Posted on 05/21/2003 2:20:12 PM PDT by Johnny Gage
Two Studies Vindicate Atkins Diet
May 21, 2003 4:00 pm US/Central (AP) A month after Dr. Robert C. Atkins' death, his much-ridiculed diet has received its most powerful scientific support yet: two studies in one of medicine's most distinguished journals show it really does help people lose weight faster without raising their cholesterol.
The research, in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, found that people on the high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet lose twice as much weight over six months as those on the standard low-fat diet recommended by most major health organizations.
However, one of the studies found that the Atkins dieters regain much of the weight by the end of one year.
Atkins, who died April 17 at age 72 after falling and hitting his head on an icy sidewalk, lived to see several shorter studies that found, to researchers' great surprise, that his diet is effective and healthy in the short run.
Although those reports have been presented at medical conferences, none until now has been published in a top-tier journal. And one of the studies in the journal lasted a year, making it the longest one yet.
"For the last 20 years that I've been helping people lose weight, I've been trashing the Atkins diet -- without any real data to rely on," said Dr. Michael Hamilton, an obesity researcher who was not part of either study. "Now we have some data to give us some guidance."
Now, he said, he would neither trash it nor endorse it. "I'm going to say I don't know. The evidence isn't in," he said.
One study ran six months and was conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department; the yearlong study was led by Gary D. Foster, who runs the weight-loss program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Atkins' diet books have sold 15 million copies since the first one was published in 1972. From the start, doctors branded the Atkins diet foolish and dangerous, warning that the large amounts of beef and fat would lead to sky-high cholesterol levels. In both studies, the Atkins dieters generally had better levels of "good" cholesterol and triglycerides, or fats in the blood. There was no difference in "bad" cholesterol or blood pressure. Dr. Frederick F. Samaha of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who led the VA study, said both studies indicate that people do lose more weight on Atkins, "but the difference is not great."
The 132 men and women in the VA study started out weighing an average of 286 pounds. After six months, those on the Atkins diet had lost an average of 12.8 pounds, those on the low-fat diet 4.2.
The other study involved 63 participants who weighed an average of 217 pounds at the start. After six months, the Atkins group lost 15.4 pounds, the group on the standard diet 7.
But at the end of a year, the Atkins dieters had regained about a third of the weight. Their net loss averaged 9.7 pounds. The low-fat dieters had regained about one-fifth of the weight, for a net loss of 5.5 pounds.
The year-end difference was not big enough to tell whether it was caused by the diets, Foster said.
About 40 percent of the patients dropped out of each study. And while supporters of the Atkins diet say it is easier to stick with, people on the Atkins regimen were just as likely to drop out as people on the standard diets.
The important finding, Foster said, is that the Atkins diet appears to be a healthy short-term way to lose weight. Nobody has studied it long enough to tell whether it is a healthy way to maintain that loss, he said.
Collette Heimowitz, director of education and research at Atkins Health and Medical Information Services, said people there were not surprised by the weight loss and improved cholesterol.
"But I'm thrilled that serious researchers are taking a hard look at the program, so that health care professionals and physicians would find comfort in offering Atkins as an alternative to the one-size-fits-all hypothesis of low-fat, low-calorie," she said.
The studies did not convince Kathleen Zelman, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
"There's never been any denying that low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets such as Atkins do, absolutely, cause weight loss," she said. "But do they hold up over time and can you stay on them over time?"
From Foster's study, it does not look like it, she said.
A fat hamburger patty maybe.
Isn't the high fat cheesecake classic DOCTOR ADKINS???????
No way
Sorry about twinkie but you obviously don't understand aTkins. Read the book and be informed.
Well you spelled his name correctly this time. That is a step forward. The next step would be to READ THE BOOK. It would allow you to speak intelligently on the subject.
Don't go on it immediately. Take your time, read the book TWICE. Get a list of recipes, make a menu, find out which snack foods you like. Take the time to read the nutrient section. Be sure to get magnesium and potassium supplements because the diet will have a diuretic effect early on and make you feel bad.
Most of all, stay the course! No matter what the book or anyone on this thread says you will feel like you are DYING FOR A COKE OR DONUT on the 3rd or 4th day. Take some fast walks and eat a lot of fat and you will get past that. Once you get into ketosis real good you will feel good.
This diet works. Just don't be afraid to eat the yummy foods you have been told to avoid. Eat the fat early on. Your body doesn't know how to mobilize its own fats well at the beginning and to stay in a fat burning mode you will need to eat a bunch early on. Once your body is fully in fat burning mode you will eat a lot less.
Get a blood sugar monitor and ketostix too. It allows you to see the diet working. Use the blood sugar monitor before you go on the diet to see how you are changing your bodies reaction to food.
Good luck this diet really works!
AMPLE? Why does a body burn fat? What causes a body to gain weight? I seriously doubt you have read aDkin's (as you said earlier)book when you couldn't spell his name. I on the other hand had spent years reading the calorie is a calorie and low fat myths. READ HIS BOOK BEFORE YOU PAN HIS DIET AND SAY WEIGHT LOSS IS A SIMPLE PROPOSITION. You have been lied to by people who don't even understand how the body's basic metabolic processes work.
That would be a lie because he did not have bypass surgery. His doctor reported that his arteries were perfect. He had a viral infection as a result of a trip overseas.
Italians eat their share of carbs for sure, and Italy has no where near the obesity problem the US does.
I haven't read Atkins book, but I have visited his website and read some stuff there. And it's definitely not for me. Phil Kaplan provides a very detailed analysis of Atkins diet debate at the following site; worth the read if you're interested.
http://www.philkaplan.com/thefitnesstruth/atkinsrevisited.htm
From what I know of the Atkins diet, I bet that a 10 or 20 yr study of it would produce evidence of it increasing your risk of colon cancer by a good percentage.
And the heavy use of sucralose in their product line is not to my liking, as it is linked (http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/) to all sorts of problems. Granted the dose that was linked to potential problems was large, and the experimentation took place with rodents, I still don't want to take in a substance daily that has the possiblity of mutating my thymus gland.
I'll take Aristotle's advise on moderation over Atkins advise on specialization, any day.
His cookbook and the protein power cookbooks are awesome. Maven put some great recipes up on this thread too.
Boy that was in depth! You need to start your own diet program!
You drop in and pan Atkins without knowledge of the diet, how it works, and never having read the book.
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert Spencer
Read the book and then argue the diets principles. There just MIGHT be some information you may not know.
Since you are going to beat me senseless for daring to misspell your GURU'S name incorrectly
< sarcasm> Is there a correct way to misspell my GURU'S name? < /sarcasm> Twinkie, when you are dismissing the aTkins diet at least get the man's name right. You obviously have never read the book that you are debating on this thread.
It is a good book even if you don't agree with him.
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