Dr. Robert Atkins Dead

[E.G.C.]

Fox News just now reporting.

[apackof2]

I believe that I'll have a steak with a side of steak in his honor tonight.

LOL

[Leo Carpathian]

What a great loss! He deserved to be with us for many more years.

I second all the positive comments and findings above. He saved my life after I was subjected to slow killing by "doctors" puttinmg me on vegetarian (crap) diet (no fat, no cholesterol) for 10 years and getting worse. After two months on his diet and oral chelation therapy, I lost weight, cleared my veins, blood pressure dropped to normal, got off the pills, regained my mental capacity and alertness. I sure enjoy eating normal food again.

I had the chance to thank Dr. Atkins personally for saving my life and have him sign his book for me. What a nice a humble person he was!

Maybe the angels are getting fat up there and good God called him home. May he RIP.

[SamAdams76]

All that you say sounds pretty reasonable. I didn't mean to criticize red meat. I like a good porterhouse or T-bone steak about once a week (slathered with onions and mushrooms). I just eat much less of it than what Atkins would propose. I have poultry 2-3 times a week and fish at least twice a week (not including the can of sardines I have everyday). While I could give up pasta, I don't think I could ever give up my rice. I have it at most of my meals, usually with olive oil over it.

My father is a classic meat and potatoes guy. He could eat beef and potatoes every night and mop it up with a big slab of bread. I would love to eat that way too but I am trying to keep my cholesterol down. My father had his first heart attack when he was 42 and I am approaching that age now. I certainly don't want to have any heart problems. I think that is why I shy away from the Atkins diet of lots of red meat and eggs.

[texasbluebell]

I had the chance to thank Dr. Atkins personally for saving my life and have him sign his book for me. What a nice a humble person he was!

That's wonderful that you got to thank him!

[jennyp]

Hi, Maven,

Low carbing has a lot of good science behind it, but I'm not so sure about the blood type stuff - it's more conjecture than science, isn't it? While many low carbers are Type Os, there are a lot who aren't, and it works for them, too.

The idea of blood type being a good indicator of the best diet type strikes me as a little too simplistic. (But I haven't read the Eat Right 4 Your Type book either.) But another book I haven't read sounds more interesting: The Metabolic Typing Diet. It claims there are more specific blood tests you can get that will help pinpoint whether low-carb or low-fat or something else will work better for your individual metabolism.

Have you heard anything about the Metabolic Typing Diet? Is there any real science behind it? If it turns out there is, then maybe these diet wars would start to lose their religious feel, as people start pointing to actual objective data to justify their particular favorite diet. IOW, I wonder how many people out there really wouldn't do well on a low-carb diet?

[gswilder]

I went on Atkins about 4 years ago. Lost 90 pounds in 6 months. Triglycerides went from 530 to 140. Total Cholesterol went down about 30 points. Within 4 days of starting, I felt better than in years. More energy, clearer thinking. Different things work for different people. That is why some people are fat and some are not. It is not always the amount of kind of food eaten. We all know people who eat identical with different results.

[azjatojarhd1ea]

That you probably haven't read Atkins notwithstanding, his essential views were that simple carbs and sugars should be avoided at all cost and that fats are not all bad. To me, that is in line with the study findings at Harvard and I see the study as more or less a validation of Atkins and a repudiation of high carb low fat diets. Feel free to disagree, but you won't change my mind on the significance I place on Atkin's contribution to better health!

[only1percent]

In seeing lots of people try Atkins, it does tremendously well for people who are basically physically sound, who let 20-50 pounds (depending on height) creep up on them over the years.

Among people who are heavier ... the people who have always been significantly overweight since they were kids and are now 80, 100, plus pounds overweight, it really seems to be a disaster. The Atkins instruction that you can basically eat all you want really messes with their (already messed up) food thinking, and, to boot, they are usually heavily carbohydrate addicted. They maybe do 20 pounds and then the weight all comes back on, hard.

[jennyp]

I'm sorry, I tried it and without bread it was tough. Anything that takes away my pizza and beer is bad! A may stay alive longer, but I won't live!

Here's how I approach hi-carb foods: If I can find a way to keep the carb count down near the protein count, then I'll indulge the food.

For example: A slice of Pizza Hut's standard pan pizza w/pepperoni has ~ 13/26 (grams protein/non-fiber carbs). Not good! But if you get a thin-crust meat-lovers pizza, it comes in at a better ratio of 14/20. Then just make sure you don't eat all the crust, and that'll bring the carb count down towards the 14g of protein.

That's my idea of a balanced diet. :-)

BTW, some Atkins dieters insist on ordering hamburgers with a lettuce "bun" & they swear by them. I think that's just too obsessive. I rip the excess bun off as I eat the sandwich, and I figure I end up eating 1/2 the bread that I would otherwise.

I still wouldn't eat pizza or other fast food several times a week, but it works great as an occasional indulgence.

[slane]

I have no problem with whole wheat pasta or brown rice. The Atkins diet is not an all meat diet! Once you are steadily losing weight, and even more so once you have reached your goal, Atkins recommends adding healthy carbs, including whole-wheat grains, as long as the amounts don't reverse the weight loss. Grains are not as the basis of the diet, or people who easily put on weight will just put it on again. I eat a lot of wheat germ oil and get the health benefits of that without the starch. The carbs Atkins bans totally are sugar, white flour in any form, potatos, and white rice or any other processed grain product.

Also, simply exercising will not do the trick for many people, especially women.I can understand how you would not have a problem with consuming a lot of carbs if you are doing triathlons, but most people are far more sedentary. I was following a low-fat diet, eating whole grains, and running 5-7 miles a day, and not losing the excess 20 pounds I was carrying. And it wasn't because the fat was turning to muscle - I could still grab the flab on my stomach after months of doing this. After injuring my knee which prevented me from running, I switched to Atkins and lost the weight. For many people, the amount of exercise required to burn off the weight without dieting is simply impossible. That was certainly the case with me, and I was doing fairly strenuous daily exercise.

[Mihalis]

I've seen several Atkins books in the stores. Can someone tell me which is the basic book that describes the system? I don't want to know the science behind it.

[Tailback]

You know, looking at the foods that the Atkins diet allows and thinking about what our human hunter gatherer ancestors ate for a couple hundred thousand years makes you think. Maybe, just maybe there's something to this Atkins theory.

[4CJ]

FYI

Sad. God bless him and his family.

[Maven]

All that you say sounds pretty reasonable. I didn't mean to criticize red meat. I like a good porterhouse or T-bone steak about once a week (slathered with onions and mushrooms). I just eat much less of it than what Atkins would propose.

Oh, I didn't take what you wrote as criticism - not at all. When you low carb, you eat as much red meat as you want, and I know lots of low carbers who eat no red meat at all (I even know a few vegetarian low carbers, even though it's somewhat difficult to do).

But red meat isn't the bugaboo we've been led to believe. The fat in red meat is full of stearic acid, which helps protect your heart.

My father is a classic meat and potatoes guy. He could eat beef and potatoes every night and mop it up with a big slab of bread. I would love to eat that way too but I am trying to keep my cholesterol down. My father had his first heart attack when he was 42 and I am approaching that age now. I certainly don't want to have any heart problems. I think that is why I shy away from the Atkins diet of lots of red meat and eggs.

Well, if we could get your dad to give up the potatoes and bread - we might be able to get his cholesterol down!

Seriously, there *are* substitutes for potatoes and bread. One rather well known sub is called "fauxtatoes," which is basically a pureed cauliflower - add butter, roasted garlic, whatever. It actually tastes really good. A company called Life Service Supplements sells "Ketato" mix, which has the flavor of real potatoes. You just add it to the pureed cauliflower and voila!

You can also buy low carb versions of breads and pastas, although I think most of them taste pretty bad. I try to keep my low carbing as natural as possible - and I shop only the periphery of the supermarket!

Maven

[Maven]

Among people who are heavier ... the people who have always been significantly overweight since they were kids and are now 80, 100, plus pounds overweight, it really seems to be a disaster. The Atkins instruction that you can basically eat all you want really messes with their (already messed up) food thinking, and, to boot, they are usually heavily carbohydrate addicted. They maybe do 20 pounds and then the weight all comes back on, hard.

I've been heavy all my life, and I've lost 190 pounds (so far) on low carb. I also know at least half a dozen people who have lost 100+ pounds AND HAVE KEPT THEM OFF with low carbing.

And yes, most of them - and I - were carb addicts. But once you break the addiction to them, it's amazing how you develop a "normal" appetite, learn what "real" hunger feels like, and be completely free from binging.

Maven

[DB]

Yep. The more refined grains and the like we got in our diet the fatter we got.

[PianoMan]

Sir, your reply has just revolutionized my life. I've been skipping the beer due to what seems like it would be an enormous amount of carbs, and stick with sissy drinks like gin and tonics at the bars. No longer! Woo woo! (Not to mention I live in an Irish neighborhood, and Guiness is plentiful...)

[PianoMan]

Sir, your reply has just revolutionized my life. I've been skipping the beer due to what seems like it would be an enormous amount of carbs, and stick with sissy drinks like gin and tonics at the bars. No longer! Woo woo! (Not to mention I live in an Irish neighborhood, and Guiness is plentiful...)

[GnuHere]

This saddens me greatly, and I agree with the others here who have found his diet beneficial. Despite his fame and having to constantly defend his philosophy, he came across as a very nice man.

[CurlyBill]

Well, Stouts are made of well roasted malt....to the point where much of the fermentable sugars are roasted out... That's why stouts are generally lower in alcohol.