OT: Dr. Atkins=Meglomaniacal Would-be Dictator?

[wickednick]

What the Atkins diet probably does not tell you is that carbs are the bodys fuel.The fewer carbs in your diet the less energy you will to do any prolonged activitys.I work out regularly and will usually eat a bowl of cereal or a apple before working out.I spend about 45 min to a hour a day working out.I was 260lbs when I started working out and am still 260lbs now, but have lost 4 to 5 inches off my waist.Before I started working out my pants size 47 now its 41.The reason I still way 260 is because I have lost a lot of fat but my muscles have goten much bigger, and muscle weighs more than fat.
I have friends that are body builders and they laugh at people who do the Atkins diet.One of my friends is a dietary consultant at a gym, and he tells the people he is training that carbs are perfectly fine to eat but you have to stay away from fatty foods.My mother is also a dietary technician at a nursing home and also believes that the Atkins diet is bull.
Carbs are perfectly fine, its the fatty foods like sausages and and burgers that are the problem.Even though you may lose some weight on the Atkins diet you can still die of a heart attack.The callories from fatty foods are what causes the health problems.The key to losing weight is eating a balanced diet and working out.I seriously doubt that the average person can't take 45 min of there day to exercise.
Im not trying to rip on you Fearless Freep for doing the Atkins diet, I just would like it if you were doing something more healthy than the Atkins diet.

[FearlessFreep]

What the Atkins diet probably does not tell you is that carbs are the bodys fuel

It does.  The problem again is not 'carbs are bad' but simply that more people take in more of them then they need given their lifestyle and they just build up as extra unneeded weight.  Like you said, people who are doing weight and exercise work don't have  the problems eating the carbs because t hey are burning the carbs so  cutting carbs is not in their interst

Im not trying to rip on you Fearless Freep for doing the Atkins diet, I just would like it if you were doing something more healthy than the Atkins diet.

I'm not.  I'm living away from home and my lifestyle and cooking knowledge don't allow me to do it.   My problem isn't too much fat per se as too little muscle and too little exercise so my plan for weight lose is a bit diiferent

[raj]

Good god, SLEEPER (Woody Allen flick) has come true.  Health foods are bad, bad foods are good!

And I didn't realize that the Illuminati had come up with a new diet trick.  Er, wait, it's um, L. Ron Hubbard's group, yeah.  There is no such thing as the Illuminati.  Seriously.

[trekgeezer]

The real problem these days is processed food. I've finally got my wife and son to eat whole wheat bread., but my daughter always wants white. This stuff is poison, they bleach the nutrients out of the flower and then fortify with vitamins and minerals. Why the hell didn't they leave it natural?

Our kids are getting fatter not only because of less physical activity but because of the stuff they eat all the time.  In our hectic lifestyles today everyone relies on fast food too much.  

Remember fat free cookies, look at the label. They have to crank up the sugar content to make you eat them.  There are  different types of carbs, simple (sugar and starch) and complex  (whole grains and fresh veg and fruit). Simple goes directly to fat , complex get burned as fuel. (I think that's right)

Anyway, a balanced diet is the real key to keep weight off. Sometimes extremes must be taken to get it off.  I weigh about 30 lbs less than I did  when I got married  over 20 years ago,  but  I wouldn't  recommend cancer as a weight loss method.

[Scott]

I kinda like the take over the world angle Deej presented. Who would suspect? It may be the perfect plan. : ) It's kinda like Evil Clowns or something.

[Velvet Brotha]

Hmmmm... interesting theory. I've often wondered about Mr. Atkins myself. I don't think following that suckas diet will help anyone.

[Flangepart]

Well, as individuals, we all have to work out what suits our inherited needs.
I say inherited, as regards the food we grew up eating, and the activity requirements we get as our lifestyles change.
They change over time, but sometrimes we are not payeing attantion to the details.
A low activity job like mine ( ad devivery driver), make me have to plan more for excercise.
Chopper : Another part of the motivating factor, is that, finding a desire to hunt (Deer and turkey), gives me an insparation for getting fitter then i am. Just being out in the woods, pracicing my stalking skills, is a fun thing to do, and it gives me a goal that benifits my body.
I went hunting turkey with my buddy Ray. He's retired, in his early 60's , and he left me behind! I made so much noise weezing up hill, i know i scared away the wildlife! I t was hard work, moveing my fat butt up hill and down dale....i never saw chip...and yet, i found it ...satisfing.
We failed to bag a bird, but being out of the city...
The first day out, we heard the birds gobbling their horney heads off.
I'd never heard it for real before...and it was so cool!
My Mom has suger problims, so this year, i might not get to go, but if i can, i will.
And i'll keep practicing.
The low suger intake has made me feel better, and the energy from proper carb intake ( Slow digesting carbs) works for me.
Your milage may very.
It is hard to exercise at my present weight.
But....hey...it beats not trying at all! : )

[The Burgomaster]

There was an article about the Atkins diet in the Boston Globe this morning.  The article discussed Burger King's new low carb Whopper.  They serve it without the buns.  It has (PAY ATTENTION, PEOPLE)  630 calories and 47 grams of fat.  You would be FAR better off eating the bun and throwing away the burger!

They interviewed a Tufts nutritionist in the article, who scoffed at the Atkins diet, saying that it is just another diet craze and that, in the long run, will not make a damned bit of difference in losing weight.  The nutritionist said that Americans have a hard time understanding one concept: "moderation."  She went on to say that if people eat in moderation and MOVE (i.e. exercise) more, they will experience the best, longest lasting weight loss results.

[Susan]

My office is an example in hypocracy. Our company has a special organization in which they teach employees about how it's not good to be chunky and how we all need to be on weight watchers and walk alot.  I'm sure that's fine for those at the home office who have the gym, walking area and diet program available to them. But i'm located at a sales office location.And they just recently installed two giant soda machines and one bigass vending machine loaded with nothing but donuts, cheetoes, bugles, snickers and cellulite-packing snacks. They want you to be fat, it helps the diet industry..it's big money for everyone. Just like I know they got a cure for the cold but too much money is involved for medicine companies, tissue companies, everyone.

America eats nonstop. We have 24 hour fast food and we're too lazy to cook. Our jobs do not usually involve any physical activity (most of us sit on our butt all day) and everyone wants to lose weight, as long as they don't have to get their lazy butt off the couch and put down that cookie.

A friend of mine was complaining about how she kept trying to diet and failed. I looked in her cabinets and saw nothing but chips and cookies and thought "Well there ya go, if you don't buy it, it's not in the house to eat".Also, adkins works but so does any diet. The problem is..what happens when you eventually go off of it? You have to be able to find an eating pattern you can live with forever. I sure as heck cannot give up rice and bread in small quantities.

In fact guess what? i'm a HUGE carb eater, I eat breads, rices, all kinds of starches and potatoes all the time. In fact it's probably 90% of my diet..heh. And I am average weight (under 130 at 5'7") and don't work out. I can gain 5 pounds in an hour so it's NOTgenetics. I just don't care to snack on chips or eat alot of sugars and candy. In fact even as a kid when i was asked what I wanted to snack on i'd want cheese or a bowl of rice. I was a weird kid . So carbs aren't the root of all evil. I still pig out, on really wrong foods,  I just don't do it constantly. I also don't drink soda all that much - I sorta can't figure out when coke became the drink staple that you had to drink at every meal. Plus drinking water always allowed me to enjoy the taste of my long john silvers better..heh. I think sugar and snack food is the root of the problem, my god look at how many aisles at the supermarket are nothing but rows and rows of cookies, sugared cereals, cakes, doritos..snacks snacks snacks. And let's face it, if you got that stuff in the house to eat you eat it out of boredom..not because you're hungry. When I was a kid we went to mcdonalds as a TREAT, now i see kids go there for dinner..often...

Btw how is eating 5 pounds of sausages and beef a day avoiding all carbs healthy?...again....

anyone?

 I decided that as long as I don't go to the extreme, I only live once. Then i'll be dead for all of eternity, maybe in this brief time I have to be alive I can say, what is more important? Fitting in some unrealistic model of thiness for the sake of..just what exactly? Or eating something delicious that brings me joy?

joy joy joy!



Post Edited (01-20-04 18:32)

[wickednick]

I talked to my mother recently, who is a dietary technican at a nursing home, about the Atkins diet.What she told me about it pretty much confirmed every suspicion I had about the diet.
The diet is far more dangerous than what is told to the public. People have died on the diet due to kidney failuar and heart disease brought about by the high protien and fat in the diet. Are kidneys have trouble processing protien and the high hormon concentraions of hormons like Creatien from animals meat,this can lead to kidney failuar.Are hearts also have trouble with the high protien high animal fat diets, like the Atkins diet.There are also increased risks of cancer because the Atkins diet cuts out the foods that are high in vitamins, many of which help reduce the risk of cancer.
The majourity of the weight people lose on the diet is water weight because protien in high concentrations actually dehydrates the body. Also in order to keep the weight off you have to stay on the diet for life.
I see no health benefits from a diet that cuts out the nutritional foods like most fruits, grains and many vegetables in favour of high protien high fat foods.The only people that should do a high protien diet is body builders.They need the high concetrations of protien and creatien to bulk up there bodys.The work outs that they due keep them healthy, but they still have to be carefull.I have a cousin who is a body builder, and was doing a diet simular to the Atkins diet.He found out one day that in his nutrition class that his kidneys were about to fail, because he had to much creatien in his diet.The average person should not due any high protien diet unless you plan on becoming a body builder.The average person does not due enough (if any) exercise to offset the high protien and hormones.
The fact is that we eat to much of everything.To many carbs, to much protien, to much salt.The key to losing weight is moderation. You don't need much protien in your diet and it should be eaten in moderation. Carbs are found in many fruits and vegetables and it is the fruits and vegetables that we should be eating the most of. You have to stay away from the bad carbs that are commonly found in junk food these are simple carbs and go straight to fat and also cause you to retain water. Complex carbs found in fruits, vegetables , and grains.Complex carbs are the bodys fuel and are easly burned off with a little exercise.
You also must exercise.Every one has at least 30 min a day to exercise but very few due.You don't even have to go to the gym, you can buy a weight set or go running outside.If you eat right you will burn off fat more healthy and will feel and look better than you ever would on a diet like the Atkins diet.

[Eirik]

"The diet is far more dangerous than what is told to the public. "

We are carbon (CARBO) based life forms made up of 75% water (HYDRATES)...  We need CARBO-HYDRATES.
Duh.

[trekgeezer]

I just read an article that explains how kidney stones are formed. Eating a lot of protein!  I hope I explain this properly, excess protein gets  bound  to calcium from  your bones and like everything else there are particles of this calcium floating around in  your bloodstream. Anyway kidneys try to process this stuff and if there is an over abundance it builds up and produces stones.

The article said that kidney stones used to be considered a male problem, but with the advent of these high protein diets they are seeing more and more women with stones. From what I have heard this is not a pleasant experience to go through.

I wonder if Dr. Atkins mentions this as a possible side effect of  his diet?

[Susan]

A large percentage of those i know who went on the diet fainted or got sick. My grandmother wanted to lose a few pounds and went on it, is the result of what weakened her immune system so much that she developed painful shingles

I went on it for a week because I wanted to lose 5lbs (which i haven't gotten rid of since i quit smoking years ago). I think it was day 4 i started to feel really weird, I was nauseated and weak..i was trembling at at one point I nearly fainted. At that point I went for the nearest loaf of bread and called it a day.

[Vent]

Let's see...here we have:

(1) People who have read and/or tried the Atkins Diet, with success; and
(2) People who haven't done either, but have heard rumors, anecdotes, jokes, and opinions from non-independent sources--and feel that this qualifies them to fart out their own opinions, mired as they may be in one hundred percent pig ignorance.

I've been doing Atkins since October. It is the ONLY thing that has been successful in getting the weight off--and I've been working out regularly for years. My cholesterol is down. My blood pressure is WAY down. No fainting, no illness; in fact, this is the first year in over a decade I've managed to NOT catch the flu, and my food-reaction headaches are a thing of the past. I have energy to spare. All these changes have taken place since I began Atkins and slashed my bread intake. Suddenly I AM HEALTHY.

You can't argue with success. But you can try to discredit it.

"Dietary experts" have a vested interest in keeping you stuffing your guts with Wonder Bread. You have been taught the Food Pyramid with its 6-11 slices of bread a day because it props up agribusiness. Agribusiness is terrified of Atkins, and you can bet every stand-up comic on Comedy Central spreading misinformation about Atkins is getting a nice check for it.

Here are some common misconceptions (and reality checks):

(1) "No carbs? That's stooooopid!"

Reality: I'm on Atkins, and I eat plenty of rice and several fruits, carbs galore. What I don't eat is pizza crust and OJ from concentrate and crap full of added sugar and nutrition-free processed flour. The idea is to get a reasonable amount of carbs to suit your individual needs, and insure that the carbs you consume give you the most bang for your buck. Some would call this "eating smarter," go figure.

(2) "Fat will kill you! Fat will kill you! Fat will kill you!"

Reality: Fat is an important part of a diet, just like carbs. Someone said earlier that carbs are the body's sole source of energy; this is completely false. Fat is fuel. Once your body is depleted of EXCESS carb intake, it switches to fat-burning. And boom, the weight starts burning right up.

The bun isn't better for you than the burger. The burger is fuel and nutrition; the bun is sawdust. The bun is garbage.

(3) "People on Atkins eat whole jars of mayonnaise and then DIE! I heard that on talk radio so it must be true!! (And isn't mayonnaise, like, FRENCH?)"

Reality: For a minimum of two weeks, someone starting Atkins must forego all bread and fruit, almost all dairy, and many vegetables loaded with carbs. They are instructed that they may "eat liberally" of meats and fats--but warned not to gorge themselves like idiots. You don't eat a jar of mayonnaise; you just don't have to be afraid of it anymore.

Further, after that initial period, you begin re-introducing various foods, in stages, until you find the spot where your weight and overall health remain constant at the desired level.  I'm eating fruit and rice again; that leaves less room in my diet for meats and fats. Again: some people would call this "eating smarter."

(4) "Get out and exercise, lardass!! (Huh huh huh, I said 'ass.')"

Reality: Atkins encourages exercise. When I started Atkins, I had a fractured toe, so I was getting a lot less exercise than usual. Still lost the weight: sixteen pounds in the course of a single month--again with no ill effects whatsoever and plenty of positive changes. I spent six years running a mile-and-a-half every single day without dropping a pound, and while my cardio was great, I was physically weak and sick all the time. Explain that one.

This is no fad; fad diets are unsuccessful. Not only are people learning Atkins works, but medical science is now backing us up with studies that verify its effectiveness. "Experts" even say, "we don't know how it could possibly work, but it does." They should try reading the book; simple explanations are provided.

But there will always be fools who prefer the safety of conventional wisdom and the smartass dismissal; fine. Let them get their dietary advice from Parade Magazine or David Letterman. Bully for them, they're stupid and proud of it.

Read and decide for yourself.

[Flangepart]

In short : Choose what works for you.
I find Adkins works, but others, like Susan's grandma, might not.
My Doctor recommended it, and the others who can stick to the intake watching, are better off for it.
If nothing else, the suger intake reduction has been realy helpfull, as my irritability has reduced, and my sleep has been better.
We are not all identical. Thats where nutrition is a challange.