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Could Atkins Be Right?
Susan Rutter
©2003 Healthy YOUbbies
Is it just possible that Dr. Robert C. Atkins was right?
That his high-fat, low-carb plan, ridiculed for 30
years as dangerous nonsense, actually is a good,
safe way to lose weight?
The dietary elite are not ready to change their
collective mind, but a half-dozen or so new studies
have taken an objective look at the presumed evils
of Atkins, and the results have been little short of
astonishing.
During a few months on the Atkins diet, people lose
about twice as much as on the standard low-fat, high-
carbohydrate approach recommended by most health
organizations.
They do so without seeming to drive up their risk of
heart disease. Rather than going kaflooey, their
cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and
ominous bloodstream inflammation generally improve,
perhaps even more than on the standard diet.
They appear to lose more weight even while actually
consuming more calories than people on so-called
healthy diet.
All of the experiments were short and small. None by
itself would make a big stir. But taken together, they
undermine much of what mainstream medicine has long
assumed about the Atkins diet.
"Some scientists are dismayed by the data and a little
incredulous about it," says Gary Foster, who runs the
weight-loss program at the University of Pennsylvania.
"But the consistency of the results across studies is
compelling in a way that makes us think we should
investigate this further."
Until now, the opinion of the medical world on this
subject has been almost unanimous: Any diet that
emphasizes meat, eggs, and cheese and discourages
bread, rice and fruit is nutritional folly.
The American Medical Association set that tone a year
after the book Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution came out in
1972. Its sarcastically worded critique dismissed the
diet as "potentially dangerous." It called its scientific
underpinning "naive" and "biochemically incorrect." And
it scolded book publishers for promoting "bizarre
concepts of nutrition and dieting."
On the Atkins diet, up to two-thirds of calories can come
from fat -- more than double the usual recommendation
-- and that violates everything medical professionals
believe about healthy eating. Carbohydrates are the
foundation of a good diet, most say. Eating calorie-
dense fat is what makes people fat, and eating saturated
fat is what kills them.
Despite this. Atkin's books have sold 15 million copies,
uncounted millions have tried the diet, and practically
everybody has heard of someone who dropped a lot of
weight on the Atkins plan.
Finally, several research teams around the United States
have put Atkins to the test, driven largely by weariness
at having nothing solid to tell patients and, in some cases,
a desire to prove Atkins wrong. One study was sponsored
by the American Heart Association, long an Atkins skeptic.
None has been published yet, but summaries have been
given at medical conferences. "They all show pretty
convincingly that people will lose more weight on an
Atkins diet, and their cardiovascular risk factors, if
anything, get better." says Dr. Kevin O'Brien, a
University of Washington cardiologist involved with
one of the studies.
This is not the end of the story. The studies say nothing
about how much people lose when they stay on Atkins
more than a few months, whether they keep the weight
off for good and whether their cholesterol rebounds
when they stop losing weight.
Nevertheless, three decades of dietary gospel are in
doubt, and those questioning it include some of the most
prominent names in obesity research.
Susan Rutter: author, publisher, nutritionist, instructor
Assists patients and the public make healthy choices and changes
in their lives. FREE E-mail course: "Your Health and Your Weight"
http://www.geocities.com/healthyoubbies/
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