Anti-Atkins nutritionist working for flour millers

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 18/08/2003 | Tom Peterkin

[PhilipFreneau]

The nutritionist who condemned the protein-based Atkins Diet is working on a report looking at the benefits of a high-carbohydrate diet funded by the Flour Advisory Bureau (Fab).

It emerged yesterday that Susan Jebb, the head of nutrition and health research at the Medical Research Council (MRC), has been commissioned by Fab, the organisation which is recognised as the lobbying arm of the National Association of British and Irish Millers.

The council will be paid £10,000 by Fab for the study, which involves Dr Jebb reviewing scientific literature investigating diets that are high in carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and rice.

Last week she caused consternation among devotees of the Atkins Diet when she said that there was not a "shred of evidence" to suggest that it worked. Followers of the diet are allowed to eat as much protein and fat as they like provided that they cut out carbohydrates altogether.

[Mihalis]

I'd rather live the rest of my life eating lots of pasta and drinking lots of red wine.

And being thin, at the same time.

Get it?

[Mihalis]

I never said anything about homo sapiens. I'm talking about 100,000 years later.

Just a little timing error.

For your information, homo sapiens didn't like ice cream very much...or a glass of red wine. But I do from time to time.

[LurkerNoMore!]

You need to stop baking your potatoes in Reynolds Wrap, fella.

[angkor]

I'm asking you to explain how Atkins is not "balanced" (this was your assertion), compared to the hunter-gather diet which carried the human species through 100,000+ years of survival (not to mention 200,000 years of homo erectus).

Hunter-gatherer societies have consistently been found to be healthier than agricultural societies in terms of disease and other indicators.

More to the present, the purportedly "balanced" USDA food pyramid recommends 5 times more daily carbohydrates (grains, vegetables, fruits) than proteins (eggs, fish, meats), not to mention dairy. That diet simply wasn't available to hunter-gatherers for several 100,000 years. So this diet of "grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy" is deemed "balanced" on what basis? Certainly not human evolution or mere survival of the species (remember we are talking pre-agriculture).

And again I ask you for why more than half of a human being's teeth (incisors, canines) have evolved for the purpose of ripping and tearing animal flesh. Accident?

[angkor]

The food-grain and -oil producers and the food megagiants find pet researchers who twiddle with figures and manipulate research to make the numbers say what they want

A new "study" was discussed here on FR only a few weeks ago, I believe from the Univ. Of Michigan.

The study asserted that people who eat a nice big cereal breakfast tend to be thin, while those who eat no breakfast or (even worse) bacon and eggs, tend to be fatties.

Noted in passing was that this "comprehensive" study was financed in part by Kellogg.

[angkor]

They can get it to work in practice, but not in theory.

Yeah, and I don't understand why I've lost 16 pounds and feel better after 4 weeks on a more-or-less Atkins regime.

Also why/how one friend lost 60 pounds in 2.5 months, or another 110 pounds in 10 months.

[Sam Cree]

How long have you been eating lots of pasta?

[templar]

Please describe how the natural diet of the hunter-gatherer homo sapiens (circa 100,000 BC) was "balanced" before the introduction of organized agriculture (circa 9,000 BC).

What was the average lifespan before and after?

Health is what matters, and it has two aspects that are improtant to me.

(1)length of life
(2)the physical condition to do whatever activity I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing it wihtout worrying about my physical condition.

Aspect 2 is far more important to me than 1. I have absolutely no intention of spending the last 20 years of a long life sitting in a wheelchair drooling on myself.

There is probably no greater physical limitation than serious overweight (say, 40 pounds overweight or more). If a diet works to help someone get rid of this limitation, what difference does it make whether it's 'balanced' or not? If they lose a few years of longevity and gain the opportunity to live fully, they come out ahead, IMO.

[BibChr]

LOL/who-knew?/wait-we-ALL-knew! PING!!!

[jennyp]

aHA! Good find!

[Young Rhino]

Thanks for the ping. I actually switched from Atkins to Neanderthin diet about 3 months ago. Less weight loss than Atkins for me but with exercise, I'm building solid muscle mass and reducing size. The low-carb simply works...less hunger and more energy long-term.

[SauronOfMordor]

Scientific evidence abounds on the good effects of a low-carbohydrate diet. Just because the government or the press says high-carb is best, doesn't mean it is. Nine times out of ten, you will find that the "scientists" who tout these perverted diets are (or have been) in the pay of the food giants. The food-grain and -oil producers and the food megagiants find pet researchers who twiddle with figures and manipulate research to make the numbers say what they want, but the medical FACTS are out there if anyone cares to research the subject. Read Uffe Ravnskov's book, THE CHOLESTEROL MYTHS by Uffe Ravnskov. He researched the RESEARCH, and found some very interesting hanky-panky.

You've noticed the dirty little secret of modern scientific research -- no research gets done unless it is financed by a grant, and the researcher is under a lot of pressure to not produce results that would distress the grant issuer.

[Mamzelle]

Atkins bread is expensive and inconvenient to obtain--try "Nature's Own" locarb bread available for less than two bucks at WalMart grocery--and most other big grocery stores, too.

[BibChr]

Yes, but... how do you cope with the hair growing on your knuckles, and the sloping forehead??

Dan
(c;

[Young Rhino]

Yes, but... how do you cope with the hair growing on your knuckles, and the sloping forehead??

I just tell people that I'm related to James Carville. :-)

[cashion]

But it has a huge problem: it's NOT balanced.

Balanced on what scale? If you compare it to the food pyramid, you're right, it's not balanced. Atkins is based on the concept that the food pyramid is completely off-kilter, so the generally recognized "balance" does not apply.

[SauronOfMordor]

Thanks for the ping. I actually switched from Atkins to Neanderthin diet about 3 months ago. Less weight loss than Atkins for me but with exercise, I'm building solid muscle mass and reducing size. The low-carb simply works...less hunger and more energy long-term.

I switched my middle daughter to a high-meat/low-carb diet three years ago, to handle her hypoglycemia (low-blood-sugar). We had just pulled her out of first grade and started homeschooling her when the school started demanding we let them Ritalinize her in order to control certain behavior problems (going into hysterical crying for 20 minutes at a time when she got stressed)

I finally figured out she was exhibiting all the symptoms of hypoglycemia, and switched her diet. Previously, her breakfast consisted of cerial, frozen waffles, and other carb junk. This would cause her blood-sugar level to spike, and then crash at about 10-11 am (which is when the problems would occur). The advantage of meat is that it digests slowly, producing a stable blood-sugar level over a longer period of time. Highly-processed carbs, on the other hand, digest quickly, producing a glucose spike which causes the body to crank out insulin to signal the body to store the excess glucose as glycogen and (when the liver cant hold any more glycogen) to convert it to fat.

[Stallone]

Academics, who tend Democratic/Socialist, are the entire problem.

These pin-headed arrogant close-minded morons are the same ones who are busy 'curing' cancer. It will never happen from within. An entrepreneur/capitalist outside of the mainstream is our only hope.

The conspiracy of these unionized medical community parasites to dictate our lives is once again outed.

Don't trust them if you want to live.

Atkins works. Period.

Let these fat-assed morons twist in the wind.

[hopespringseternal]

And most important: it's not a great way to live the rest of your life.

I am not a strict dieter, but I have found some of the Atkins principles very useful in keep my weight steady. I followed the high carb guidelines for years and steadily gained weight.

Now I still eat plenty of carbs, but I don't labor under the impression that it is good for me to replace most of my intake with carbs.

My weight is decreasing very slowly with a lot of stability, meaning no sudden spikes of five or ten pounds that restrictive diets tended to produce.

Atkins balanced my diet that was badly skewed by food pyramid thinking, and it is a great way to live the rest of your life.

[monkeyshine]

it's not a great way to live the rest of your life.

I can't think of many better ways to live the rest of my life than by eating juicy red meat steaks every day. mmmm mmmm mmmm. I may not live as long as I would otherwise, but it would be a pretty good way to live in my humble opinion.