Atkins and other Diets
Dec. 1st, 2003 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyBrowsing 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 ?
(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 ?
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Re: Alcohol is OK.
Date: 2003-12-01 04:53 am (UTC)Nevertheless, according to Atkins it's OK on his diet to drink gin.
Re: Alcohol is OK.
Date: 2003-12-01 05:08 am (UTC)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
Or did he simply have different ideas about gin ?
Re: Alcohol is OK.
Date: 2003-12-01 08:55 am (UTC)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.
"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.
Date: 2003-12-01 10:27 am (UTC)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.
Date: 2003-12-01 02:56 pm (UTC)Re: Alcohol is OK.
Date: 2003-12-02 02:38 am (UTC)What does that prove? That gin will only screw up the Atkins diet for that (smallish) proportion of the population that drinks gin?