAdams76]

Well the Atkins Diet will work, as will most diets if their guidelines are strictly adhered to. The question is this: Is it good for your long-term health? Is it good to eat lots of cheeseburgers (without the buns), bacon and eggs for the rest of your life while minimizing or even eliminating your consumption of most fruits, breads, rice, etc.?

I wouldn't consider such a diet for myself. I like eating lots of rice, vegetables, breads, fruits and yes, beer and wine. If I'm a few pounds overweight, what the hell. At least I will be eating well, eating the foods I like to eat and I don't have to live like a freak for the rest of my life, removing burgers from buns in restaurants and other such nonsense.

Don't bother arguing with me. I concede that the diet will cause you to lose weight. I just don't think it's a very healthy way to eat. And yes, I've read the book.

[Alberta's Child]

So much of this diet stuff is a lot of crap. There is only one way to lose weight (without surgery, of course) -- you simply have to burn more calories than you consume, regardless of your intake of carbohydrates, fat, etc. There really is not much that a person can do to reduce their caloric intake substantially without adversely affecting their health, so the only real variable here is the "calorie burning" side of the equation. That's exercise, folks!

Having said that, it is possible that a low-carbohydrate diet helps you to lose weight by increasing your body's metabolism, which means you burn more calories sitting at your desk or sleeping at night than you might burn with a high-carbohydrate diet.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I don't see how it could possibly be healthy...... too much saturated fat....... besides, how can a person live without chocolate? It just isn't right..........

[martin_fierro]

I'll have mine with extra cheese! <|:)~

[CatoRenasci]

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!

[an amused spectator]

I haven't read the book and I'm not advocating the Atkins diet.

I'm pointing out that there are at least two major camps in the War on Fat, and one completely contradicts the assumptions of the other. I conclude that the War on Fat is a fraud launched to extract money for "the good of the chilrun".

I was a very good cook in another life, and I remember when these nutritional phonies told us all to eschew butter in favor of margarine.

That was the last straw for me. I completely ignored their "advice" on butter (more like a diktat) and happily continued using butter. Lo and behold, one day we were all told that margarine and its partially hydrogenated goo might not be such a good thing after all.

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!

[an amused spectator]

My sister used to love Moosebreath Burgers, until the tragic incident...

[Investment Biker]

I have been on a similar diet for about 1 year now. I am a type 1 insulin dependant diabetic and require insulin to consume food. Over the years with a traditional diet I gained a significant amout of weight. Desperate to control my weight and my blood sugar I read a book written by Dr. Bernstein. His diet as a type 1 consisted of no more than 30 grams of carbos. He has been on this diet for more than 25 years (his kidney function improved on the diet).

I thought what the heck, I'll try it. In a little over a year my weight is 75% of my starting weight, a loss of 80 lbs. I am now near my ideal weight. My insulin usage has been reduced by 60%. My blood pressure medicine is down 87%. Exercise helped and my resting pulse in the morning is now 55 (I am 49 years old). I am not hungry between meals.

My sister saw the results and tried Atkins and her weight is down 44 lbs. My neighbor is now trying it and his weght is down after failing to lose on traditional diets. Say what you will about this diet, it worked for me (30 grams of carbos per day, 6 morning, 12 lunch, 12 dinner). I do take a multi vita and some magnesium/calcium. My target is to loose an additional 15 lbs.

[bothsidesnow]

Chocolate?Miss it on Atkins? You can have chocolate-syrup (on atkins ice cream(3carbs) and TRUFFLES-lots of them..and the atkins cheesecake93carbs)is FABULOUS.Hubby & I on it for three weeks and are getting our original sexy shapes back again.Hubby exercises alot & i work at my little desk-we BOTH are losing weight. The part aboveRE:kidney stones & bone loss has been addressed by atkins in both his books-you HAVE to take vitanutrients with this diet to compensate.
Yesterday, the SUGAR industry met and was SHOCKED to learn that Americans had consumed over 1 million TONS of sugar LESS than in 2001-they blamed increased consumer desire for water drinks vs.soda and the probabilty that many Americans are on ATKINS.(BTW, they love the FARM bill-cause, it does NOT matter if we consume less sugar-they are still guaranteed their price.)

Good FRper day.Lizzie

[bothsidesnow]

OOOPPSSS-atkins cheesecake 93)carbs= atkins cheesecake 3 carbs.Sorry.
Lizzie

[Mr. Peabody]

We've been brainwashed into believing that eating animal fat makes you fat. Starch and sugar make you fat. There's a weird predjudice against eating meat for some reason in the nutrition estblishment.

[SamAdams76]

Get that bun off that burger! Not allowed those on the Atkins plan. And those fries have to go. Can't have that starch. Get rid of the tomatoes and pickles too. Ain't the Atkins diet fun?

[The Vast Right Wing]

I did this diet before I got married. I lost 30 lbs in 6 weeks. The diet definitely worked for me when nothing else has. It is very misleading to say the Atkins' diet is a high fat, low carb diet. It is a high-protein, low carb diet. In fact Atkins' advises people to eat proteins that are low in saturated (Chicken, Fish, Pork).

[stanz]

So much of this diet stuff is a lot of crap. There is only one way to lose weight (without surgery, of course) -- you simply have to burn more calories than you consume, regardless of your intake of carbohydrates, fat, etc. There really is not much that a person can do to reduce their caloric intake substantially without adversely affecting their health, so the only real variable here is the "calorie burning" side of the equation. That's exercise, folks!

Exactly. Or as my grandfather would say....push away from the table. And while you're pushing away, do a few crunches!

[an amused spectator]

What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? by Gary Taubes NYT

FR post: What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?

page 6 of NYTimes article (6 of 8)

That, however, raised the question of why such a low-calorie regimen would also suppress hunger, which Atkins insisted was the signature characteristic of the diet. One possibility was Endocrinology 101: that fat and protein make you sated and, lacking carbohydrates and the ensuing swings of blood sugar and insulin, you stay sated. The other possibility arose from the fact that Atkins's diet is ''ketogenic.'' This means that insulin falls so low that you enter a state called ketosis, which is what happens during fasting and starvation. Your muscles and tissues burn body fat for energy, as does your brain in the form of fat molecules produced by the liver called ketones. Atkins saw ketosis as the obvious way to kick-start weight loss. He also liked to say that ketosis was so energizing that it was better than sex, which set him up for some ridicule. An inevitable criticism of Atkins's diet has been that ketosis is dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.

When I interviewed ketosis experts, however, they universally sided with Atkins, and suggested that maybe the medical community and the media confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis, a variant of ketosis that occurs in untreated diabetics and can be fatal. ''Doctors are scared of ketosis,'' says Richard Veech, an N.I.H. researcher who studied medicine at Harvard and then got his doctorate at Oxford University with the Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs. ''They're always worried about diabetic ketoacidosis. But ketosis is a normal physiologic state. I would argue it is the normal state of man. It's not normal to have McDonald's and a delicatessen around every corner. It's normal to starve.''

Simply put, ketosis is evolution's answer to the thrifty gene. We may have evolved to efficiently store fat for times of famine, says Veech, but we also evolved ketosis to efficiently live off that fat when necessary. Rather than being poison, which is how the press often refers to ketones, they make the body run more efficiently and provide a backup fuel source for the brain. Veech calls ketones ''magic'' and has shown that both the heart and brain run 25 percent more efficiently on ketones than on blood sugar.

[bothsidesnow]

last night-hubby & I had maine lobster(1 each) butter/lemon dip & a toossed bibb lettuce salad with balsamic vinegar & olive oil. Dessert-decaf & heavy cream and atkins choco vanilla ice cream YUMoh and re wine-3 glasses each. Mega YUM

We went to Denny's last week for lunch and ordered the mushroom-swiss cheese burger-we put the buns & fries in a takeout box to bring home to our 7 dogs(don't ask)-I swear by all that is holy-we could NOT believe how HEAVY that doogie bag was. Try it next time you go out-and KNOW that normally all the SH$$ would have been in YOUR body. Without a bun...damn right..it is called steak tartare.

Lizzie

[Corin Stormhands]

Starch and sugar make you fat.

I think you're right. I've fought the battle all my life and I've done just about all the diets, including Atkins. My most recent (and I believe what will be long term) success has been to drink plenty of water (The Water2cure diet says drinking half your body weight (lbs) in ounces daily. - So if you weigh 200 lbs. drink 100 oz of water), reduce or eliminate process sugars and flours. I don't limit natural sugar, but when I avoid white sugar I lose weight and feel better (and my arthritis is much better).

So far, I'm down about 15 lbs. since the end of June. I haven't followed it religiously or I'd be down more.