From the studies in the OP, am I right in thinking the Atkin’s diet is of interest and possibly very useful for highly overweight diabetic patients? I thought that was the key claim in the development of this diet, that it helped control insulin levels and so helped these people.
Has there been any evidence that it is useful for non-diabetic people?
Also what can we do about normally intelligent people who are being conned by Atkins advocates(and every other diet has the same sort of snake-oil salesmen). Last Friday a good friend, and by no means a stupid person, noticed me eat a toffee and came out with “don’t you know carbohydrates are bad for you!” having been misslead probably by her peers or the gutter press.
Huh. I believe a lot of the acceptance of Atkins comes from a desire to believe that what we’ve discovered about nutrition to this date is, perhaps, not entirely correct. We’ve discovered that eating a diet rich in whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and lean meats, and not eating too much of anything and not eating too much – we’ve discovered that that’s a very healthy diet. Some folks don’t want to take the essential physics of the body into consideration, and so they are willing to believe the hocus-pocus pseudoscience of folks like Atkins.
It may turn out that Atkins’ diet is healthful. But that won’t vindicate him. If I burn a black candle, feed you spiderwebs, and tell you that the ancient Spider God is weaving your wounds shut, the fact that there’s penecillin on those spiderwebs doesn’t mean that my explanation was correct.
Atkins gave bogus, scientifically unsupported explanations for why his diet worked. His business empire continues to disseminate those explanations. Although science may eventually back him up, it currently doesn’t, and he didn’t do the science to back himself up.
Even though his claims may be proven correct, he was still a charlatan.
Daniel
The problem with a lot of the criticism of the Atkins diet is that it is simply uninformed as to what the diet is (not talking about any postings here). For example, I often see criticisms such as:
- Your body nees fiber
Well, yes, and when you’re counting carbs on the Atkins diet, you don’t count fiber. So, not a criticism of the diet itself.
- You can’t go without carbs indefinitely
Again, yes, but since the Atkins diet doesn’t tell you to, once again, not applicable.
While I am suspicious of the Atkins diet, and I’ve never done it myself, I don’t see how anyone can be convinced to avoid it unless the scientific community starts making clear presentations as to why the specifics of the diet are to be avoided. Daniel, you’ve adressed some good points about the lack of research on the diet itself, and the abundance of research on how high-fat diets are bad, and more criticism is needed along those lines.
I disagree totally. kanicbird"s post reflects my experience over the last two months.
I removed sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes from my diet. (about 3 months now). That’s what I have condensed the Atkins book down to. (On occasion like parties etc. I will eat cake and carbo encrusted finger foods and plan to eat festive dinners like before)
I stuff myself full , actually seeking fats to gain satiety. For example, homo milk instead of skim milk, and regular ground beef instead of lean. I save the fat from the frying pan to dress my green vegetables. Oh, and butter instead of margarine. (Seems more like what my parents ate like in the first half of the twentieth century, where pictures show everyone to be so skinny.
I love it. I am so full of energy, and I SEEM TO HAVE ELIMINATED DEPRESSION FROM MY LIFE. My daily accomplishments are far higher, as I get up earlier with zest, and function well into the evening instead of crashing on the couch or at the computer.
I have lost 35 pounds over the past three months, and seem to have stabalized at about 15 lbs “overweight”.
Common muscle and joint aches and pains have disappeared.
I think the high carb foods usually available by nature at the end of the summer are meant by nature to fatten omnivores for the lean winter months ahead. Ever see a fat carnivore ? But you’ll see bears fatten up in the fall prior to hybernation by supplementing their diet with berries and grasses.
Keep in mind the French paradox.
And finally, for those who insist that calories in can only be eliminated by calories burned, don’t forget that calories can be excreted as well. Seems to me that the plains Indians cooked their foods with buffalo dung.