LOW-CARB DIETS UNHEALTHY TREND
Low-carbohydrate diet books have been topping best-sellers' lists lately, but doctors and dietitians warn that low-carb, high-protein diets are imbalanced and potentially dangerous.
Sheila Kelly, clinical dietitian at Providence Hospital, Washington, D.C., says Americans are always looking for the "quick fix" diet plans. The allure of the low-carbohydrate diets, she says, is that they tend to promise rapid weight loss while allowing dieters to load up on proteins and fatty foods.
Under the Atkins' diet, perhaps the most famous of all the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets, a dieter might have a ham and cheese omelet with sides of bacon and sausage for breakfast, a hamburger for lunch (no bun) and a steak for dinner.
"It's a seductive concept," Kelly says. "Watch the pounds melt away while you eat all of the high-fat foods you want. Even better, don't bother watching your caloric intake or worrying about regaining your weight. All you have to do is avoid 'poison' carbohydrates."
Americans spend $33 billion a year on the diet industry but aren't getting any thinner. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there are 50 percent more obese people in America today than there were eight years ago.
Dr. Robert C. Atkins' low-carbohydrate diet first became a hit back in 1972. Now, almost 30 years later, he re-released his diet book with the title "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" and, like the first, this sequel has become a national bestseller.
According to Atkins, the problem is that people eat too many carbohydrates. He contends that Americans love to think that fat is making them fat when carbohydrates converted to fat by excess insulin is what really makes them fat.
People will lose weight on the near-elimination of carbohydrates from the diet, but the weight loss is the result of unhealthy eating, according to Kelly. The American Heart Institute and the National Institutes of Health both recommend a balanced diet that includes 250 grams to 300 grams of carbohydrates a day (15 times what Atkins allows).
Carbohydrates, essential nutrients that come in the form of starches and sugars, have the most effect on blood sugar. Carbohydrates are found in fruits, vegetables, beans, dairy foods and starchy foods such as breads and sweets. The Atkins diet not only requires that all sweets (cookies, pies, soda and ice cream) be avoided but it also severely restricts breads, pastas, beans, fruits and vegetables.
At its core, Kelly says, the Atkins diet is "nothing more than a garden-variety ketogenic diet."
Ketosis occurs when carbohydrates are not available to the body for energy. When the body doesn't get enough carbohydrates, it starts to reduce the blood sugar (glycogen) reserves in the liver. The body then starts to extract glycogen from muscle tissue, thus breaking it down and depleting water from the muscles at the same time. In the initial stages of the diet, the first seven to nine pounds a person loses are water, according to Kelly, presenting a real danger of dehydration and mineral deficiencies.
After the body has depleted the reserves of blood sugar in the muscles, it then starts to expand its production of ketone bodies, which many cells ultimately use for energy in lieu of glucose. That, indeed, is fat burning, Kelly says. But it is also dangerous.
Ketones, acid by-products of fat digestion, build up in the blood and make the blood acidic - a condition called ketosis. If ketones build up in the body long enough, they can cause serious illness and coma, Kelly explains.
Another potentially harmful feature of the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets, such as Atkins', is that they generally are low in fiber and high in fat. "The Atkins' paltry 3 to 5 grams of fiber per day falls far short of the recommended daily allowance of 25 to 30 grams per day," Kelly says.
Low-fiber diets have been linked to constipation, diverticulosis and cancers of the colon, breast and prostate. Some dieters may take fiber supplements to compensate, but supplements do not provide the same fiber mix and content as that found in foods, Kelly says.
The high total fat and saturated fat content of the Atkins' diet is also cause for concern, she says. High total and saturated fat diets have been linked conclusively to heart disease. Research also shows that high saturated fat intakes are pro-inflammatory, and numerous studies implicate a high total-fat diet in cancers of the breast, prostate and lung.
"Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of this diet is its relative lack of fruits and vegetables," Kelly says. Atkins suggests that dieters compensate for the vitamin and mineral deficiencies expected from a low-carbohydrate diet by taking up to 30 vitamin supplements per day.
However, Kelly states research indicates that it is not the vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables that are protective against cancer, heart disease and oxidative injury but the carotenoid compounds, phytochemicals and other "nutraceuticals" that researchers are beginning to investigate. "A lifelong shunning of these foods deprives the body of disease-fighting weapons," she says.
Complete carbohydrate deprivation also appears to have a damaging psychological effect, according to Kelly. The permanent removal of favorite bingeing foods, such as chocolate, cookies, ice cream and desserts, leads to "obsessive cravings and ultimate capitulation to temptation." Recent studies seem to bear this out, with one estimating the weight regain from the Atkins' diet to be 96 percent.
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sacry stuff :eek:
EXACTLY, scary have to agree with ya
