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.

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[carlo3b]

WITH SPELL CHECK... DUH!... sorry Charlie, everything is relative. Measuring low-carb is in ones own mind. Ideally, no-carb is the nirvana, but unpracticed, and low-carb is were we all end up. Beer is not necessarily a no no. There are low carb beers on the market today, typically about 2.2 carbs per 12 oz serving. If you are unwilling to bypass the REAL BEER, at 20 carbs per can, and Lite beer, varies between 4.5 - 5.5 per. However, when comparing it to sodas, Diet Cola are 1 carb per 12 oz, and REAL COLA is 51...Lemonade is 40.... YIKES
Water is the drink of choice for any diet, containing 0... and with iced tea... 1 carb.  The wise dieter should drink plenty of water (8 to 10 glasses per day).

[Tephi]

Fat is good!

Down with sugar!

[BibChr]

FWIW, I'd double check carlo's numbers to you; a number of them don't jibe at all with my memory. Diet Coke, for instance, has zero carbs; as with all diet soda's. And as a rule, you'll find that "low fat" products often have MORE carbs than regular! Go figure!

Dan

[carlo3b]

FWIW, I'd double check carlo's numbers to you; a number of them don't jibe at all with my memory. Diet Coke, for instance, has zero carbs; as with all diet soda's.

WHAT????????...LOLOLOL

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Gee, maybe there is hope for us carnivores after all, and may all the PITA-Veggies commit nutritional suicide!

[BibChr]

Yyyyyyyyeah, I suppose that's ONE way of using your allotment of carbs....

I have been heard to argue that beer is the perfect Meal in a Can{tm}, with all your essential nutritional needs: roughage (hops, barley, malt); fat, carbohydrates....

Dan
(c8

[BibChr]

Yes, I know; who am I, who don't even HAVE a cooking-with-Dan web site, to venture an opinion?

Dan
(c;

[Johnbalaya]

Yeehaaa to that

Carnivores unite! Plants have feelings too!

:P

[carlo3b]

Hey Bib....but who's counting

Drinks (serving size) Carbs (g)
Club soda (1 can, 16 fl oz) 0g
Cola (1 can, 16 fl oz) 51g
Diet cola (1 can, 16 fl oz) 1g
Ginger ale (1 can, 16 fl oz) 42g
Tonic water (1 bottle, 11 fl oz) 30g
Orangeade (375 ml) 48g
Lemonade (375 ml) 40g
Lemon & lime (375 ml) 40g
 

[carlo3b]

Relax Dan, just a joke...sheeesh.. have a diet coke, and chill!... LOL

[carton253]

Fat is the "taste..." When the fat is removed, "taste" has to be readded to the processed food. That is done through sweetners, sugars, etc. Hence low-fat food is heavy in carbs...

[BibChr]

So... if it's wrong, but you put it in column form, it's right? Hunh; I'll have to try that!

Meanwhile, if you're drinking some diet coke with carbs, you're drinking the wrong diet coke.

Dan

[BibChr]

Deal! Make it a Hansen's!

(c8
Dan

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Most doctors know nothing about nutrition. Dr Jebb is just another example. Dr Atkins was exceptional in that he studied nutritional effects and built a comprehensive, effective diet plan from his studies.

Carbs kill. Carbs are the root of the Type II diabetes problem in this country. Carbs have created the obesity problem in this country. It is not the fat in a McDonald's burger, it is the bun, the fries, the soft drink that comes with the burger that does the damage. With few exceptions most Type II diabetics are also tending toward obesity.

Another nutritional addiction that does serious damage to many of us is a dependency on prepared foods loaded with trans-fats.

Dr Atkins addressed both of these issues with his approach to a healthy diet.

[carlo3b]

It's on me!! Bottoms up...

[Old Professer]

Throw away that imitation butter and eat the real thing.

[Old Professer]

It is clear from this passage that the Atkins people were regainingweight by the end of one year.

Actually there is nothing clear about this passage:

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

Like you, however, I believe the author is trying to say that the Atkins dieters had a net weight loss of about 14 pounds after one year even though they actually weighed less on six months of the diet in the beginning.

The problem here is that we aren't privy to the numbers; for all we know, a few of the dieters could have just pigged out and skewed the results for the whole group as time went on.

[Old Professer]

From your link:

An online subscription or single article purchase is required to access this article:

[SamAdams76]

I have continued to drink beer all through this plan, as well as wine. Remember, a low-carb diet does not mean zero or some ridiculously low amount (unless you are doing the Atkins 2-week induction phase). I try to keep my carbs under 100 grams a day. For comparison, the average American consumes some 450 grams of carbs per day! Most beers have about 17 carbs per 12-oz bottle, so having a couple of beers (or even three) isn't necessarily inconsistent with a low-carb diet (provided you watch your carb intake elsewhere).

Beer fits into my diet anyhow being that it is all natural ingredients. Water, barley, hops and yeast. That's it. All from nature. And the carbs are complex carbs. You are much better off having a beer than a Diet Coke with all those unpronounceable ingredients that sound like they came from a mad scientists laboratory.

I've tried the low-carb Michelob beer and I just don't like it.

[Mamzelle]

re: If you want to see a huge markup, look at breakfast cereal. The world is awash with grain but you pay a fortune for a box of grain and sugar mixed together.

Beingideological myself, perhaps I see ideology everywhere...BUT...I think it's more than money and more than PETA. When you eat meat, there's this mentality that you're eating "more than your share."