ATKINS ALERT

THE DAILY RECORD ^ | Aug 13 2003 | Keith Mcleod

[carlo3b]

News
ATKINS ALERT

Aug 13 2003

Diet followers at risk, says expert

Keith Mcleod

SLIMMERS following the controversial Atkins diet are gambling with their health, a nutrition expert has warned.

Dr Susan Jebb said it would be "negligent" to recommend the diet, favoured by stars such as Geri Halliwell and Catherine Zeta-Jones, to anyone overweight.

Millions of people around the world have tried the low-carbohydrate, high-protein regime.

But Dr Jebb, of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said its claimed benefits were based on "pseudo-science".

She argued that, despite a number of studies, no one knew what the long- term effects might be.

Dr Robert Atkins, who developed the diet, believed that carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables made the body produce too much insulin.

He claimed that led to hunger and weight gain.

His answer was to avoid such foods and eat unlimited amounts of fat and protein, leading the body to burn fat.

But Dr Jebb said such a dramatic change in eating habits was a leap in the dark.

For most people, protein accounts for a mere 15 per cent of their calorie intake. But much higher levels are eaten on the Atkins diet.

Dr Jebb said: "We simply do not know the long-term health implications.

"I certainly think we should be adopting a precautionary principle in terms of public health."

Her warning comes two months after two teams of American scientists declared the Atkins diet was effective and safe.

They found that over six months, 63 Atkins slimmers lost almost twice as much weight, an average of one and a half stone.

After a year, the gap had closed though, with the Atkins dieters down to an average weight loss of a stone compared with half a stone for others.

But Dr Jebb said the studies were too limited to provide meaningful evidence.

Dr Atkins died in April, aged 72, after slipping on ice outside his New York office and hitting his head.

Top

[ironman]

I've got an event in 4 weeks so the next 3 weeks will be really hard training. I did some great bike work last week and for the first time in well over a year did a run work out on the track this morning. I haven't raced since the Hawaii Ironman last year. I needed a little break mentally and physically. Had some probs with a knee in the spring. I know my body very well and I'm comming into really good form. In 3 weeks I'll be ready to hammer. I wish the average american was more physically fit. If the average person did a third of the training I did they'd have their weight under reasonable control. They'd be worried about the best sports drinks to buy and where to get the best prices on PowerBars rather than avoiding carbs.

[Johnbalaya]

Did Al Roker lose all his weight from the Atkins diet? I just saw him on tv and i haven't looked at morning news in a long time and holy cow, I barely recognized him!

[BibChr]

I haven't done any ice cream yet. I know a FReeper who has an ice cream recipe; I'll FRemail her, ask her to share it with you.

Mostly used that site for the bars, AND for the low-carb TORTILLA's! They're great! Also Ketostix.

They have Atkins bars for the lowest price anywhere. Look and look, and you'll find a box discounted to $22. They have them for $19.

Dan

[fml]

I like your grandfathers advice, and our family lives by the same rules. When we went to buy a treadmill the guy working at the store (really old man) told us not to waste our money and simple eat a little less and take walks around the neighborhood. We took his advice and lost a total of 75 lbs. btwn both of us ( in 4 monthes) All these "special" diets seem to another reason for people to sheeple. IMHO.

[T Wayne]

I started Atkins in Jan 2002 at 314 lbs. I wore a 48 waist and XXX shirts.

I now weigh 195, wear 36 waist and med shirts. Have not felt this good in 30 years.


As someone posted earlier, I am now able to exersize without pain on a regular basis because of the weight loss. My goal is to loose another 25 lb of fat and put on 10 to 15 lbs. of muscle.


Yes, it gets easier to pass up dessert, breads, etc. because you do not have the cravings created by the sugars and you feel so good that you don't want to go back.

Good luck!!

[lysie]

Thank you.

[BibChr]

EXcellent, great to hear! What you lost is TOWARDS what I'm looking at. How tall are you? What age, if you don't mind my asking?

Were you too surprised at how much better you felt, and how soon?

Dan

[najida]

I agree...
Atkins is another fad (that is already passing)

It is the long term results that mark success.
As in years...

[Sunshine55]

Thanks for posting that site. I have been on Atkins for 34 days now, and have lost a pound a day. I look forward to getting up in the morning and don't dread looking in the mirror anymore. But I can say this: there are days that I absolutely would kill for a few chocolate-covered graham crackers or anything alse besides sugar-free Jello shakes :)
I intend to use this website OFTEN!

[SamAdams76]

Sam, what diet have you followed? Is it a named diet, or a suitable method that you have devised that works for you..what makes it different?

Well I've read all the major low-carb diet books on the market and the method I decided to adopt is a hybrid of them with the addition of a few tweaks of my own.

So in essence, my plan is bascially my own. I am documenting what I am doing with the expectation of perhaps starting a website of my own (with perhaps a book too, who knows?). So successful has been my program and so unique that I believe I might be onto something here.

My plan differs from Atkins in several ways. For example, there is no induction diet. Nor do I eat the processed junk (my humble opinion) that Atkins sells as "snack bars" and such. Don't get me wrong, I respect all Atkins has done for low-carbing, but I chose a different approach. I eliminated nearly all processed foods from my diet. Now in America, that is tough to do as just about everything is processed to some extent. But it is possible to have a varied diet consisting of foods that are more or less "whole" and not refined or processed, etc.

But my plan is more than just a diet. It's a total lifestyle. I do two long walks a day (at least an hour for each one), brisk walks, every single day. None of this "three days a week for 20 minutes" crap. I get up at 5am to do my first walk and do my second walk at noontime. I believe this is essential to keep your metabolism going throughout the day at peak efficiency. It takes a committment but I found that it is very easy to work the walks into my hectic lifestyle. The 5am walk is no problem because nobody is up that time of day and there is no scheduling conflict. The noontime walk can sometimes not be convenient to one's work schedule but when I can't do my noontime walk, I simply do it in the evening. Most days however, I am able to do it at lunchtime. BTW, for lunch, I have a quick tin of sardines or a small bag of nuts with maybe a wedge of cheese. So lunch for me is basically a snack on the run. My main meals are breakfast and dinner.

I also drink close to a gallon of water a day - minimum.

There is a lot that I do and I am making adjustments as I go along. I am documenting all of this and I hope to have a website someday laying it all out in detail.

[BibChr]

Isn't that the truth? And it only gets better. I still hate seeing pictures of myself (and probably will for another 3000 pounds or so), but mirrors are more my FRIEND again. Well, more or less. So are clothing stores.

Ooh, you like chocolate grahams? The Atkins S'mores bar is a good bar; but the Carbrite S'mores SO tastes like a graham cracker, with that coating of chocolate! I prefer a flaky texture (Atkins) over a more chewy texture (Carbrite), but if it's that flavor you want, they have it.

Check it out here , or here.

Dan

[SouthParkRepublican]

”But Dr Jebb, of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said its claimed benefits were based on "pseudo-science".

One of the guys in my marketing dept has dropped over 100lbs on Atkins. Call it a pseudo-scientific benefit.

[Protagoras]

If you have to stick with it for the rest of your life in order to keep the pounds off, most people just aren't going to do that.

I have never seen ANY diet that works when you aren't on it.

[carton253]

I'd like to put up a small warning. Not about the diet. I've been on it since February and have lost 39.5 pounds and a whole bunch of sizes.

Here's my warning...

Alot of the low carb products have sugar alcohol in it. While in most people, sugar alcohol has no effect on them, on some (me, darn it) sugar alcohol does stop weight loss.

Even though the Atkins breakfast bars do not have sugar alcohol in it, one of the chief complaints on the atkins message board is that they stop weight loss.

My friend has lost 34.5 pounds and she can eat the candy bars and the breakfast bars and all the bars and it doesn't affect her.

Dan, it doesn't sound like it effects you either. I hate you because of that :)

If you want ice cream, Splendor puts out great ice creams also. Just watch the sugar alcohol.

One more warning... sugar alcohol can act like a laxative since manitol (I know I didn't spell it correctly) (manitol is another form of sugar alcohol) is the main ingredient in baby laxative.

Good fortune on your diet.

Dan, keep up the good work. I totally agree with you. This stopped being a diet for me and became a way of life because I feel great.

[carlo3b]

I am documenting all of this and I hope to have a website someday laying it all out in detail.

Sam keep me informed, I too am looking into this area.. BTW if you need any special recipes..ping me!

[PhilipFreneau]

>> Did Al Roker lose all his weight from the Atkins diet?

No, he had some sort of stomach surgery.

[T Wayne]

Don't mind at all. I'm 6' 3" and will be 55 in Oct.

I lost 5 to 8 lbe a week for several months, 50 lbs in 3 months. The results were dramatic, almost immediately. Friends were doing double takes.

And yes, the improvement in "feeling" was almost instant for me.

It took me about 4 days to get over the "if you get between me and the fridge, I'm going to hurt you" hungries. Haven't really been hungry since. During that 4 days, I followed Dr.A's advice, "If you are hungry, EAT foods that are allowed on the induction diet. I was probable eating 3 to 4 thousand calories on those days but I still saw immediate weight loss.

Good Luck!!!

T

[NeonKnight]

I am not on any particular diet, but I do try to eat my carbs in the morning (preferably complex) and proteins in the evening. It's really quite simple. Brain food in the morning, muscle growth in the evening.

[PhilipFreneau]

>> And, I drink two glasses of wine every night, too. White wine has 3 grams of carbs in a four ounce glass.

I drink 4-6 ounces of Merlot 4 or 5 times a week (I don't like wine that much to drink it every day). I always drink it after eating red meat. I rarely drink beer (maybe half a dozen this year), but I use a beer basting to baste rib roasts, turkeys, chickens and game hens on the rotisserie.

[MHT]

Everybody knows what the long-term effect is: Death. Just like everyone else, we all ultimately die, whether or not we diet.

Exercise, Diet, Die Anyway!