Atkins and other Diets

[lathany]

Browsing the BBC health website I found this.

(A story about the dangers of breaking from Atkins and adding extras - in this case alcohol and biscuits)

Now, I've been on various diets in my time but, when Atkins appeared, I decided I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Not based on expert medical opinion you understand, just a deep-rooted prejudice against a diet that worked on a high fat content.

Also, having read this, when/if I go back on a diet this sort of thing wouldn't suit me. Simply because I too would break the rules from time to time and don't fancy being rushed off in an ambulance for my weaknesses. I prefer the low-cal (ie. fifteen hundred cal) diets where the weight comes off gradually and you can eat anything, just in small quantities.

But, more to the point, given that it's well-known that people often break diets should Atkins be promoted at all given this sort of risk ? On the one hand saying it shouldn't is like suggesting it's OK to sue MacDonalds for weight gain (which I don't agree with - I believe people should take responsibility for their own eating habits). On the other, if someone doesn't understand the risks of the diet then it could be deadly. Is there a health warning out there which is big enough ?

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

I certainly know people who've been on the Atkins diet and not been aware that alcohol wasn't OK. I remember asking someone who's usually a beer drinker why he was suddenly drinking red wine, and the answer was because wine was "OK" with the Atkins diet...

I saw an article a while back where readers of the magazine had been invited to nominate various celebrities, and the magazine would find out what their staying-slim regime was. This person was Atkinsing, that person was doing some other faddy diet, and so on. Ther celebrity most requested was Kylie Minogue - the magazing reported, almost apologetically, that her diet secret was "eating sensibly and exercising". Don't think it'll catch on though :)

Alcohol is OK.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

It's just a question of what kinds of alcohol. Essentially, I think the idea is that you can only drink alcohol that's low in sugars. So I know gin (yuck!) is OK, and so is some other stuff.

The other thing you have to remember about 'the Atkins diet', of course, is that the bit that everyone tends to look at then go off and rant about is the 'two-week induction', which is rather stricter than the rest of the diet.

The books are quite interesting, and the theory appeals to me (as does the food!). I'm not actually quite doing the diet, though - I make slight alterations like 'I hereby deem orange juice to contain no carbohydrates' ;)

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's true. My understanding (and [Bad username or site: cuthbert cross @ livejournal.com] will probably correct me) was that the only way that alcohol can be metabolised is by being converted into glucose (or glucose metabolites). This can then be converted into fat and stored just as glucose would be. However, my memory of Biochemistry lectures is hazy at best so this may not be accurate.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless, according to Atkins it's OK on his diet to drink gin.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless, according to Atkins it's OK on his diet to drink gin.

So that means Atkins had different ideas about how his diet worked to the rest of the medical community (yep, I'm biased and I think cuthbertcross is right) ?

Or did he simply have different ideas about gin ?

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I don't know why his opinion differs from that of cuthbertcross.

Maybe there was some gin-carbs conversion rate that I've forgotten about which means that it just so happens you can get a reasonable amount of gin in per day.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I reckon it's more psychological - because it won't taste nice if you're craving sugar, it's unlikely that you'll drink much, so it's OK.

"Works" the same way as all those diets which go: 'You can eat as much X as you like as long as you don't eat any Y' with X and Y varying for different days. If you don't want to eat the stuff on offer it doesn't matter that it would be possible to eat too much of it. (This is why those kinds of diets are pants for anyone whose problem isn't overeating.)

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sound likely to me - Atkins already bans so many things that I don't think granting the concession of "as much gin as you like" is going to make much difference to all that many people.

Plus, if gin is allowed then gin and diet tonic is allowed, with the result that sugar-cravers might still get through a fair amount of gin. Unless Atkins just didn't think of that.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Empirically one doesn't see Atkins dieters putting away vast quantities of gin.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

What does that prove? That gin will only screw up the Atkins diet for that (smallish) proportion of the population that drinks gin?

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

dr_bob is , I'm afraid barking up the right tree (groan).
Alcohol is biochemically "forbidden" during any ketogenic phase of atkins, cos even 40% alcohol (gin) will have 10% residual sugars in it before you convert any of it, and therefore this is enough to signal to the body "turn off the ketones, please, we got some sugar a-comin'". When the alcohol is broken down, it releases glucose-6 phosphate (or something v. similar - I'm rusty too). And voila; no more fat malabsorption.

.

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[venta.livejournal.com]

So, in fact, you're doing exactly what the article claims is potentially fatal :)

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Well... yes and no.

I'm not drinking that much orange juice, and I probably just about squeeze under the 20g-carbs-a-day induction limit. Err, not that I'm doing Atkins...

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

do whatever you like my dear (within reason, obviously, no home made liposuction with the vacuum cleaner, please)
Seriously, the main problem with atkins is that it really really bungs people up, and if its used for years I personally think the main risk is that the almost total lack of fibre is bad for your colon (low fibre, high fat diets are known to raise risk of colon cancer if followed over >10-15 years).
For whatever period anyone is on a diet/altered food habit, they have to live as well. So bring on the occasional treat I say (just don't tell Dr Atkins)

Re: Alcohol is OK.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

So bring on the occasional treat I say (just don't tell Dr Atkins)


I think you have just penetrated to the core of my personal diet plan :)

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

That's weird.. it's unclear from the article what actually happened with that person.

I resisted Atkins for a long time, but after reading a long article on it in the New York Times (titled something like "Does Fat Make You Fat?") I gave it a whirl. It was my first serious diet, certainly my first "program".

In 5 months, I lost 25 lbs. That was a year ago... since then I eat basically normally, but I'm much more aware of carbs than I was before.

There are healthier and unhealthier ways to do low-carb diets -- you can just eat cheese and meat (mm, cheese and meat) or you can eat lots of high-fiber foods as well. It's true that you can't cheat, but "can't" just means that a good mouthful will set you back a whole week, so why bother?

I hate to sound like an ad, but I have to say that the ketosis thing worked, I never felt like crap, I was never hungry, and my blood pressure/cholesterol were better than they are now.

I think the real answer is that different bodies/metabolisms like different diets. My body loved Atkins.

Plus, cheese and meat.

Man, I seem to be going against the posting-grain tonight...

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with Atkins are these:

1/ it gives the general public unreasonable expectations of a diet, expecting tricks that work as a magic bullet without appreciating that you still have to be aware of what you eat

2/ it also makes people think about how they look on the outside rather than how healthy they are - your comments about your personal cholesterol level notwithstanding - people who fixate on diets tend to have a screwed up idea of how they should actually look, what is attractive, etc. It's great to enjoy how you look, but using it to bolster your self-esteem is treating a symptom rather than the root cause, I think. Hmm, very politically correct of me.

Still, your post has moved me from thinking that Atkins is the work of the devil to thinking it might actually be OK. So there are other low-carb, high-fibre diets with the benefits of Atkins? Sounds perfect, as long as it doesn't stop me drinking. Tell me about it.

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

1/ it gives the general public unreasonable expectations of a diet, expecting tricks that work as a magic bullet without appreciating that you still have to be aware of what you eat
I think of that as being a feature of diet pills, herbal formulas, etc rather than Atkins. Make no mistake, Atkins is a diet, and it's a strict one. If it's to work, it's one of the strictest diets there is -- it just so happens that the strictures were ones I found relatively easy to live with.

2/ it also makes people think about how they look on the outside rather than how healthy they are
Eh, I'm really conflicted about this myself. I'm all about "love yer body sista". I felt like an awful hypocrite starting, but the fact was that never mind looks, I didn't feel good physically -- without getting too TMI, I couldn't comfortably sit cross-legged, wear skirts without hose... I just didn't feel comfortable in my skin anymore. and that wasn't right, either. Physically, I feel loads better now. and lest i give the impression that I've dieted myself down to superskinny, i haven't at all. my girlfriend likes curves! >:)

in summation:
1) it's all about finding a weight at which you're comfortable and healthy, whatever that is.

2) low-carb diets work extremely well for certain personality/metabolism combinations. It's an option that people should be able to consider. I believe that low-fat wouldn't have worked for my body or my temperment.

3) The dangers of low-carb are constantly misstated and exaggerated. Duke University is now offering a low-carb diet after their studies found it to be safe and effective. The low-fat industry has been working hard to discredit low-carb, because it makes them look like idiots and threatens their huge market base. Jesus, look at the efficacy rate of low-fat dieting, never mind low-carb -- the failure and bounceback rates are unreal. They're so living in glass houses.

4) Certain populations (namely diabetics and children suffering from severe epilepsy) have followed a low-carb diet for years. This isn't anything new. Knowledge of carbs' effect on blood sugar is nothing new. What's new is that it's the fad of the moment.

Sorry to rant, but this is something that made a concrete positive change in my life (among other things) and I can't just let one side of the story stand.

[condign.livejournal.com]

Is there a health warning out there which is big enough?

WARNING: THE ATKINS DIET CAN BE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH. SO CAN A LOT OF THINGS. BEFORE YOU DRAMATICALLY ALTER WHAT OR HOW YOU ARE EATING, DO SOME PRELIMINARY RESEARCH. THAT MEANS MORE THAN READING FAVORABLE REVIEWS IN COSMO OR MAXIM.

;) There is now.

Though I'm now obliged to point out that the above isn't legal advice. I'm now interested if there's any 'duty to warn' from places like Weight Watchers...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Though I'm now obliged to point out that the above isn't legal advice. I'm now interested if there's any 'duty to warn' from places like Weight Watchers...

From what I've heard about Weight Watchers in the UK it specifically advocates a low cal diet (there are "Weight Watcher Units" of some proportion of calories - around 125 ? - each). Although whether this is actual policy or just practise I have no idea.