Atkins diet - pros and cons.

[Guest guest]

> An " official link " that includes the wifes statement of 2/04 about

the progression of his CAD

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-02-10-atkins-statements_x.htm

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Jeff,

Thanks for this info. Anyway, even if Atkins did have some coronary

artery disease, this doesn't prove one way or the other that his diet

is harmful, and he certainly was not obese with a BMI in the 26-27

range. This is not an unhealthy BMI value; given the survival data I

cited, it is actually in the optimal range.

I myself tried Atkins and didn't like it. However, I've been very

impressed by people on low-carb forums who have lost more than 100

lbs. on the diet, where the diet has been a life-changing event. I

think the diet has some good points, including maintaining a high

protein intake and avoiding carb cravings. I don't know about the

ketosis issue - whether this is good or bad. May be good in terms of

preserving muscle mass, and as far as IF (intermittent feeding goes),

may have some cell protection actions to it. Plus, every week a new

paper comes out suggesting that even small increases in the blood

sugar are bad for you in terms of cardiovascular risk. Probably one

would have the lowest blood sugar by eating an Atkins type of diet, I

would assume.

For example, see:

Compared to corresponding values after the very low-carbohydrate diet,

fasting total cholesterol, LDL-C, and HDL-C were significantly (p

0.05) lower, whereas fasting glucose, insulin, and insulin resistance

(calculated using the homeostatic model assessment) were significantly

higher after the low-fat diet.

http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/2/177

The potential weaknesses to the Atkins diet or potential problems are

eating too much protein, which can cause aciduria and hypercalciuria,

eating too many high-purine-containing foods, which can lead to high

uric acid (and there are some recent theories that this may cause

vascular disease and hypertension), and eating too much saturated fat.

Another health issue may be the cancer-causing potential of grilled

red meats, and the advanced glycosylation end-products that you get

when you eat highly cooked fats and meat (but this is not strictly an

Atkins diet issue).

Each of these issues can potentially be remedied. You can take more

calories in as fat and so not overdose on protein; you can take most

of your fats as unsaturated fats, and you can choose protein-rich

foods that are not loaded with purines. Plus you can avoid

charbroiled meats, etc.

The randomized double-blind trials of Atkins type of diets so far, if

anything, according to my reading, have supported the claim that

Atkins is a very effective, short term way to lose weight, and blood

markers of cardiovascular risk have, if anything, been improved vs.

low fat, high carb diets. Weight loss alone will lower CRP, and so

someone who winds up losing 100 lbs on Atkins who has failed numerous

other approaches may well be better off than before.

I would love to see more studies of Atkins and uric acid - this is

where the diet may fall down a bit - but who knows?

Many of the diets out there have risks, as does CR. For example, a

lot of people like to eat a lot of fish, thinking this will help their

health, and then they find their taking in too much mercury, etc. So

the best diet out there is not clear, and different diets may work

better for different people.

I think the best strategy is not to push any idea to the extremes and

to sort of keep a middle of the road approach as much as possible. We

just don't have the data right now to know which is the best approach.

So I'm keeping an open mind.