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The Atkins Diet

The controversial Atkins Nutritional Approach, commonly known as the Atkins Diet or just Atkins, is the most marketed and well-known of the low-carbohydrate diets.

 

What is the Atkins Diet

The Atkins Diet was adapted by Dr. Robert Atkins in the 1960s from a diet he read in the Journal of the American Medical Association and used to resolve his own overweight problem. After that he went to medical school and graduated from medical training. After successfully treating over ten thousand patients, he popularized the Atkins diet in a series of books, beginning with Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in 1972. In his revised book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Atkins updated some of his ideas, but remained faithful to his original concepts.

The Atkins Diet promises that you will not only lose weight without being hungry, but you'll also have better heart health and memory function, as well as other wellness benefits.

The diet is based on the theory that overweight people eat too many carbohydrates. Our bodies burn both fat and carbohydrates for energy, but carbs are used first. By reducing drastically carbs and eating more protein and fat, our bodies will lose weight naturally by burning stored body fat more efficiently.

 

 

 

How does it work

By reducing carbohydrates drastically to a fraction of that found in the typical American diet, the body goes into a state of ketosis, which means that it burns its own fat for fuel. A person in ketosis is getting energy from ketones, which are little carbon fragments that are the fuel created by the breakdown of fat stores. When the body is in ketosis, you feel less hungry, and therefore you're likely to eat less than you might otherwise. Nevertheless, ketosis can also cause a variety of unpleasant effects (such as unusual breath odor and constipation) in a small number of people.

As a result of this process, your body changes from a carbohydrate-burning engine into a fat-burning engine. So instead of relying on the carbohydrate-rich items you might typically consume for energy, and leaving your fat stores just where they were before (hips, belly, and thunder thighs), your fat stores become a primary energy source. The so-called result: weight loss.

In slightly more detail, consider what happens when you eat a high-carbohydrate meal. The sugar from the carbohydrate quickly enters the bloodstream. In order to keep the blood sugar from rising too high, the body secretes insulin. The insulin allows the extra sugar to be stored in the liver and muscle as glycogen, but these stores are rapidly filled to capacity. So the insulin then converts any extra sugar to fat -- the stuff we're trying so hard to get rid of.

According to the Atkins theory, if the body keeps on making "too much" insulin -- as it tries to deal with the "excess" sugar -- it may become less responsive to insulin and eventually may develop the metabolic disorder, known as diabetes.

This "first step in an unhealthy metabolic path" leads to "the early stages of diabetes." However, a body in ketosis burns up excess fat, and in time -- according to the Atkins theory -- returns to normal metabolic function. Though all the fat in this diet may temporarily boost someone's cholesterol level, this is usually short lived and soon rights itself with a lower cholesterol and triglyceride level as weight loss occurs -- at least, that's the theory.

For most people, the carb consumption must be no more than 40 grams a day for this biochemical mechanism to occur. Although exercise isn't stressed, the Atkins theory holds that some people will need to add physical activity for ketosis to kick in. People are urged to supplement with vitamins, since they won't be getting them from sources such as vegetables and fruits.

 

What you can eat

The Atkins Diet allows you to eat foods that many dieters can't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• On the Atkins Diet, you're eating almost pure protein and fat. You can eat red meat, fish and regular cheese (not "diet" cheese, cheese spreads, or whey cheeses). You can cook with butter, have mayonese with your tuna, and put olive oil on your salads.

• On the other hand, carbs are restricted (about 20 grams of net carbs per day, meaning total carbs minus fiber) in the first two weeks, which translates to three cups of loosely packed salad or two cups of salad with two-thirds cup of certain cooked vegetables each day.

There are no exceptions to these rules during the first two weeks because low-carb consumption (no fruits and only a few leafy green vegetables) is supposed to jump-start the weight-loss biochemical activity of the diet. You're not counting calories (in fact, you may be eating more calories than you were before).

Later, the carb allowance is increased in the form of fiber-rich foods, but you do not return to eating refined sugar (by the teaspoonful or in desserts), milk, white rice, white bread, white potatoes or pasta made with the dreaded white flour. Those remain on a lifelong list of forbidden pleasures.

The diet does allow for adding fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods after the two-week induction period.

Then, over time, the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance is made by gradually increasing carbs so long as gradual weight loss is maintained.

Exercise in all phases as part of a healthy lifestyle is now emphasized more than when the diet was first introduced.

 

What health experts say

The Atkins Diet remains highly controversial. An Atkins spokesperson points out that a number of recent studies since 2002, including those funded by the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration, demonstrate some benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet -- especially when weight-loss results achieved with a diet like the Atkins plan are compared to weight-loss results on other diet plans.

But many health experts remain wary. They indicate that "The Atkins Diet is a viable option that requires more testing. The Atkins diet works at producing weight loss. If you are looking for weight loss, yes, it works. If you are looking for improvement in triglycerides and HDL cholesterol, yes, it works."

But many experts, remain concerned about the long-term safety of the diet.

The American Dietetic Association also has concerns about the Atkins diet. Gail Frank, PhD, spokeswoman for the organization and professor of nutrition at California State University in Long Beach, says, "The body needs a minimum of carbohydrates for efficient and healthy functioning -- about 150 grams daily." Below that, normal metabolic activity is disrupted.

Others say: "No one has shown, in any studies, that anything magical is going on with Atkins other than calorie restriction. The diet is very prescriptive, very restrictive, and limits half of the foods we normally eat. In the end it's not fat, it's not protein, it's not carbs, it's calories. You can lose weight on anything that helps you to eat less, but that doesn't mean it's good for you."

The Atkins theories remain unproven, and many experts are concerned that a high-protein, high-fat diet can cause a lot of problems, especially for the large segment of the population that is at risk for heart disease. What's more, the plan doesn't allow a high intake of fruits and vegetables, which are recommended by most nutrition experts because of the numerous documented health benefits from these foods.

 

 

 

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