Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Atkins Carb Diet Food Low

Question:
I'd like to get started on a diet for weight loss & general health improvement (preferably something diabetic friendly). I had experimented with the Zone diet in the past & felt really good after the meals, but it seems like a very complicated diet to stick with full time. I don't know a lot about the Atkins diet but I've heard it's a lot easier to stick with & a faster method for weight loss. However, I'm concerned about negative health impacts from a diet that allows unlimited protein intake and skimps on fruits and vegetables (i.e. increased risks for heart disease & cancer long term). If someone on Atkins focused on protein sources like fish, chicken, soy & tofu vs. high animal fat items, would the health risks I mentioned still be an issue?

Answer:
The deal with atkins is the protein and fat without other major calorie tend to be self-limiting [on evidence scale from a to c the strength of this evidence is b]. The skepticism of high fat is because it does cause obesity in fact high fat is a common animal model of obesity. Atkins ppl argue that not obesogenic if you exclude the major calorie, carbs.. The evidence of fat being fattening is from clinical trials and to a less extent the only two major dietary surveys in representative US ppl, 1)CSFII and 2)nhanes have shown ob persons both eat more fat and also don't follow recommendations that they should exercise watch less tv and eat less.. The findings in these surveys are reported in several different articles by different authors using many variations of the same data - ie., excluding Goldberg cuttoffs for validity and other variations. But recently carbohydrate gaining ground as largest obesogenic-explaining calorie esp in youth.. regards saturated fat, this month's AJCN (may) reviews the literature and concludes that replacing saturated with pufa improves your cholesterol.. So basically you can still be on atkins and watch your sfa if you think you may be eating too much..