Well, last time I posted a link to a news article that had found a probable hazard of a high fat diet, I got all the Atkin’s people and just barely didn’t get sent to Great Debates. So this time, I’ll save UncleBeer, et.al. some trouble.
[ul][li]The article is about a study of a “special high-fat diet that helps control seizures” that “severely limits the consumption of protein and carbohydrates”. This is not the Atkins plan. The Atkins plan has plenty of protein. There’s no reason to assume that people with adequate protein are going to have bruising like the patients on the low-protein epilepsy diet. To me, it seems quite expected that if you’re not eating enough protein, your blood may not operate as usual. (I’m not a doctor.)[/li][li]The study’s lead author says “that for most patients, the bruising is a minor problem.” If the doc doesn’t call it a major problem, I’m just not going to get all that worried about it.[/li][li]The study was done on “51 people with epilepsy”. That’s a tiny group for a study. There are thousands of people using the Atkins plan, most of whom are not epileptic, that have not been studied. I’ll wait for a more-balanced study.[/li][li]The Atkins plan is not necessarily high fat. Fat is not restricted too much, but you are certainly not required to eat extra fat. Protein is the key element, not fat.[/li][/ul]
I have gone on the Atkins diet twice, but will not do so again.
Both times, I DID lose a lot of weight, quickly and surprisingly easily. The problem is, the second time I did it, though I lost weight, my cholesterol level SKYROCKETED to dangerous levels.
Now, I’m NOT saying this will happen to everyone who follows the Atkins diet. But in MY case, it’s pretty obviously a bad plan to follow. If I stayed on it, I’d probably end up a skinny corpse!
So, to anyone who DOES try it, I urge you to monitor your cholesterol the whole time.
Absolutely. Your breath and your body stink as you rid yourself of ketones.
Fad/crash diets do not work and are not, generally speaking, safe. Atkins suggests that you take approximately 30 different pills a day to make up for the nutrients the Atkins diet is lacking. Does that sound like a healthy way to eat to you?
Not sure about the BO thing; haven’t noticed it myself.
I have to disagree with you about this statement, SexyWriter:
Atkins himself says, “Supplements are required because I believe that everyone requires supplements” in this interview. (Emphasis mine.)
He wrote the plan, so he gets to recommend what he wants to. That does not mean that nutrients in the Atkins plan are any more or less lacking than in any other eating plan.
My understanding is that the only nutrient you really need to take care about is potassium, because you’re excreting much more water than before, and your body is excreting potassium in this water more rapidly than you’re taking it in.
Also, every diet/eating plan/whatever I have ever seen recommends taking supplements. Taking supplements is standard practice and recommended by many a doctor, regardless of which way you go. Therefore, I think that pointing out that Atkins recommends supplements is a red herring.
Standard disclaimer: As always, YMMV for people with existing physical problems, consult your physician, etc.
ok, atkins advocate here. I did this diet religiously for 5 months, stuffed my face silly on good stuff, lost 38 lbs, took a generic multivitamin every day. I loved it. I felt better, my blood pressure and cholesterol went down. My main problem was I was finding myself straying from the diet due to time constraints. It isn’t real easy to stay on a low carb diet unless you are cooking for yourself. A late night here and there and you dont want to get up early for your sausage and eggs
Atkins is not a “crash diet” in the book it specificly states that this is intended as a long term program.
Tracer I am disappointed in you, you gave two cites that are pretty much empty fluff if not outright misleading.
I wonder if these people read the book :rolleyes:
I ate like a freaking pig and still lost weight, I ate tons of vegetables (something the article claims the diet neglects) meat, cheese, and eggs.
If they read the Atkins book you will see the discussions on why your appetite is supressed. Stabilization of blood glucose levels due to less efficent production of glucose (the fuel of our cells, not carbohydrates). Our bodies can make glucose and or glucose like compounds (glycogen, etc)from any food we eat its just less efficent than carbohydrate metabolism. Ketones are a byproduct of matabolizing fats, which, if you’re burning body fat on any diet you will be in ketosis and you will have ketones in your bloodstream and urine
Because it is less efficent to convert fats to glucose compounds people on the atkins diet will have problems doing strenuous activity because it is easier for you to burn off your blood glucose faster than your body can replace it. The diet is not recommended for people who need fast energy (athletes and such) because they will not have the energy they need fast enough and will probably pass out from low bood glucose. I went out playing laser tag with some friends while I was on the diet, so i went and grabbed a bottle of <insert favorite sport beverage here> and nursed it throughout the night. I was fine.
I am actually sitting here contemplating getting back on the program again and seeing if I stick with it longer.
Do not flame me for posting this question related to the OP–I’m actually just curious and am not trying to wage an attack on the Atkins diet.
In my Dual Enrollment biology class, they taught us that protein was dealt with largely by the liver, and that the end products of this reaction were some ammonia compounds and some other nasty stuff. This partially explains the ketosis, fascinating body odor, and extra strain on the kidneys that some protein diet users experience.
However, I always wondered about this:
When one drinks alcohol, the liver is responsible for dealing with that particular toxin. Supposedly, with a sufficiently large amount of alcohol in the bloodstream, it does this to the exclusion of its aforementioned duty of metabolizing protein. If you’re on a high-protein diet and are a moderate or heavy drinker, what would happen? Would protein metabolism be slowed (by alcohol elimination) to the point that severe health problems might result? I’m asking because, if so, this wouldn’t be a good way for people to get rid of the common “beer gut” for reasons that should be obvious.
Any Atkin’s dieter that I’ve ever mentioned this to gets REALLY upset, however…
There is some emperical evidence, (coming out of the Mayo Clinic I believe - I can find the exact citation if its that big a deal…) that suggests that, in people with a genetic pre-disposition (of which they may not be aware), a high protein diet, like that advocated by Atkins, can lead to kidney damage and possible kidney failure. Just something to keep in mind…
And, incidentally, whats wrong with the “Eat Less, Move Around More” diet? Having lost 50lbs after quiting smoking, and having kept it of for the past 5 years using this particular method, I can certainly attest to its success.
Sadly, I don’t get to eat like a pig - I’m forced to eat like a human instead…
I have never tried the Atkins diet, I don’t like meat enough, but I have tried Sugar Busters. If I remember each plan correctly the only real difference in the two is the addition of fruits at very restricted times of the day (not within two hours of eating meat) and eating very few whole grain foods in the Sugar Busters plan. The key to both diets I think is low simple carbohydates. From talking to my friends some people can go low fat and lose weight and some can’t. I have a slight blood sugar problem and I believe that is why I have more luck with a low simple carbohydrate/ low sugar diet. Maybe people with naturally stable blood sugar do better with the low fat diets. Some people might also be more adversly affected by any extreme diet than others.
However the diet they are on is to induce ketosis, the cornerstone of Atkin’s theory.
I wouldn’t say no reason - after all, both diets have the stated purpose of inducing ketosis - if it is the ketosis that causes the problem, then Atkin’s diet (if it does what it says it does) has a similar risk.
I agree that there is a possibility that the results may be simply because the low protein consumption or high fat consumption - it may also be because of low carbohydrate consumption - carbohydrates do perform more tasks than just providing energy.
That’s fine, as far as I’m concerned this is really just one small piece of evidence that Atkin’s is not necessarily as safe as Atkins paints it
I agree the study is small (although not necessarily too small to be statistically invalid) This sounds more like a initial heads up type of study than a full-scale research project
I agree! So you want to tell me why, when I posted a thread called More reasons to reduce your fat intake most of the responses I got were from Atkin’s people defending their diet?
No matter what the diet, it is a metabolic state not a magical after effect of the atkins diet. If your body has no new food in it, after a few hours it starts breaking down body fat for energy.
Atkins tries to keep your body in ketosis for as long as possible. To do this you avoid carbs so your body is using fat as much as possible, from your food or stored body fat.
yes
I had a teacher once tell me that even straight alchohol has 7 calories per gram. AKA alcohol = food
yes it does mess with protien metabolism
You get fatter, diet will not work
Beer is made from fermented barley malt (pronounced a ton of carbohydrates). Yeast converts carbs into alcohol but in beer the yeast dies out with alot of sugars still in the mixture.
How many calories per day did you consume while you were on the Atkins diet? And how many calories per day did you consume while you were off the Atkins diet?
No guessing – I want real numbers here. Many of the people on the Atkins (and on the Zone) diet feel that they are eating like a pig, when in fact the total elimination of certain foods from their diets may mean they are getting “bored” more quickly with the foods they are allowed to eat and are thus losing their appetite more quickly. Hence, they consume fewer calories on the diet than they did while they were off the diet. In which case they are losing weight because calories-in < calories-out.
Being a sometime student of dietetics, the OP caught my interest so I did a big search on high fat (ketogenic diets) and found more information than I expected. It would appear that the ketogenic diet works well to control epileptic seizures in pediatric patients but is not reccomended for adults. http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/1998/co2-6high.htm
I also found some basic information about ketogenic diets themselves and their possible detrimental effects here http://www.hcrc.org/faqs/atkins.html
It’s my opinion that fad diets in general are a poor substitution for healthy eating and regular exercise and the ADA (American Dietetic Association) supports this here http://www.eatright.org/dieting.html
No slight is intended toward anyone who advocates fad diets, but I do have a concern about the overall health benefits these diets provide.
Last night on Nova (PBS), they did a show on annorexia nervosa and other eating disorders. One comment by one of the young women interviewed caught my attention: She had been eating a totally fat-free diet for several years, on the theory that fat = weight gain. But the moment she added fat to her diet (increasing her total grams of fat per day to 30), her weight quickly dropped several pounds.
This would, on the surface at least, seem to vindicate some of what the Atkins and Zone diets have been advocating; i.e. that eating too little fat will work against you. It is important to note, however, that 30 grams per day is still less than what Barry Sears’ Zone Diet recommends, and less than the maximum daily intake of 50 grams recommended for a 2000-calorie diet by the Heart Association.
I have been on a low-carb diet (I stop telling people that it’s Atkins, because of the violent knee-jerk reaction most people have to that name) for over 9 months. I have lost 35 lbs. I feel wonderful. I have done an unbelievable amount of reading on this subject, however I’m at work and have limited access to the library of links that I have. Anyone who wants more info from me later can feel free to email me.
I feel the need to clear up just a few misconceptions about low-carbing in general:
There are no diets that I’m aware of that advocate no-carb, however I hear Atkins (and others) referred to frequently as such. The only type of carbs that are completely eliminated are refined sugar and flour, which have absolutely no nutritional value and wreak havoc with one’s blood sugar. All of the low-carb plans advocate eating green vegetables, low-glycemic fruits and eventually (in the maintenance stage) add back whole grains, beans, etc.
Eating fat does not make you fat, just as eating protein will not make you muscular.
Eating fat/cholesterol does not give you high cholesterol. See this link to some common Cholesterol Myths
Low carbing does not work for everyone. However, for many people who have an ultra-sensitivity to carbohydrates, especially in the form of refined sugar/flour, low carbing works, and works safely and effectively. See this link for information on The World’s Biggest Fad Diet
Nutrition articles generally have no stake in supporting low carb, as it goes against everything their advertisers are pushing. Here’s an article by a former magazine writer that talks in depth about How Nutrition Articles Really Get Written. Here’s another called The Oiling Of America which explains how the idea that animal fat was bad for us came from…basically, the the agriculture industry.
Last, but not least, although people generally refer to low carb diets as “fad” diets, they are anything but. Not only have they been around for generations, but every book that I’ve read has advocated adapting the “diet” as a lifetime way of eating, and has outlined a maintenance stage of the diet. Anyone who tries this diet with the idea that they’ll low carb for a few weeks and then go back to “regular” eating when they shed a few pounds is destined for failure.
As for the scientific points from the article in the OP, I can only recommend reading up on some (unbiased) articles about low carbing, or even some of the many books out there on the topic. Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution does, IMO, come across as quite propaganda-ish, although he does an adequate job of explaining the theory behind it. The Eades’ Protein Power has a better technical explanation, and for all intents and purposes, their diet is the same as Atkins, although they don’t engender quite the same vehemence against low carbing as Atkins does. Sugarbusters, The Zone, Sommersizing…again, all good info, and work for many people.
So much for being short.
[/stepping off of pedestal]
[sup]Should I mention that I eat 3 eggs with cheese every single day for breakfast, and my total cholesterol is 125?[/sup]
Jadis–thanks for the excellent links to Oiling of America and How Nutrition Articles… I hadn’t seen those two before.
I’m an Atkinist. Been doing it for more than a year. Lost my 30+ pounds in three months, then have maintained my weight (and health) ever since. I don’t bruise any easier. My kidneys have not exploded. My cholesterol ratio is ideal. I eat eggs every morning, but also eat 5 servings of veggies and fruits every day (for the first time in my life).
And dude–diet (i.e., the way you eat) modification is easily as important as exercise. The Atkins “diet” is just as much a long-term eating lifestyle as is the govt.'s food pyramid. There just happens to be a correction period at the start of the diet modification.
