Fad Diets (Bashing low Carb diets Alert!)

wbz4 ^ | 4-9-03

[Jimmyclyde]

Fad Diets

Apr 8, 2003 4:58 pm US/Eastern (WBZ) (Boston) The number is staggering. There are 127 Million overweight Americans, and now many are turning to unhealthy fad diets to lose the weight.

As WBZ's Dr. Mallika Marshall tells us, the medical community has come out with a stern warning for those seeking a quick solution to weight loss.

The message is clear, Americans trying to lose weight by eating more protein and fat while reducing carbohydrates could, in fact, be hurting themselves.

While these so-called "fad" diets may be appealing, the American College of Preventive Medicine has come out with a warning. They say, lose the weight in an un-healthy fashion, and you may also lose your health!

In a special obesity issue, this week's Journal of the American Medical Association warns that high protein diets, such as the popular Atkins diet, may not be conducive to long-term health and the dangers of such dieting remain to be seen.

Researchers also say it isn't the restriction of carbohydrates that leads to weight loss, but instead an overall reduction in total calories.

To lose weight and also reap the health benefits, researchers recommend a "balanced" diet rich in fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains. And of course, don't forget regular exercise.

(MMIII, Viacom Internet Services Inc. , All Rights Reserved)

[Mamzelle]

They don't want to try to prove it. They already know that the American Heart Assoc' "food pyramid", with its requirement of 300-400g of carbs daily, has turned us into a nation of diabetic WHALES.

There is no way to lose weight, and not go hungry, other than lo-carb.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Dear medical professionals, dieticians, and other Cassandras of the "food world".

I, an American citizen, do hereby declare that I no longer care what you have to say about anything, and I will not listen to anything you have to say about anything except to denigrate it.

You are all fools and liars. You cannot keep your stories straight for ten minutes at a time. The actual research you all do could fit on the head of a flea's push-pin. The only actual skill you all have is jumping on the latest fad bandwagon and finding good marketing phrases to promote the latest fad bandwagon.

I'm going to have a nice steak for dinner tonight, with a baked potato, and some corn and some biscuits. I don't care if it is "good" for me or not, in fact I'm inclined to believe that the "worse" it is supposed to be, the "better" it probably really is.

So, to all of you "experts" in "nutrition", do us all a favor and go and jump off of the nearest bridge. You would be doing more for humanity than anything else you could achieve.

Signed,
A former believer in diets.

[Mamzelle]

Ketone--at different stages of an Atkins-style lo-carb diet, you will "throw off" ketones in urine. You can get little test strips to monitor it, and that can be interesting to observe. I noticed when I was losing that there was a long period when my appetite went very low that I was throwing off the most ketones (waste product from your body burning fat instead of sugar--glucose).

Ketosis is not ketoacidosis.

The suppressed appetite may be a chemical "starvation" response, though I was eating very nice meals. I lost my weight *very* slowly, 25 pounds over a year's time. I was not hungry or frustrated a single moment. Men find it much quicker to lose weight than women on lo-carb.

I highly recommend it. I am convinced that overconsumption of carbs is behind our country's obesity problem.

The real indicator is the increase of type-2 diabetes in children, which was unheard-of twenty or thirty years ago. It even used to be called "adult-onset" diabetes. Now, it's almost an epidemic among children. This can't be blamed on video games or lack of exercise.

[Mamzelle]

Plateau--all I can say is have patience. It helps that you don't have to go hungry. I had a six-week plateau. At that point, I was holding out on one lousy teaspoon of sugar in my morning coffee. I eliminated that, and five pounds dropped off in like, a weekend. Very weird. Now I don't go near the sugar bowl at all.

[Mamzelle]

Ah, fitting into those jeans--and fitting into them the next month and the month after that. I've been crusing ebay looking for vintage jeans in the styles and sizes I wore in my twenties.

Sometimes my kids will leave a Little Debbie brownie (one of my former problems) and I'll take a nibble. It is so sweet, it's nasty, and makes my teeth hurt.

I've got in a supply of locarb baking goods (wheat gluten, soy flour, nut flours) and I'm going to start experimenting. I used to be quite the baker. Locarb brownies, here I come.

[Old Professer]

I've been pregnant or nursing since 1996

Maybe you should go see a doctor and find out which.

[Fracas]

Did you see he's in serious condition following surgery for head trauma suffered in a fall on an icy sidewalk in NYC?

[Nov3]

(See this article, which doesn't recommend the more extreme low-carb diets, for a decent summary of the issues involved.)

They are clueless

[wastoute]

The whole point of the diet is that you can't lose weight with high insulin levels, which is what almost every other diet (lo-fat) will leave you with. What you need is to get the insulin levels way down. One thing folks sometimes don't realize is that the pancreas can be stimulated to produce insulin just by eating something sweet (apparrently) and so during the induction phase one needs to have no artificial sweetners at all. Also you need to be COMPELTELY OFF caffeine. Caffeine stimulates cyclic Gmp, which cna act like insulin intracellularly. I think these are the two mistakes people make when Atkins "doesn't work". Good Luck.

[SamAdams76]

I'm surprised that there are so many boosters of the Atkins Diet here. That diet is nuts! Yeah, you probably will lose weight on it. But that's not the point. Giving up (or seriously cutting back on) such healthy foods as oatmeal, bread, pasta, corn, rice, and about a dozen other foods that are very nutritious is not the way to go. The Atkins diet also restricts beer and wine - drinks that are proven to be very healthy for your heart and cholesterol levels.

The proponents of the diet will keep saying that it works, it works! Of course it works! People lose weight on the grapefruit diet too. But at what cost to your overall health?

[Question_Assumptions]

They are clueless

Who and in what way?

[I got the rope]

The real indicator is the increase of type-2 diabetes in children, which was unheard-of twenty or thirty years ago. It even used to be called "adult-onset" diabetes. Now, it's almost an epidemic among children. This can't be blamed on video games or lack of exercise

Isn't there a Norwegian study linking this to one of the many immunizations that kids get?

[I got the rope]

To answer your question, ketones are not harmful. In fact they're a great source of energy.

I don't know about that...Ketones can be oxidized into formaldehyde...this is why our bodies excrete it in urine and waste. By the way, if your body is so out of whack that you are producing ketones...you're probably in pretty bad shape.

[Nov3]

Treating insulin resistance with anything but a low carb diet and bringing out the old canard that low carb high fat is dangerous. When my wife developed gestational diabetes they gave her a high carb "balanced" diet to follow, blood sugar monitor and the humalog or whatever insulin prescription to use when the diet failed! They warned her to stay away from fat. They were sure she was going to be on insulin. She trashed their diet and went back to the way she was eating before she was pregnant (Atkins). They were amazed at her blood sugar readings. The doctor literally could not believe that she wasn't going to need insulin and said everybody with her test reading needed it.

Most insulin resistance can be treated with atkins. Read his book and Protien Power. They are very edifying.

[Nov3]

By the way, if your body is so out of whack that you are producing ketones...you're probably in pretty bad shape.

Are you serious?????????

[saluki_in_ohio]

I have been on the Atkins diet before, and it works. I have had several nutritionists tell me how deadly this diet is.

What strikes me is that their response to this diet is much like a liberal frothing at the mouth over something that offends their sensibilities. You then present them with evidence that the diet presents no ill effect, and they aren't even objective enough to consider it; they just get more shrill in their objections.

[Question_Assumptions]

I'm by no means anti low-carb. I've seen reduced-carb diets work just fine. I picked that article in the hopes that it would show the anti-Atkins person the value of lowered carbs on PCOS without resorting to stronger low carb articles that they'd reject out of hand. Carbs cause all sorts of problems for people with PCOS, many of whom are overweight and try to diet. If they are given a high-carb/low-fat diet, they will (as you say) fail. But, again, I think they key is to see what works (which, if you've read it, that article does suggest ajusting carbs downward). For some people with PCOS, Atkins works. For others, reduced carb diets such as The Zone or Carbohydrate Addicts works just fine. If you can lose weight with it, use it. But as with all things that can change a person's life, diets seem to encourage a one-size-fits-all religious zealousness which I don't think is helpful.

[ampat]

The Atkins diet started in the 70's. There is no evidence that it kills.

[chasio649]

Truth Bump!

[Bella_Bru]

I grew up in an Italian and Polish home. Italians in italy eat lots of freash veggies, fish, etc., and pasta is nothing more than a tiny sidedish. Italians over here in the U.S. however, eat pasta as the main dish, in huge amounts.

Both my folks have Type II diabetes. Most of my family has high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, and are overweight. A diet of low fat high carb has done nothing helpful at all for them.

I have started on CAD (Carbohydrate Addict's Diet) because I do NOT want to end up like them.

The government can take their sugar industry funded recommendations and shove it. A high carb diet would be ok, maybe, if people actually still did manual labor for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.