I don't know if Atkins has any long-term effects, but I don't know of anything that says there MUST be some ill-effects either. However, I think you are missing my point. I'm still in pre-maintenance, so I'm still in fat-burning mode, but once I move to lifetime maintenance I'll be eating just enough carbs to burn for energy for that day. I will still stay away from sugar and HFCS though. By the way, the Inuit (eskimos) were on an Atkins style diet, so it's not like humans haven't lived like this before.
Atkins is NOT a diet craze; it's a lifestyle change. People think it's all about meat, cheese, and eggs, and that's simply not true. Yes, there is an induction phase of two weeks where that is mostly what you eat, but after that, more and more carbs are introduced into the diet until you're eating "just enough." South Beach is basically the same darn thing....just repackaged with a few twists. What IS a diet craze....or at least a crazy diet...is the way most people who aren't on Atkins or South Beach eat on a daily basis. In the early 1800's, people only consumed about 12 pounds of sugar every year. Now, people eat on average over 150 lbs. a year!! About 13 times as much! And most of it is found in highly processed foods that weren't available back then. The first two weeks of Atkins or South Beach may sound a bit extreme, but that's really the only portion that ignorant people every talk about. Those two weeks are important though to get you off the sugar kick and get your body to start burning fat. Atkins and South Beach are two of the absolute best vehicles that people have to take them towards a healthier lifestyle..........especially for those people who have become so obese that they must drop some weight before they can start an excersize program.
Everything? Didn't the recent study show decreased triglyceride and bad cholesterol levels with Atkins? It also showed more fat loss than could be accounted for by the diet and exercise alone.
That is absolutely untrue. Joining health clubs, running miles a day and any lengthy exercise just for the sake of exercise is a very recent trend in the history of mankind. America has rising obesity and overweight people because they overeat carbohydrates.
Originally posted by Jeff Someone nailed it when they said it is a "diet craze" not a "health craze." Ultimately, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that eating that much fat and protein is healthy for you down the road. In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. Not so, Jeff. Although Atkin's take on fruits may be too extreme, his theories on the body's handling of carbs, fats and proteins are being supported by the most recent, substantial study. The improved blood chemistry indicates a much improved state of health WRT cardiovascular health. The question still remaining is the long-term effect on cancer, but that's not such a straightforward issue. For instance, everyone equates high-protein, high-fat with cancer. But it could be more of an issue of the wrong kind of fats, such as the synthetic hydrogenated fat molecules much of our junk foods are prepared with. I imagine few people are aware that a fat found in beef (CLA) is anti-carcinogenic. Many other fats are not only important for our health, they're critical. I would be much more concerned about a low-fat diet's effect on health than Atkins. Research will continue to support that assertion. I agree that, for some, this can be an option. The problem is that far too many people in America jump on diets because they think they should. People want a magic weight loss pill and it doesn't exist. Atkins is like a magic weight loss pill. What concerns doctors is the same thing that should concern everyone when it comes to Atkins. It, in and of itself, is not a choice for a healthy lifestyle. You cannot live on Atkins for the rest of your life unless you intend for your life to not last a particularly long time. Why? This is a diet option, not a health choice and that distinction has been blurred far too much through careless reporting and misrepresentation. On what basis do you make this distinction?
Atkins converts, keep preaching, they will come around. Scientific studies are now coming out that support Dr. Atkins and his diet. It is not a fad, but a better way of eating for your health. Remember, Doctors said smoking was good for you as recently as the 1950s, so they will come around, but you have to hit them in the face with a halibat to make it happen. DD
That's because you used to get all the exercise you needed just in your daily life. Chopping wood, hauling water up from the well, scrubbing clothes on a washboard, farming, gardening, and generally doing everything by hand. And that's just the home stuff. You may well have had an outside job that required manual labor. Besides, you had to walk lots of places. You couldn't help but be in decent shape. And food was not always so abundant and cheap. I think people must have just lived with being hungry a lot, even if they weren't starving to death. You had to ration it carefully. Besides, there weren't as many flavors of food or delicious options to choose from. However, many people did have carbohydrates as a major staple of their diet. This was necessary. For a lot of people, meat was too expensive to eat regularly. (still true in parts of the world) We live in a unique situation, where we finally have everything we ever wanted... machines to do hard jobs for us, getting paid to think instead of to do hard labor, 99-cent value menus, cheap buffets. Our instincts are not really set up to regulate us like they should - they are set up for survival in lean times. So we have to come up with our own form of willpower. For some people, Atkins may provide the discipline necessary to cut at least certain things out of their diet. For other people, low-fat or complex carbs. I know I wouldn't stay on those diets, so for some of us, it's back to the treadmills and weights...
Jeff, this is an ignorant statement. Why don't you take the time to know the specifics of a statement like this? You obviously don't know that once you are into the maintenance portion of Atkins, most men can consume around 90 grams of carbs a day and maintain their desired weight? Do you know what all you could eat to total 90 grams per day? Most anything you want to, if you do it in moderation. Here are some examples of foods and their carb content in grams: 1 ear corn 19 1 cup blueberries 20 1 corn muffin 20 1 raw carrott 7 1 cup green beans 7 1 raw tomato 5 (123 grams in weight) 1 head lettuce 4 1 cup mushrooms 3 1 tbsp peanut butter 3 1 oz pecans 5 1 cup popcorn 6 1 tbsp whipping cream 0 1 cup strawberries 10 1 cup cherries 11 1 slice whitebread 12 1 corn tortilla 13 1 brownie 16 1/2 cup ice cream 16 This is a very abbreviated list. In addition to these and many other foods, you can have virtually all the steak, fish, chicken, cheese, buttter and eggs you want. That doesn't mean you have to gourge yourself on animal fat. Mainly what you can't eat a lot of are sweets, breads, pastas and snacks like chips and crackers. You can have virtually all the veggies you want, except for the starchy ones, which you can have in moderation. Atkins diet has been around many years. Only recently have many other people in the medical field admitted that fat is not necessarily bad for you. "Low fat" has been the fake health fad. Virtually anything you buy that says "low fat" versus a regular version will have more carbs and more calories. Stop speading misinformation by saying that if you stay on Atkins for the rest of your life, you won't live very long. By the way, there is a good free site with a listing of calories, carbs and fat by portions. It is http://www.caloriecountercharts.com/
Isabel, people of course got more exercise in general a century ago. The obesity thing, is very recent. Walking at a moderate pace burns very few calories. I don't know how old you are, but I was born in '48 in East Texas and very few people I have known, except for farmers, got that much more exercise than the average person I know today. I think the main difference is overeating, and very possibly the fact kids today spend tremendous amount of time sitting on their butts, watching t.v. and playing video games. When I was a kid, we spent all the time we could outdoors. Adults, though, seem very much the same today as in the fifties in terms of exercise associated with their jobs and lifestyles. I don't have a problem with people who spend hours in the gym, or hours running, or whatever. I personally would rather spend those hours on the golf course or skiing or rafting or another activity in enjoy.. I only have so much extra time available. If I can keep my weight down by laying off the carbs, I do resent someone implying that somehow I'm of less character for doing so.
...and sweeteners. Consumption is almost 160 pounds per American per year, 30% higher than 1983. Obesity in children and adolescents doubled over that period.
Definately, Cohen. It's the thing I struggle with the most. When I was growing up, we had a dessert after every meal but breakfast. Of course, for breakfast we had either syrup or jelly on our toast or biscuits. Ice cream helps me with Atkins. 1/2 cup has only 16 grams of carbs. Eskimo pie has 12 to 17 grams, basically depending on the size of it.
find the Atkins ice cream...not too bad tastewise.. not sure how many different flavors they have since Im basically a vanilla guy...and they do have that. its amazing how many products have tons of processed sweeteners in them...that would help explain the increase in sugar consumption.
Klondike makes two ice cream bars, a mousse-like chocolate and a choc. covered vanilla (my personal fave). If you account for fiber and sugar alcohols, it is a net of 3 and 5 grams respectively. Klondike also makes a chocolate packaged in a tub that is pretty durn good (4 grams). Atkins has 3 or 4 flavors of bars and ice cream, but I have not tried those yet. There are also some good candy products that make this diet more bearable. I've been on since November 1st and have lost about 15-20 pounds. I am also lifting and shooting hoops (if you saw my shot, you'd realize the exercise I get from chasing the rebounds).
I saw on ch 13 news tonight that freeto lay is producing a line of chips that will have 60% less carbs due out in may. there is also a consumer watch group forming to make sure these low carb items really are low carb.
Yea..I saw that. Doritos with 60% less carbs...wont be released until sometime in the Spring. I will probably stay away from them..I have gotten over the craving for chips..dont want to get sucked back into it. unless of course they comeout with lowcarb Funyuns. God I love Funyuns!
Us too. Once I noticed I was craving sweets, so I consciously ate fruit when I would get a craving (even though I didn't feel like fruit). After a short time, I started craving fruit and not the empty-calorie sweets.
