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Originally Posted by cherryrock
From the day I heard about the Atkins diet I knew it was bad news. but i tried to stay open to the idea and decided to look into it more. In the August 2004 edition of national geographic there is an article on dieting by Ms. Cathy Newman. It turns out YES the atkins diet does help you lose weight, however, within 6 months gain it all back. In the case of my mother-in-law, she lost 40 pounds on the atkins diet, then gained 60. Also, this diet is extremely bad for you. The atkins diet increases your chances of getting breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, constipation, headaches, and even bad breath. Did you know that Dr. Atkins didn't have himself autopsied when he died? Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, says that the best way to lose wieght, keep it off and stay healthy is simply to eat fewer calories. 1,600 a day for woman and 2,200 for men. I lost wieght by switching to a vegan diet for a while. I have to say, it was pretty hard, but I've never felt better in my life. My energy is through the roof and I'm very healthy. So, if you have the motivation, that is definately the diet I would suggest even if you dont care about animals. If you need help, I'm pretty sure the PETA website has vegetarian starter kits.
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Cherryrock,
I understand how hard it is to believe everything that popular culture tells you is wrong. It seems impossible for ignorance and misinformation to run that deep. However, in my personal experience, it's true and it does.
All the diseases you claim a low carbohydrate diet is "linked to" are actually in no way conclusively linked to it at all. For example, one study will show that eating more red meat was loosely correlated with increased risk of cancer. It will in not identify the properties of meat itself which cause cancer (for example, they might be more likely to eat processed foods and less veggies. Or they simply might be more likely to eat meats/foods which are treated with chemicals like nitrites which have been proven to be cancer causing). It will simply report that eating more meat equals more cancer. We are left to assume that it must be the meat itself, and not some lifestyle cofactor which is.
Then someone with a (usually moral or financial) agenda takes this bit of evidence, and extrapolates it to form conclusions about the healthfulness of a low carb diet. After all, everyone knows that on a low carb diet you do nothing but feast on plates of beef.
You say that your mother in law lost 40 lbs on Atkins and then gained 60. It sounds to me like your mil went off her diet and went on an eating frenzy because she didn't realize LC is something you do for life
. How is this the fault of Atkins again? Does anyone say weight watchers causes weight gain because they drop out? No, but whenever someone fails on LC for some reason LCing is blamed.
I contradict your theory that you regain all lost weight after 6 months. I am living proof it's untrue. I have been on Atkins for a year and a half. I have lost over 150 pounds eating this way. I achieved my goal weight awhile back and then some. I have maintained that weight for months... in fact I am still slowly losing weight (I really need to force myself to eat more now
).
I have no desire to return to a sugar and grain heavy diet. It's hard for you to believe this, and if you asked me a few months ago, I wouldn't either... but eating this way feels totally natural. I don't feel like I'm on a diet in that I feel deprived or long for things. Everything I really want to eat I can and do. In those rare instances where I do want some junk food, I am capable of having just a little and not harming my weight. I cannot imagine going back, I don't desire to at all. Unfortunately your mother in law did not because she gave into environmental pressure.
I don't eat only meat. I eat very well. I eat heaps of veggies (and not non-nutrient crap like corn and potatoes, which were the bulk of my veggies before Atkins)... the leafy, cruciferous kind, the darkly colored veggies and fruit. I eat lots of healthy dairy (low sugar/carb preferably of course). I eat nuts every day. I haven't eaten a pork rind or slice of bacon in months
. It is really a wonderful, enjoyable way to eat. I feel good.
Really, you need to wake up and shake off all the lies and propaganda you've been fed by PeTA. Stuff like rice, bread, many fruits... theres hardly anything in that other than pure sugar. No vitamins, no minerals, no efas, no complete protein. Just sugar sugar sugar. Sucrose, starch, fructose, glucose. A week or so ago I heard some vegan diet guru pontificating about the evils of animal products. He likened animal products to "cotton candy" at one point in his speech. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of that statement. Cotton candy is pure sugar energy and no nutrition... this is exactly the kind of stuff we avoid like the plague on a LC diet, this is exactly the kind of stuff vegans eat as a
staple, this is
everything meat is not.
Let's see which more closely resembles "cotton candy", shall we?: a 3 oz salmon steak, or a large apple? Both have similar energy contents.
1 large apple, according to fitday:
Calories 125.08
Total Fat 0.763g (less than 1 gram of any type of fatty acids, an essential nutrient for the body to repair cells and tissues)
Protein 0.403g (less than 1 gram of any type of protein, again an essential nutrient needed for tissue anabolism)
Total Carbohydrate 32.33g , 5 grm fiber (27 grams of carbohydrate...pure sugar energy)
Vitamins & Mineral count:
Potassium 243.8mg
Vitamin A 2 % Vitamin C 20 %
Calcium 1 % Iron 2 %
Vitamin D 0 % Vitamin E 2 %
Thiamin 2 % Riboflavin 1 %
Niacin 1 % Folate 1 %
Vitamin B-6 5 % Vitamin B-12 0 %
Phosphorus 1 % Magnesium 3 %
Zinc 1 % Copper 4
... despite the rather large amount of calories, it does not contain any essential nutrient in high quantities. It has virtually no fat, no protein, and very modest amounts of vitamins and minerals. Worst, the vitamins and minerals & antioxidants the apple
does have are contained almost exclusively in the low sugar skins - not the high sugar flesh. The majority of the apple is almost entirely sugar.
now let's see how the salmon steak measures up:
3 oz salmon, baked or broiled
Calories 146.01 (slightly more calories)
Total Fat 6.5g (The salmon is much higher in fatty acids, an essential nutrient for tissue anabolism and cellular function. The kind of fatty acids contained by the salmon are overwhelmingly monounsaturated, particularly the hard to get omega 3s. Unlike plant sources of omega 3, the kind in salmon are pre-formed EPA & DHA. The omega 3 in stuff like canola oil and walnuts are mostly just the precursor to omega 3s, the alpha linolec acid. The body has a hard time converting ALA into EPA & DHA.
Furthermore, this is not exclusive to salmon. All meats are very high in essential monounsaturated fatty acids, even beef. Even the saturated fatty acids contained in meats are essential for physiological function.)
Protein 20.41g (The salmon is much higher in protein, delivering 20 grams of high quality complete amino acids. The apple doesn't even have 1 gram, and it isn't even a complete source).
Total Carbohydrate 0.378g (The salmon has virtually no raw sugar energy. The apple's energy comes almost exclusively from sugar).
Vitamin & mineral count:
Potassium 336.44mg (much higher than the apple)
Vitamin A 5 % Vitamin C 3 %
Calcium 1 % Iron 4 %
Vitamin D 0 % Vitamin E 3 %
Thiamin 8 % Riboflavin 3 %
Niacin 36 % Folate 1 %
Vitamin B-6 9 % Vitamin B-12 38 %
Phosphorus 24 % Magnesium 7 %
Zinc 4 % Copper 4 %
... there you have it. The vitamins and minerals contained by the salmon totally obliterate the apple. Not only that, but the salmon's energy is in the form of complete amino acids and preformed essential fatty acids, vital structural units for the human body. The apple's energy contents are in the form of sugar.
Which one of these food items more closely resembles cotton candy? Remember, the properties of cotton candy are: high energy, exclusively from sugar, low to no protein, fatty acids, and vitamins/minerals. It's really a no brainer.
If your vegan diet is working out for you, great. But please don't try to sell us the tired old lie that meat is unhealthy, and eating nothing but high sugar/low nutrient food items is optimal for promoting health. Most of us have already tried that. We know it doesn't work. It's promoted by people with a moral or financial interested vested in that way of eating. They view meat as either morally wrong or a financial threat. I don't care about other peoples subjective moral & financial interests, I have my health to worry about.
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