Hi,

Some of you may have read messages from me in the Atkins or newbie forums, I am doing my dissertation on the Atkins diet and have been bugging people to answer my questions! (I am not disputing that it works by the way!)

Anyway, as this forum are particularily interested in the research perspective....

Q: If you read any 'danger' stories about Atkins did you follow these up before deciding to go on the diet?

Thanks

Katie

When I heard about my mother's success with Atkins, I spent a weekend cruising around the Internet (including this forum.) I found enough facts that backed up Dr. Atkins claims that I have become a pretty good refuter of scare claims.
I studied good research protocols in school, which also helps evaluate research.
But most impressive to me is my own experience and those of others who have the same feel better/look better/think better results that I did.

Sorry, Katie.

Nearly every "danger" story out there on Atkins or low carb in general is filled with inaccuracies and Urban legend about what the diet IS to begin with (with comments such as "all the eggs, meat and cheese you can eat" and "no carb" and "no fruits and vegetables") and the rest are based on studies that were also high in carbs or don't show what they are reported to show (yes, I do follow them up, since you asked).
IMO, most people who write about low carbing would do well to actually read the entire book before they started spouting opinions about it.

i did not do much research before i started however after starting and having such success - i decided to build a web site and started doing research.

i live close to medical library and starting searching for documentation to back up dr. atkins and i found it. of course it did help to have a husband who could actually get the books from the medical library for me.

but i did find that was much medical documentation to back atkins up and some of it was not new in fact it had been around for more than 20 years.

When I started the Atkins "Diet" I read the New Diet Revolution to get started and I wanted more information. I read up on the actual physical and mental effects that eating/reducing/ or even cutting out fat, protein, or carbohydrates can have on ones body from various medical journals and biology books.

In all honesty, my quest for information had little to do with people telling me that my kidneys were going to fall out or that I would have a heart attack. It was more I don't like being fed mis-information and being armed with factual information I've found is the quickest way to silence the uninformed.

Good luck with you dissertation.

Thanks for your comments.

It is probably helpful if I clarify myself slightly as I have done in the Atkins forum - my dissertation is on the function that knowledge plays within society and I am using the Atkins Diet as a test case. Atkins is a good example of something that challenges traditonal social norms yet has a massive following - I understand that it has been around for a good 30 years but there are many other superior innovations (the Dvorak keyboard) that are better than their popular alternatives but have not caught on.

I have read the low carb books and am in no way disputing that it works, I am far more interested in why Atkins has been so successful now.

If anyone has any comments as to how they got involved with the diet, where they heard about it, who recommended it etc they would be much appreciated.

Katie

Katie...

My comments about reading the book were not directed at you, but rather at the myriad of reporters who write these "danger" articles. When I read those articles, 99% of the time it's obvious to me that the reporter has not read word one about low carbing and if they have, they haven't done more than a cursory review of the induction chapter of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution and seem to think that's what we all live on for life (I don't follow Atkins, BTW, but another low carb plan into which I've grafted some principles of Atkins).
As for how I got into low carbing, a medical profession friend recommended Dr. Bernsteins Diabetes Solution to me when my blood sugars went out of control on the ADA diet. I got the book, read it and decided that it sounded a lot more logical than what I had been doing. I checked with my doctor and at first his opinion was, "If you think it will help, go for it!". Now, he's completely behind my approach as I've gotten off all my medications using this approach and my blood sugars are that of a non-diabetic. I've been on low carb for almost 3 years now and all my blood tests come back normal, including cardiac profile, liver and kidney profiles which my doctor checks regularly.
I think a lot of people get into low carbing because they know at least one person who has been successful with it and want that same weight loss success (or improvement in health) that others seem to be achieving with it.

I think many people got into Atkins BECAUSE of the "danger" stories.
The typical danger stories says that Atkins is a quick weight loss diet (negative overtones) that is/might be dangerous in the long run, and anyway nobody can stay on low-carb too long.
Then they go on to say that the only way to achieve and maintain proper weight is by changing your lifestyle SLOWLY, and only a slow weight loss is good for you.

Now, if I'm 50 or more lbs overweight and I agree with all this, it occurs to me that,
Why change my life habits now ? Why not AFTER I lose the 50 lbs. A quick weight loss plan that is safe in the short run and permits my favorite foods is just what I want. Once I lose the 50 lbs. I will change my eating habits for good.

As they say "It doesn't matter what they write, as long as they spell the name correctly"

danny

I think a lot of people got into Atkins after struggling and failing with healthy eating low-fat diets. They look around for something different and find Atkins. They don't believe the scare stories in part because they have come to distrust what the experts and government, who recommended the low-fat regime, say about dieting. They soon discover that, unlike low-fat diets, Atkins is easy to stick to because everything you can eat tastes good, and it satisfies your appetite.

I have been made aware over the years about low-carb approaches, notably Atkins and Montignac but always dismissed them. I believed it when they said it was a gimmick... another one of those grapefruit diet.

What turned it all around was when I read the famous story by Gary Taubes. It was like a light bulb went on. I was a convert.

Since then I have a become regular reader of this forum and have come to realize that we are all lied to on a regular basis and that financial interests drive health polices (i.e. The rejection by the Bush administration of WHO's proposed limit on sugar consomption).

Katie,
Several years ago, when my mother was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, I remember reading a book (don't remember the title or author) about how diabetes is an insulin/blood sugar problem and, since all carbs - not just 'sugar' - are converted to blood sugar, then limiting the amount of carbs would help the diabetic patient. The book was much more indepth, but this is close enough.

The points the book made struck a cord in my mind, but I had been fully indoctrinated into the low-fat world. For many years (I'm guessing at least a decade?), I kept at the low-fat WOE but that book and the points it made always stayed in the back of my mind.

When I decided back in 2002 to re-start some sort of diet, I decided to check out Atkins. I was disillusioned enough with low-fat that I needed to re-explore that carb control info that I had picked up so long ago. The more I read, the more sense it made to me. There were specific questions I had such as I had heard that the only fuel that the brain could use was glucose, so how could this possibly work? These types of things I did do more reading on. Again, the more I read, the more I found that we had always been given "the partial story" or outright misinformation.

After all the reading, I was convinced that it was worth trying, especially since my body type is exactly like my mother's (ie, destined for diabetes). I found that my results, especially the disappearance of the incredible cravings were exactly what I needed. Anecdotal evidence is great, but I still wanted some cold hard facts to reassure myself that my body was ok, so I made sure to do the blood work, too.

So, overall, doing Atkins is a combination of reading and researching plus actual experience with noticable physical improvement.

I ended up losing 40 pounds before I started on a long slippery slope back to the high-carb wonderland. I am back again, having gained back 30 of the 40 pounds. I am still convinced that this is a valid WOE. This time around I am finally addressing some of the emotional eating issues as well.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your dissertation.

Katie-

My doctor recommended it to me. My mom and brother had already been on Atkins and I was completely anti-Atkins at that point. I believed all those danger stories. Then I went to the doctor about my own weight issues. He suggested going on a restricted carb plan for a couple of weeks to see if it would work for me.

I did some research online, bought the Atkins book and gave it a shot. It seemed to work well and I found out that Atkins was not what I thought it was.

So, I am one of those that was against Atkins until I found out what it really consisted of. Now, I hope to never go back to my old way of eating.

BTW, I am working on my dissertation too. Good luck with yours!

Hi Katie.

I started LCing on the Protein Power plan in early 2001. I chose that after browsing this forum for a while. I had heard the negative opinions of Atkins, but I understood the concept of syndrome X and I already believed that refined carbs are doing us a lot of harm. I knew that most of the anti-Atkins stance was sensational - the "x MAY cause y" effect. All that protein MAY leech calcium from the bones. Protein MAY stress the kidneys. That was the best they could come up with. No DOCUMENTED health problems attributed to Atkins or any other low carb plan. I hear these kinds of unsubstantiated opinions a lot in health journalism and I ignore it until they come up with "x ABSOLUTELY DOES cause y." So I wasn't phazed.

Weighing in with Kristine's take on this - I pretty much ignore all claims (pro or con to LC) that don't back up what they are saying with references to the source of the information. As Kristine notes, there are no studies showing that any of the LC WOEs cause the sorts of problems the nay-sayers keep saying may occur.

Thanks guys, thats really helpful, and thanks for the encouragement with the dissertation.

I've just done a survey over here so I'm sorting the results out now for a bit but if I find out anything interesting and/or have any more riveting (!) questions I'll post a new thread,

Cheers

Katie