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I was not trying to be a wise guy, I was just curious.

Lets go with some more of my unsubstantiated claims, this one is from the MCDougal wellness center about the Zone and other low carb diets....

"Their popularity has finally caused a long over due backlash from the scientific community. The American College of Sports Medicine, The American Dietetic Association, the Women's Sports Foundation, and the Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research have made their concerns known in a recently published brochure titled "Questioning 40/30/30."

I have more from JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine and I have about 50 Muscle-and-fitness, four sports medicines books, various nutrional tomes, and interviews frokm coaches of professional athletes.

This one is to Dana, I dont mind if you all believe in this stuff but I do not like to be insulted when as I said, almost the ENTIRE scientific community is on my side.

It's true -- Dr. Atkins had cardiomyopathy, which is infection of the heart muscle (just a note -- recently they've found that infection is a significant cause of heart attacks....)

An interesting discussion; however, something I haven't seen is extended discussion of the problems OTHER than obesity that are addressed by a low carbohydrate diet.

From what I have seen, obesity is a *symptom* of the underlying metabolic disorder (yes, this is a simplification of what does occur -- fat cells are more active biologically than most people know) and an aggravating factor; treating only one aspect of the problem, though, doesn't remedy all the problems....and what of those people who don't have obesity as a symptom/factor? Plenty of people of "normal" weight have unbalanced insulin metabolism!

A high level of insulin in the blood (hyperinsulinemia) is known to indicate an elevated risk of cardiovascular problems. Two examples:

1) a study where 1 group of dogs had insulin injected into their leg veins, and the control group was injected with a saline solution -- the first group of dogs had developed atherosclerotic plaques in their leg veins.

2) a study of policemen in Helsinki showed that those men with higher levels of insulin in their blood had a higher risk of heart disease (naturally, known as the Helsinki policeman study ;) )

As well, high levels of glucose in the blood (hyperglycemia) is extremely damaging to all parts of the body...that's why diabetes has so many associated complications such as blindness, loss of limbs, kidney failure, etc. This is a result of the process called "glycation", where glucose invades tissues such as nerve, blood, or muscle cells, or kidney nephrons, and essentially "caramelizes" it (of course, damaging it).

As well, since insulin is a hormone, if it is out of sync it can throw other hormones out of balance as well, including the sex hormones. I am a prime example of this -- I have an insulin-linked condition called "polycystic ovary syndrome", and one of the characteristics of this is male-pattern hair growth due to the elevated levels of male hormone in the blood, which is definitely NOT a desired characteristic in a woman! (other characteristics are: lack of or infrequent menstruation; impaired fertility; male-pattern baldness; obesity; greater risk of cardiovascular disease; greater risk of Type 2 diabetes; greater risk of uterine cancer -- definitely not something to take lightly.)

Unlike the low-fat diet (which, as previous posts indicated, was NOT based on solid scientific research before its imposition), the low-carb diet deals with the underlying problem of the imbalanced insulin mechanism.

As has been noted elsewhere, the current North American diet is FAR higher in sugars and starches than that of our hunter/gatherer ancestors, from whom we get our genetic inheritance. We simply are not designed to process that much glucose on a regular basis! and therefore it causes systemic damage over a long period of time (which is becoming progessively shorter, as the amount of sugars and starches in the average diet skyrockets). No wonder children are now being diagnosed with what was once called "adult-onset" diabetes!

It's a shame that Dr. Atkins' weight-loss regime and, in particular, the first stage of it, has been misinterpreted or simply not read properly. In another book of his (sadly, out of print) he expands on and explains his *entire* dietary regime. The weight-loss diet espoused in New Diet Revolution begins as a deliberately and carefully unbalanced diet to counter the metabolic disorder and "kick-start" weight loss; as the diet progresses, it becomes more balanced (but still much lower in carbs than the norm).

For those who are interested in the bodybuilding applications, do a Google search for "cyclical ketogenic diet".

As to the concern about kidney health, there is NO research that indicates that high protein damages normal, healthy kidneys. The only time that low protein is indicated, is when someone is in end-stage renal failure, basically where they're limping along on dialysis waiting for a transplant.

All glucose that is needed for body functioning (and a little bit IS needed) can be provided by protein and fat. The body can convert up to 58% of protein to glucose, and approximately 10% of fat (the glyceride portion) to glucose. The benefit of carbohydrate foods is not the carbs, but the micronutrients (such as the lycopene in tomatoes).

For someone who doesn't need to lose a significant amount of weight, the basic formula is to eliminate sources of refined sugars and starches, and keep the intake of high-glycemic foods such as baked potatoes to a minimum. High-fibre veggies are fine at any time! and low-carb substitutes such as almond meal instead of bread crumbs for dredging, or pork rinds instead of potato chips, are a good idea for anyone (surprise! pork rinds have less fat gram for gram than regular potato chips -- check the USDA database -- and they don't have the trans-fatty acids that are the truly bad fats as do potato chips).

Lots of other things I'd like to say, but I'll save it for later :)