Atkins gets slated on the 1 o’clock news…

[Kerryjane]

Atkins gets slated on the 1 o’clock news…

Just been watching the one o’clock news and ‘FAD’ diets got a slating…
It was a report on diets in general but it was the Atkins book which was shown and highlighted!
It was a bit pathetic really because it was a report on the fact that there COULD be long term health risks, not that there actually are any.
It advocated calorie counting in favour of anything else, this may work for some people but the comments on this site go to show that for many people it doesn’t work…
It really annoyed me, ignorance is the reason that when I tell people I am following the Atkins nutritional approach I get sighs and rolls of the eyes, all the BBC have done is fuel this ignorance with an unsubstantiated report.
My sister was watching it and said “your diets bad” I just stood up and pulled my jeans showing her how big they were and asked how can it be bad?
All we are doing is cutting out the refined sugars in our diets which didn’t exist years ago and people were fine then!
As you can probably tell I’m a bit annoyed…
Just needed to get that off my chest!

[pepsi max]

kerry,come the revolution and they,ll all have to eat their words!!

[UrbanGypsy]

:lol: Breathe, Kerry... breathe! :lol:

Ignorance, to be honest, is why I don't even bother telling folk I'm on the diet unless they specifically ask. No great surprise another unresearched news broadcast goes out prioritising rating figures, scare mongering and sensationalism over actual reporting of truth. Bowling for Columbine pretty much summed up my attitude towards "news" programmes nowadays...

You were right to show her the plain and simple facts of the effects the diet has had for you, although she could have countered that weight loss can be achieved in a whole range of dangerously unhealthy ways. Look at the miracles of Slimfast for example. What I'd say to folk who call Atkins bad is pure and simple...

I've had blood sugar problems since I was around 14, deveoped Chronic Fatigue Syndrome when I was 15 and became hospitalised and incapable of work with chronic ME by the age of 23. In the last five years I have tried everything to get better with little to no success. More than once I felt suicidal because I simply couldn't face an entire life without anything resembling a life in it.

Since going on the diet, I've had one noticable bout of hypoglycaemia (where the blood sugar dips too low), a steady rise in energy levels from (literally) near unconscious to 85% perfectly normal with the occasional bout of slight sleepiness, and a near total disappearance of all the other symptoms. All that in just two weeks...

Okay... step right up folks. Who wants to tell me this is bad for me?! :hyper:

Phew... Needed to get that off my chest too. :lol: So we're both preaching to the choir... better out than in though! :) Don't let the numpties get the best of you... just bless their ignorant ways for helping you feel that little bit extra smug for knowing you're right!

PS... Well put Christine!!! :clap: Vive la Revolution!

[Ebbie.B]

It is silly isn't it.
The only difference between my diet before and my diet now is the fact i do not eat bread, pasta, potatoes or sweets anymore, and i now eat a lot more green veg and drink much more water. How can that be bad for you????
It was also Atkins that helped me to realise i have an intolernace to wheat, i would still be eating it and damaging myself if i hadn't gone onto Atkins.
I also keep 'Atkins' a secret from people because i'm fed up with having to explain the diet. However i was talking to a lady today and she was telling me that she no longers believes 'we are what we eat' as her husband who never smoked, played tennis 4 times a week and followed a low fat diet had a heart attack at 56 years, her thoughts were if it's going to happen it's going to happen what ever life style you follow. I then dared to speak about Atkins and from the little i told her was extremely interested and has asked me to pick her up a copy of the book, so thankfully there are people out there who have an open mind and don't make judgements before they have all the facts!!

[UrbanGypsy]

I think that's the secret... there are numerous receptive people in the world who would really benefit from hearing what diet you're on. The key is in spotting them!

My best friend died on my 16th birthday from cancer... she never drank, never smoked, loved sport, ate healthy food... in short, she was your supposedly ideal candidate for a long and healthy life.

I, meanwhile, am subject to karma in my own lifetime... my fiance takes great delight in reminding (let's call it that, though ridiculing would be far closer to the truth! :lol: ) me on a near daily basis what a hard time I gave him long before we were even dating for being on such an abominable diet!

Oh the shame...! :blush:

[Kerryjane]

Thanks for the words guys!!
As long as we know the truth that’s what matters, I just hope no one was undeterred from trying by the report!
Bring on the revolution!

[tholian8]

It was also Atkins that helped me to realise i have an intolernace to wheat, i would still be eating it and damaging myself if i hadn't gone onto Atkins.

You tell 'em sistah! Same thing happened to me. I can eat a bit of potato, I can eat fruit (in reasonable moderation), I can drink beer and wine, I can even eat the occasional sweet--but I CANNOT eat anything made from wheat, without immediate and very annoying consequences. If it had not been for LC I never would have known this. Allergies which tormented me for decades have utterly vanished. UNLESS I EAT WHEAT, then they come right back.

Let them trash this diet, I will never again return to my old ways of eating. I feel too much better and the fat is coming off. For the first time I feel in control of my body and my health.

Emily

[Paulie-M]

I didn't see the 1 o'clock news today, but it looks like I didn't miss much:lol:. I know loads of people who say that they feel much better on Atkins and that they now realise that they have a sensitivity to wheat!

We know it works.

[HumminBird]

I went to my doctor yesterday who told me she was dead against Atkins and that she believed it CAUSED diabetes due to the only other people who release ketones are diabetics. I told her, "thank you for your advice" and started induction today. I have also been told how "crap" Atkins is by the people I work with and that they'll "give me a week". Thanks for the support guys!! :rolleyes:

The worst thing that happened yesterday was to my poor mother. She is diabetic and weighs 14.5 stone (203 pounds) and would love to lose 5 stone (70 pounds). She also longs to feel healthy again. She went to see her doctor yesterday to ask him about going on Atkins. He told her, "you can't do a diet like that! You have to eat carbs!!" So she showed him some diabetic parts of the book that I'd photocopied for her. He glanced at them, demanded to know where she'd got them from and then handed them back to her. She told him he could keep the papers to read since he knew nothing about Atkins except that "you don't eat carbs". He said "I don't want them. I'm not interested!" :bash:

What all this boils down to is that the people who don't believe don't want to try to believe. They don't care and they're too scared to find out that all the stuff that's been drumed into thier heads all these years is rubbish!!

GGRRRRRR!!!!!! I'm angry too but at least we all know who's right!!! How can so much proof of lost weight, energy and feeling great be wrong?! :confused:

[UrbanGypsy]

Quick answer to folk who say "but you don't eat carbs" on the diet? "Yes, I do."

Most folk (myself included before I stood corrected) have heard only of induction and are told that's the whole diet... :(

Why not make up a plate of the average amount of salad you're able to eat in a day after induction... make it as appetising as possible... then take a photo to carry with you whenever that charge is levelled! The point of induction, as Atkins clearly states, is to provide a deliberately unbalanced diet to counterract your unbalanced metabolism and bring your body back on to an even keel. He never once says he advocates no carbs.

Low carb and no carb are two radically different things after all...

[pepsi max]

hi kelly,
i think the med profession is changing abeit very slowly.the gps are usually the worst in my experience.my hospital diabetes consultant is very supportive of this WOE but only after i,d told him what i was doing.he said he couldn,t suggest it as it went against the hospital policy.
my gp(one of them)is dead against it and him and the nurses are just waiting for me to fall flat on my face.they,ll have a long wait though.
their theory is that it is better to eat low fat/high carb and control diabetes with meds instead of no meds and low carb.i still cannot understand why they think like this but no longer care.the best person to look after diabetes is the individual who has it.you have to be your own doctor.i wish i,d done this years ago and then i might not have the nerve damage i have now.even that is a lot better than it used to be.
you,ve gotta be strong though,the docs will try to change you.

[Kerryjane]

Same story from my GP…”You have too eat carbs” blah blah blah. My mother went to her GP and told him I was on Atkins and she was thinking of doing the same…he told her to go to weight watchers and not to do Atkins…
Loads of people do slim fast or go to slimming world or follow other types of diets…all of which you completely have to pay through the nose for…
Its probably me being totally suspicious but all you pay in Atkins is the initial price of the book, it’s a way of eating which is easy to do and doesn’t cost you and extra £3 a week to do or the extortionate price of a can of slim fast! Is this one of the reasons people are against it? Is it ruining the diet industry?
Now I eat more vegetables than I ever have done in my whole life, I drink more water and feel loads better…what the hell is wrong with that?!
Today I had a lecture from my brother that the high fat content in my diet cant be good for me, I told him he can say the same to me in the future when I’m much smaller than I am now! When I had the ice cream incident over the weekend my dad was going on saying ‘that’s your diet ruined’ the ignorance and lack of support does my head in, though I know that I will just learn to deal with it!
As you may have guessed I think ignorance is one of the worst traits anyone can have, GP’s and the BBC included!

[kellyuk]

And here's one of the headlines on AOL news today:

Atkins Dieters 'Gambling
With Health'

DISCIPLES of the Atkins diet are gambling with their future health, according to a top nutrition expert.

Dr Susan Jebb, from the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said it would be "negligent" to recommend the diet to anyone overweight.

She said the claims made for the Atkins diet were based on "pseudo science".

She argued that despite a number of small studies, no one knew what the long-term effects of the Atkins diet might be.

But data gained from large diet investigations involving thousands of participants had set alarm bells ringing.

The Atkins diet cuts out carbohydrates and boosts consumption of protein without having to avoid fatty foods. It is a favourite of celebrities such as Geri Halliwell, Catherine Zeta Jones, Renee Zellweger and Minnie Driver.

Dr Robert Atkins, who developed the diet, believed that carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables over-stimulated the production of insulin, resulting in hunger and weight gain.

But Dr Jebb said the diet was a leap in the dark because it meant such a dramatic change in eating habits.

For most people, protein accounts for a mere 15% of the calorie intake. But much higher levels are consumed by people following the Atkins diet.

Dr Jebb said: "We simply do not know the long-term health implications, and it's such a profound change from what we're doing at the moment. I certainly think we should be adopting a precautionary principle in terms of public health."

[lburnikell]

I eat healthier now than before Atkins here is a sample menu of what I would eat

breakfast is grilled bacon, boiled or poached egg and mushrooms

Dinner- Tuna salad mayo and 20z of cheese

Tea- beef califlower with melted cheese

Before
crisps chocolate pizza ice cream macdonalds happy meals greggs sandwiches or pasties, BB's muffins basically the crap of the day!!
So how can my diet be a fad or unhealthy???

Oh ps although I probably dont drink enough water I do drink it now which is more than I did before Atkins, I never touched the stuff, I am gradly trying to drink more and more I am up too about 4 500ml a day. I still do have my cups of tea and diet coke, but not as much as before.

[SylviaUK]

The same story was the "banner" headline for the London Evening Standard today :(

I think the main issue is the food industry. They make a fortune from "low-fat" convenience foods, and are terrified at the thought of people eating real, natural food instead.

[pepsi max]

you,ve hit the nail on the head sylvia.thats why the grain and potato industry is banding together and slating this WOE.they are terrified they,ll lose their profits.in my opinion,they,ve had their day.now its our turn.

[kellyuk]

ITV news tonight the report wasn't all bad, it had some good points about Atkins, it finished on a downer suggesting saying that Dr Atkins made more money 'on the supplements missing in the diet than on book sales' :(

[HumminBird]

I'm sick of being slated by the people I work with. We all have to eat together so they found out I was doing Atkins. Now they keep telling me how stupid I am and how dangerous it is but all they've read is the newspapers! Since when does anyone believe everything they read in the papers?? I keep saying, "go away and read the book, THEN come back and winge at me, once you've got a valid point" None of them have yet and I know for a fact, none of them will. They prefer to moan at me instead about things they don't understand. It makes me so mad. I can't wait for the day when they're all proved wrong! It's gonna be a sunshiny day whatever the weather!!!

[SunnyLady2]

For those who want the diabetic answers avoid Atkins and have a look at "Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution". He is a doctor who controls his diabetes using low carb.

I just tell people I am restricting the sugar in my diet and that I am insulin resistant which canlead to diabetes (true). Most people don't seem to associate Atkins and restricting sugar if you do not mention the word carbohydrate. If they do ask I refer them to this book (which I got from Amazon UK) - as they have never heard of him no horrid associations.

I also have Barry Groves book - again restricted carbs but British. Have a look at his site (second-opinions) as he teaches doctors in the UK about weight management and diabetes in this country and his phd is nutrition.

People hear what they want to hear and at the moment Atkins is being bashed, mostly by those who do not get beyond reading about induction. We've had nearly 40 years of low fat indoctrination and I reckon this is also part of the lobbying by those losing profit - Slimfast and their ilk; Wheat lobby in the US; et al, whose media people prepare press handouts that most journos do not have the time or inclination to go beyond. One notable exception is Dr John Briffa (Observer)

SL

[HumminBird]

I've just ordered Dr Bernsteins book from Amazon for my mam. She's desperate to loose weight but is a diabetic taking shots of insulin and her doctors said NO to Atkins. Once I get Bernsteins book I'm going down to the clinic with her to give them what for!

[pepsi max]

kelly,
i see your mams on insulin.so was i till i started low carb and now i,m insulin free.she must be careful however,when she starts l-cing,she may need help from the hospital about the dose adjustment if shes not used to altering it herself.personally, i found it better to ease into it,but i was used to dosage changing.

[SunnyLady2]

Kelly: Anyone on insulin must only reduce under the doc's or hospital's supervision. But at the end of the day we are responsible for our own destiny so if the doc your mam is seeing still does not want to go with what his patient wants to do then ask to be referred to someone who will supervise it. I feel sorry for GPs as we expect them to be experts on everything when they are generalists, but low carb is actually recommended in - I think - the north by one of the health authorities up there.

SL

[Woking]

Ignore it I say...
If you read them all they are pretty much the same these taken from other articles.
It's normally written by some snotty nosed skinny little stuck up London journo' that wouldnt know the first thing about dieting and the problems pre-atkins we have faced.
Look at the scales - the results are there.... I cant believe some journo's scoop so slow and blame Dr Atkin's death on the diet.... Sums up the society we live on though I guess eh !!!

[Tortie]

I listened carefully to Dr Susan Jebb, waiting to hear her quote new research information to support her position, and there is none. She is simply saying they cannot recommend it cause they don't know the long term effects. I was very unimpressed - I think she may be looking to make a name for herself and picked the silly season when Tony Blair is on holidays and the media are desparate for copy. I've only been going three weeks but I feel so much better; I have energy for the first time in years; my diet has far more fresh veg and real food and no convenience foods; I am drinking lots of water and taking a range of supplements. The positive changes that Atkins has brought, plus the weight loss which is slow but coming, has to be a good thing. My GP will be opposed I am sure. I had Chronic Fatigue/ME for year and it took me two years and numerous other referrals before he would refer me because he said "I don't believe in ME but even if I did you don't have it" - work the logic of that out. I am sure despite the fact that he tells me to lose weight he will think Atkins is a bad thing. I think conventional medicine encourages a very restricted view and both doctors and dieticians get locked into their ideas - very afraid to respond to new ideas etc. I agree with Pepsi Max - that you have to take responsibility for yourself and if your doctor can't help - find one who can or work round the one you have. That's what I did with ME - in the end I realised I knew most about my health and I learned to manage the problem and make changes and gradually it improved. Atkins has made a radical improvement in my energy levels which "proves" it works for me.

[HumminBird]

kelly,
i see your mams on insulin.so was i till i started low carb and now i,m insulin free.she must be careful however,when she starts l-cing,she may need help from the hospital about the dose adjustment if shes not used to altering it herself.personally, i found it better to ease into it,but i was used to dosage changing.


That's why I'm taking the Bernstein book to her diabetes clinic. She knows not to start doing this without their aid which is why it really gets to me cos she's so desperite to start and they won't let her.

Thanks for the advice Pepsi Max. I will definitely tell her about refferring if they say no again.

I'm really pleased you are off insulin!!! That's such fantastic news!!Something else I can tell the docs at the clinic!

[pepsi max]

kelly,i hope your mam,s doctors helps her,she,ll feel so much better once she starts l-cing.has she been on insulin a long time and how much weight has she got to lose?has she ever adusted her insulin herself or does she rely on the doc for advice.i always adusted my own dosage,i was told to do this at dx.how many units is she on?

[HumminBird]

My mam has been on insulin for 3 years, almost. She takes 10 units in the morning and 10 units at night. Shes 14stone and wants to get down to around 10 stone...sorry don't know how much that is in pounds and haven't got my calculator handy!!! :lol:

Thanks for all your advice Christine!

[pepsi max]

thats not too bad considering i was on 8 units am and 7 units pm and i weighed 81/2 stone.just shows how many carbs i ate in a day.only 1 stone lighter and with l-c,no insulin.try not to worry kelly and go to the clinic "fully armed"with dr bernstein.

[HumminBird]

Just realised I hadn't answered all your questions! :roll:

I'm not sure if mam adjusts the insulin herself. She once asked if she could be put on tablets for a trial and they let her, kept a close eye on her, but her BS levels were all over at night and she started suffering from severe depression and anxiety so they put her back on injections. :tears:

She also has IBS possibly caused (she's been told) by the insulin and she's had a underactive thyroid for as long as I can remember (she's on medication for that). So she feels as though all the odds are against her, which, in a way, I suppose a lot of them are. :agree:

One of the main reasons she was so interested by Atkins was because he mentions all three of these problems in his book so she felt like she had an ....(how do you spell alliy?!) :lol:

Anyway, I think the Bernstein book has arrived cos I got a "called while you were out" card from Royal Mail today and I don't know of anything else I'm supposed to be getting! :wiggle:

When the appointment arrives for the clinic, I'll let you know how we get on. Keep all your fingers and toes crossed for her!! :roll:

[pepsi max]

we,ll keep everything crossed kelly,happy reading.