A Dieter's Dilemma (Atkin's diet)

In August and September, as the blueberry crop advances northward across Long Island on its way to Canada, I like to bake a blueberry pie, to which I add an entire lemon, including the peel, coarsely chopped. By the time the pie is baked, the peel and its pith caramelize and give the berries a surprising tang. A tablespoon or two of arrowroot doesn't quite absorb all the lemon juice, but I prefer my blueberry pie a little runny, not glutinous and stiff with cornstarch like pies from the bakery. I enjoy the way a scoop of vanilla ice cream melts into the warm juice.

During blueberry season, I usually make a dozen or so of these pies, their top crusts lightly browned with egg wash and accented with little rivers of purple syrup. But this year I'm not making any. And when they ripen, I'm not cutting up plump Golden Delicious or crunchy Mutsu apples from the Milk Pail in Water Mill on Long Island and laying the thick slices out neatly in circles in caramelized sugar and butter on the tarte Tatin pan that I bought from Fred Bridge in the 1960's. Nor will I be topping the apples with a thin sheet of buttery pie dough and sliding the tarte in the oven for 50 minutes at 360 degrees, to keep the apples from sticking to the pan the way they would at a higher temperature. And I won't be adding a tablespoon of flour to thicken the syrupy apple juice, because a tarte Tatin, unlike a blueberry pie, should not be runny at all.

Never again will I make the buttery muffins that I used to bake on Sunday mornings. I am also giving up ketchup, which is mainly corn syrup flavored with tomato and vinegar. Moreover, I'm going to think twice before I buy another Walla Walla onion, laden with sugary carbohydrates, or the wonderful rolls from Amy's Bread. That probably means no more hamburgers either and, for that matter, no more onion marmalade, the perfect accompaniment to magret de canard (the breasts of moulard ducks, the kind raised for foie gras), sautéed until warm and pink inside, then sliced and fanned out on the plate accompanied by the marmalade, a silky reduction of a half-dozen large, sweet onions -- a critical mass of carbohydrate waiting to turn itself into body fat.

According to Dr. Robert Atkins, 60 percent of the American population is perilously plump, an endangered group from whose condition I have been withdrawing for the past month at the rate of a pound every other day. I am especially wary of pecan pie, of which a single triangular slice contains three times the daily amount of carbohydrate permitted during the two-week initiation phase -- Atkins calls it the Induction Phase -- of his diet. This is the phase I have recently completed, having lost 10 pounds. I am now well into the Ongoing Weight Loss (O.W.L.) phase, with the permission of my wise friend and physician Stanley Mirsky, who for years has been urging me to avoid carbohydrates. But it was to the evangelical pitchman Dr. Atkins, not the stately Dr. Mirsky, that I finally succumbed, goaded by my son, Jacob, who, though not at all plump, lost 27 pounds and reduced his cholesterol in two months on Atkins.

The physiological case against excessive carbohydrates, reported in this magazine seven weeks ago, is fairly straightforward and by now well known. The low-carbohydrate diet, touted originally by Atkins and adopted successfully by millions of his followers, contradicts the widely accepted theory, introduced in the 1980's and later promoted by the Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid, that carbohydrates should be the basis of the American diet. Most researchers now agree that carbohydrates, especially refined ones like sugar and other vegetable-based sweeteners, white flour and rice, are quickly absorbed as energy by the body, while carbohydrates in excess of the body's immediate needs are stored as fat for future use. A secondary effect of this quick absorption is renewed hunger soon after a high-carbohydrate meal, for example after a Chinatown dinner of noodles, rice, wonton wrappers, egg-roll skins, syrupy ribs and cornstarch thickeners.

A low-carbohydrate diet, on the other hand, not only forces the body to seek energy by consuming its own stored fat but also suppresses appetite, since dietary fat and protein take longer to digest and enter the bloodstream than carbohydrates. Moreover, the body expends more energy burning fat than burning carbohydrates, yielding what Atkins calls ''a metabolic advantage.'' These phenomena explain the quick weight loss, especially during the Induction Phase, which allows only 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, about half the amount in a single bagel.

Even in its rigorous two-week Induction Phase, however, Atkins provides a rich larder of bacon and eggs, steak, lamb, pork and poultry, fish, including most shellfish, cheese, butter, cream (but not whole milk) and green vegetables except leeks, onions, peas and artichokes. Gin, vodka, whiskey and other spirits, according to Atkins, become ''acceptable,'' as does wine. Excluded forever are pasta, pizza, pastries and so on. No more sushi, congee, cookies, cereals, bagels, croissants, pancakes or waffles; no potatoes or corn, though one or two chips with guacamole is allowed. Above all, no more pretzels, which deliver five times as many carbs as potato chips. Orange juice, alas, is also out. But pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts are in.

Despite these restrictions, you can make a splendid breakfast of eggs scrambled through a strainer and cooked gently in a Teflon pan over simmering water, accompanied by warm prosciutto or its Austrian cousin, speck, with a few spears of asparagus, or a lunch of lobster, shrimp or chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise. (My favorite, Hellmann's, contains sugar.) For dinner you can have a pan-roasted rib-eye steak or striped bass with braised fennel or grilled trevisano radicchio. Most cheeses are acceptable, including blue, cheddar, cottage, cream and mozzarella. Tomatoes are iffy, but Atkins includes a recipe for fried green tomatoes using a noncarbohydrate bake mix. He may be an evangelist, but in his recipes he is not inflexible.

For the moment, at least, I seem to have successfully reversed my compulsions. Not only am I no longer addicted to croissants, hash-brown potatoes, blueberry pies and lobster salad stuffed into hot-dog rolls, but I am also slightly repelled by them. For moderately resourceful cooks, a low-carbohydrate diet offers abundant opportunity, and many of the recipes in ''Dr. Atkins's New Diet Revolution'' are worth considering. Nevertheless, I include my recipe for blueberry pie. Perhaps one day, when I am beyond Atkins's O.W.L. phase and into Maintenance, I'll make it again.

Blueberry Pie

For the pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
3/4 cup water
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water

For the filling:
2 quarts plus a little more firm,
fresh blueberries
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 lemon, seeded and coarsely chopped in the food processor
Vanilla ice cream for serving.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil beneath the rack where the pie will bake.

2. To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until the butter has been cut in coarsely. Add half the water and pulse, watching to see if the dough forms a ball. If not, add a little more water until it does. Too much water will make a heavy, gummy pastry. Too little will make a crumbly one. If the dough feels too wet, add a little more flour and pulse. If too dry, add a little more water. Pulse sparingly. On a floured board, cut the dough into two parts, one slightly larger. Roll out the smaller portion and place it neatly in a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Refrigerate the larger portion while you prepare the berries.

3. To make the filling, pick over the berries, discarding green or bad ones, and remove any stems. Rinse the berries and drain. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and arrowroot. Add the berries and lemon and mix well. Mound the filling in the pastry shell.

4. Roll out the remaining pastry into a large round. Brush the rim of the bottom shell with some of the egg mixture and carefully lay the large pastry round over the berries. Trim the edges, leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Press the top and bottom pastry halves together to seal well. Fold excess top pastry under and crimp the edges. Cut 4 triangular holes near the top. (Do not cut along the sides or all the juices will leak out.) Brush with more of the egg mixture.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake 40 to 50 minutes longer, or until the top has browned and the juice has begun to spill out. Cool for about 1 hour so juices can settle. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Yield: 8 servings.

Guacamole

4 tomatillos
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped, or more to taste
1/2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
5 ripe Haas avocados
Sea salt to taste.

1. Place all the ingredients except the avocados and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly.

2. Split the avocados lengthwise and remove the pits. Save one pit. Scoop out the avocado flesh and add it to the processor. Pulse twice, or until the avocado is roughly cut in. Add sea salt to taste. The salt is crucial and should be added with care. To keep guacamole from turning brown if not serving immediately, add the reserved pit to it and cover with plastic wrap. Remove the pit before serving.

Yield: 10 appetizer servings. Each tortilla chip contains 1 gram of carbohydrate, so take it easy.

Monday Salad
(Adapted from the Palm)

1 head iceberg or other firm, crunchy lettuce, chopped medium fine
1 European cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 sweet onion, peeled and chopped medium fine
2 stalks celery, chopped medium fine
1 red pepper, chopped medium fine
1 tablespoon chopped anchovies
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon nicoise olives, pitted and chopped medium fine
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red-wine vinegar
Salt, sparingly, to taste.

In a bowl, mix the first 8 ingredients. Mix in the oil, then the vinegar, then salt to taste, although the anchovies may be salty enough.

Yield: 4 servings. Except for the onion, this delicious salad has practically no carbs.

"A friend of mine started Weight Watcher's in March and has lost 40-45 lbs. and looks great. She has learned to make healthy choices. "

Getting back to a conservative news forum I feel that the food pyramid is portrayed as good and Atkins bad in the media which consists of TV, magazines and newspapers. Atkins is a healthy choice and it should be recommended by doctors and heath professionals and the media. If the news media had their way Atkins would not be one of those choices – this is flat out bias on their part – liberal bias I believe.

My opinion the liberals want us all to be vegetarians and eating meat needs to be banned -- tofu hamburgers on whole wheat buns no mayo -- just got to watch the fat remember.

MY HORROR STORY: I went to a doctor who recommended a low fat diet and high fiber diet. I had to eat basically cereal and beans, beans and for dinner more beans. I gained weight and he accused me of "cheating". I got terrible acid reflux disease and he prescribed medication for the indigestion. I gained more weight and he wanted to give me diet pills. He would have killed me with carbs if he could.

I am living, breathing proof that you can lose weight by burning more calories than you take in. It takes longer than Atkins, but there are NO drawbacks whatsoever.

I'm a 42 year-old woman who started off thin, became obese over many years and then had enough of it. Three years ago I decided I was sick of being fat and started dieting.

The rules of the diet were both low-fat and low-carb. Lots and lots of fresh fruit and veggies, little red meat and daily exercise. What are the results?

To use my doctors' own words as he gave me my test results a few weeks ago, "your cholesterol is great, your LDL is wonderful, your triglycerides are enviable." My resting heart rate is 60, blood pressure 120/80. Oh, my weight? 158 lbs on a 5'8" frame. I have lost 107 lbs. I have kept it all off and my target weight is now 150.

I have never felt and looked better in my life. You must stay away from extremes. Change your lifestyle and make it permanent. No crash or fad diets. I didn't spend a dime on WW or Jenny Craig or any of those diets. I personally think the Atkins diet is dangerous in the long term.

"So, did this diet work well for you?"

See post 61 for part of the story of my horror story with a low fat diet.

In 2000 I was 215 with chronic back pain due to the extra weight I carried. Today I'm 185 and with my 5'9" frame I look stocky but I have about 21% body fat. So it took me about 7 months to lose the first 25 pounds and I lost at the rate of 1 pound a week in the beginning. The last 5 pounds took 7 months.

Today I eat anything I want at special occasions and eat low carbs mot os the time because that is what now tastes good. I will say I’m a very disciplined person and my cravings for sweets were not strong as my wife who did it with me.

Part of my success has been that I do exercise see this web site for the best system I have ever seen. You just won't believe the results with super-slow!!!

http://www.superslow.com/

"I personally think the Atkins diet is dangerous in the long term."

I guess you've been successfully programmed by the media. I have often heard your exact sentence used as the justification to dismiss Atkins. I think that the general opinion is that yea, you lose weight but harm your body.

If you go through this thread you’ll see many success stories where after Atkins cholesterol is down, blood pressure is down, great improvement in blood sugar numbers. My own case of chronic indigestion stopped after 3 days of Atkins. My wife has Crohn’s Disease and it has gone in remission since Atkins. We can’t look at the successes just keep thinking for some obscure reason "IN THE LONG TERM" you’re harming yourself.

I agree. I lost 20 lbs and have kept it off for over 2 years. I used a modified Atkins program, one promulgated by Peskin, but essentially the same. During the initial phase, exercise was avoided, since I wanted to see if the physiology of the diet was what worked & not my capacity for physical exercise.

The process by which the body metabolises carbs, fats, and proteins is pretty much universal. It seems to be the same for anyone not suffering from some egregious illness.

"the only work out I get now is my fingers hitting this keyboard."

Super Slow takes me 20 minutes twice a week. This is as painless as you can get. I worked out with a certified instructor for a year now I do it on my own.

In 20 years from now everyone will be doing a variation of Super Slow.

I've seen the same media bias about super slow that I seen on Atkins.

While we're on the subject I tried yoga which everyone recommends and hurt my back -- when I blamed yoga I was told it can't be yoga, y-o-g-a i-s s-o s--o g-o--o--d for you. Such is the programming we have to deal with -- results don't matter only political correctness!!1

The Adkins diet does have it critics. I suppose because it doesn't go by the pyramid the gov't made up for us! They do know what is best you know.
I have wanted to try Yoga, but I would probably get twisted into some position and not be able to unravel myself.
I tried Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies once, but alas, it was a nightmare. I realized I was an "oldie sweating" instead, and sat down and watched the video enjoying the music instead! :)
I bookmarked the site you linked and will check it out.

Sad to hear about the onions. I've lost 12 pounds so far without eating a single Adkins bar or drink or buying or reading any books. I do have two law partners who have and we talk Atkins twice a day and eat lunch together almost every day. I only regret excluding beer and that, in fact, is the main backsliding. I also do regret excluding fruit and still crave it. But like the author, I have no compulsion to each cookies, chips, and am slightly repulsed by them. Once I recognized the concept that I could not eat just one but I could eat none, I was safe to the point that I can survive carb free my daughter making six batches of chocolate chip cookies in one weekend.

"I wonder why doctors don't just stop all other treatments for both and put all their patients on the Atkins diet."

I have read all of Atkins books and he makes a good case for media bias that has been going on for 30 years.

Doctors can't give anything out unless it is easy and you need self dicipline to do Atkins. Telling a patient with acid reflux disease to stop eating carbs is not as easy as saying take one 100s of perscription acid relievers on the market. I've heard that anti-acid meds are the most profitable drugs so this may be a factor keep the drug companies happy.

"Your diet sounds very sensible to me... BUT Atkins doesn't"

I think as with a lot of things you need to consider on what basis do you judge. Are you instinctively dismissing Atkins or are you looking for data to support how you believe. If Atkins just sounds bad you’ll just never accept it because you've been programmed to think that it is bad.

I don’t want to blow this out of proportion but you believe in red wine for health reasons based on some thing you’ve read. These "facts" are base on scientific studies. In the last two years I’ve read:

That butter was bad now it is good but watch out for trans-fatty acids (some margarines). Beer was bad and red wine was good. Now beer is good! Coffee is bad but green tea is good. Oh, correction coffee is now good for you. Need I go on.

Don't be too hard on doctors. Its common for us to see dozens of increadibly obese people, some barely over 5 ft tall and yet outweighing Shaq. Along with obesity comes a myriad of other physical ailments such as reflux disease, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, etc. Many of these need medication to correct. frequently patients become very upset if you bluntly say, "you're too fat, loose weight and all these problems will resolve on their own." Sometimes, in an effort to be tactful, this message is lost on patients and the only thing their left with is a bag of pills.

With regard to losing weight, the problem is as economic as it is physiologic: expenses must exceed revenues over the long-haul to achieve a net calorie deficit and fat loss. Some of the disputes over how this is achieved is because we are discussing the issue in the context of a bountiful, prodigiously caloric Western culture, where a supersize burger, fries an soda can add about 3,000 calories to the diet in a few minutes, all for about 5 bucks. This just doesn't exist for most of the world's population.

So, how does one loose fat in our environment? For most of us, dieting is difficult because of the sensation of hunger it produces, not to mention the pleasure we derive from food. The mitigation of hunger is where the type and distribution of foods becomes most important (assuming nutritional quality is high). A diet that emphasizes a higher ratio of proteins and fats over carbohydrates when compared to a typical Western distribution can allow the dieter to consume lower total calories and avoid intolerable hunger pangs. The high protein, less carbs, and reasonable fats diet is an excellent choice, especially for the seriously obese individual whose excercise tolerance is severely limited. As fat and weight is reduced, adding even a little excerise will begin to accellerate the process. Other tactics can be usefull for those who are moderately or mildly obese, but those can be discussed in another thread.

"The high protein, less carbs, and reasonable fats diet is an excellent choice, especially for the seriously obese individual whose excercise tolerance is
severely limited."

This is the Atkins approach and this is what he has defended but as this thread testifies many people are biased against the approach. I eat a salad daily for lunch and supper but I use ranch = high fat dressing. Most fat fanatics don't understand the fat in the dressing is not a problem because as you point out it does not cause after dinner cravings so I eat less calories but high fat and still lose weight.

Would you care to comment on my post # 75 where I lamblast the "science" the media blasts us with on a daily basis based on questionable studies. The "in list" today; red wine, beer and butter.(low fat everything was on the list but this is now passe.) This is today and this list changes on a daily basis depending on Prevention magazine's latest article on what's "healthy".

if you consume fewer calories than you burn then you will lose weight no matter what diet you are on.

This is not entirely correct. Atkins references studies where groups of dieter's ate identical caloric intake, but with different porportions of carbs, protiens, and fats. The low carb dieters lost significantly more weight - and lost fat weight, and much less muscle fiber than other diet regimes. There are a number of physiologic reasons for this effect, described in Atkins books. Weight loss depends on the composition of the diet as well as the caloric and metabolic balance.

"When you or your son or anyone else loses weight it is because you expended more calories than you consumed. There is no magic involved nor any method other that the method God provided you. And when you expend less calories than you consume the body converts those calories to fat."

Yes Exactly the M.M.E.L. Diet!

Move More Eat Less

works every time!

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