Atkins diet... say those words, and truly, you've got a revolution on your hands...
Yup... a diet revolution. No other diet has experts so strongly divided!
On the "con" side, lead by Dr. Dean Ornish, you've got those who think the Atkins diet and low carb dieting is unhealthy, dangerous, and plain impractical. On the "pro" side, legions of fans claim that low carb dieting has saved their lives with the only successful weight loss solution they've ever encountered.
Ready for the real truth? Here goes...
As is usual with anything, especially when a good deal of money is involved, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The same can be said for the Atkins diet. To get started, let's do a little overview of this "New Diet Revolution."
For those of you who aren't yet aware, the Atkins diet is a low carb diet. And herein lies the crux of the controversy. Basically, it works like this...
At the beginning stages of the Atkins diet, carbohydrates are severely reduced - almost to the point of non-existance . For example, you may find yourself restricted to less than 30 grams daily. One slice of Dempster's 7 Grain has over 20 grams, to give you an idea how little that is. However, if you were to get your carbs from fresh veggies, or simple salads, you'd find the amount acceptable.
It's this severe restriction that has folks like Dr Ornish all up in arms. We need vegetables, and all the fiber and nutrients provided by them, etc, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Dr Ornish has actually read the Atkins diet, because if he had, he'd see that this is not, nor was ever intended to be, a long term eating plan.
Carbohydrates are severley restricted in the first section of the Atkins diet for one, and only one reason...
To get the body's insulin secretion system back on an even keel. Simple carbs, like those in preponderance in the North American diet, cause the body to become insulin resistant. In short, this leads to wildly vacillating blood sugar levels causing weight gain, fatigue, moodiness, and un-productivity, to name a few. Restricting carbohydrates gets the body back to working properly again.
In fact, the extreme carbohydrate restriction period only lasts a couple of weeks (over which time you supplement your diet with essential vitamins and minerals), and then you're back to slowly adding complex carbs (like veggies, etc,) back into your diet. Truth is, the Atkins diet is NOT going to hurt you, despite what Dr Ornish says.
In fact, several recent research studies have validated the low carb diet. Duke University researchers found that subjects on the low carb diet experienced greater weight loss (with a larger percentage of that weight coming from fat as opposed to muscle), and more dramatic improvements in blood lipid and cholesterol levels than those on a typical low-fat diet (Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 75:2002).
Despite this, the Atkins diet is not an easy one to stay on, and anyone who tells you it is, well... he (or she) is nuts! :-) Fact is, steaks aren't much fun without potatoes, and burgers aren't much fun without fries.
Nonetheless, while the Atkins diet isn't perfect, it definitely deserves your attention, because it is a viable weight loss solution.
Best of all, things are easier now, since Dr. Atkins has developed an entire range of tasty, low-carb products to help make the low-carb diet less painful!
Read about other diets similar to the Atkins Diet on Ultimatefatburner.com
