carlab68
Thu, Jan-22-04, 14:46
Ok there is this doctor that has articles in our local paper. I have written him before with his inaccurate statements about lc, but this one takes the cake. He has NEVER written me back even though I was nice and polite in my responses to him. So read this for yourself and if you feel inclined, send him an email. There is a link to email him at his site. I'm also making sure the Atkins folks are aware, as well as, writing to the paper asking that they post Atkins Nutrional's rebuttal to the NY Times article which they also ran. And if you would share this anyone that might be interested too, that would be awesome!
Carla
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/health/2004/01/hf-3-bod0122-8312.html
Atkins Diet faces the facts about saturated fats
BRYANT STAMFORD
The Body Shop
I have written about the Atkins Diet many times, and each time I do I get lots of e-mails.
The typical e-mail response scoffs at my stance, at my concerns surrounding the long-term negative implications of gorging on saturated fat and avoiding healthy carbohydrates, and then proceeds to tell me about the wonderful things that have occurred during the brief time the writer has been following the Atkins plan. How could I be so blind, so stubborn, so misled?
In my defense, I must plead common sense. Decades of medical studies point to saturated fat as the No. 2 killing agent in our society, second only to cigarette smoke.
Saturated fat is lethal stuff, and the less we consume the better. This message had finally taken hold in the 1990s, and we were making real efforts to reduce saturated fat intake. This is good.
Unfortunately, while reducing this bad fat, we increased our intake of sugar. This was a natural consequence of consuming low-fat and nonfat treats, because manufacturers loaded such treats with sugar to compensate for the loss of taste when removing saturated fat.
Thus, overconsumption of sugar became a plague that needed to be stamped out as well. As those of us who promote health began battling the sugar curse, along came Dr. Atkins, who saw a wonderful opportunity to make lots of money.
The Atkins plan was a brilliant marketing ploy, because it told Americans exactly what they wanted to hear. It told us that it was not only permissible to gobble cheese, eggs, bacon, prime rib and burgers, it was healthy.
Better yet, it claimed that all carbohydrates are bad, which meant we no longer had to be concerned with making certain we consumed those bothersome daily servings of vegetables and fruits. Wow! What a wonderful way to diet!
The only good thing about the Atkins approach was the emphasis on not eating simple sugar. The fact that Atkins dieters accomplished this is the reason why some good things happened to them, especially early on.
Unfortunately, the marketing skills of the Atkins group convinced dieters that good things were happening because they were eating lots of fat, and because they were avoiding "all" carbs.
Shame, shame, shame — nothing could be further from the truth. I have been screaming about this in my columns for the past several years. The truth is, on Atkins, the good things that were happening in the short run were happening in spite of the fact that too much fat and not enough of the healthy carbs were being consumed.
The truth comes out
Finally, after endangering the health of millions of Americans, the Atkins group has come clean ... sort of.
The Atkins group now acknowledges that consuming all that saturated fat is bad for you and has lowered its guidelines to reflect this incredible revelation.
The group suggests that only 20 percent of daily calories should come from saturated fat, and that ingesting all that red meat is a no-no. This 20 percent figure is still far too high (twice the limit for saturated fat set by American Heart Association guidelines), and such a diet is still dangerous to health, but it is at least a step in the right direction.
With 15 million books sold and a booming beef industry, why did the Atkins group change its story?
I'd like to say that it finally got around to reading the voluminous medical research that condemns its approach, and that the group suddenly developed concern for the long-term health of the American public.
Sorry, but I suspect the decision was purely economical — because the South Beach Diet, with its sane approach, is catching on.
South Beach tells us to get the simple sugar products out of our diet, but that's where the similarity with Atkins ends.
Thankfully, South Beach condemns saturated fat, and favors vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other complex carbs. Unlike Atkins, it's a healthy approach to dieting. Physicians have embraced it and are telling their patients about it. As a result, sales of "The South Beach Diet" have soared.
Biting my tongue
So, how have I managed to hold up under the incredible momentum created by the Atkins craze, to bite my tongue and avoid being surly and cynical every time someone told me the Atkins Diet was wonderful and, by inference, told me that I really needed to get onboard and quit being so old-fashioned and out of touch?
One, I trust that the truth has a way of making itself known, in spite of brilliant marketing and millions spent on advertising. And, two, all fad diets, without exception, fail and fade. The reason is, they can't work in the long run. I knew that it was just a matter of time before folks would begin to figure that out.
What I didn't do was invest lots of energy arguing and trying to convince folks who had adopted Atkins that they were making a mistake.
How can you turn someone around who has lost lots of weight quickly on a crash diet that allows them to eat good-tasting sludge and convince them that their efforts are foolhardy and potentially health damaging?
You can't. It's like trying to tell investors that buying too many high-flying tech stocks in 1999, even though the stock market was skyrocketing, may not be a good idea in the long run.
I have learned that you cannot save folks from themselves when they are determined to do foolish things. Heaven only knows how many times I've worn those shoes myself.
No, instead of wasting my energy, I saved my breath, biding my time, knowing the day would come when the truth would unfold and I could smile broadly and shout from the rooftops — "I TOLD YOU SO!"
The bottom line
If the Atkins Diet had emphasized ridding the diet of sugar, while telling how bad saturated fat is and how good complex carbs (vegetables, fruits, whole grains) are for you, it could have made a wonderful contribution to the health and well-being of Americans.
But then, it wouldn't have sold 15 million copies, would it?
Thank goodness the latest diet craze, South Beach, is correcting the foolishness that Atkins imposed on the American public for so long.
"Body Shop" runs Thursdays. Bryant Stamford is a professor and director of the Health Promotion Center at the University of Louisville. If you have questions or suggestions, go to his Web site at DrBryantStamford.com. Or address questions to "Body Shop," The Courier-Journal, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
Carla
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/health/2004/01/hf-3-bod0122-8312.html
Atkins Diet faces the facts about saturated fats
BRYANT STAMFORD
The Body Shop
I have written about the Atkins Diet many times, and each time I do I get lots of e-mails.
The typical e-mail response scoffs at my stance, at my concerns surrounding the long-term negative implications of gorging on saturated fat and avoiding healthy carbohydrates, and then proceeds to tell me about the wonderful things that have occurred during the brief time the writer has been following the Atkins plan. How could I be so blind, so stubborn, so misled?
In my defense, I must plead common sense. Decades of medical studies point to saturated fat as the No. 2 killing agent in our society, second only to cigarette smoke.
Saturated fat is lethal stuff, and the less we consume the better. This message had finally taken hold in the 1990s, and we were making real efforts to reduce saturated fat intake. This is good.
Unfortunately, while reducing this bad fat, we increased our intake of sugar. This was a natural consequence of consuming low-fat and nonfat treats, because manufacturers loaded such treats with sugar to compensate for the loss of taste when removing saturated fat.
Thus, overconsumption of sugar became a plague that needed to be stamped out as well. As those of us who promote health began battling the sugar curse, along came Dr. Atkins, who saw a wonderful opportunity to make lots of money.
The Atkins plan was a brilliant marketing ploy, because it told Americans exactly what they wanted to hear. It told us that it was not only permissible to gobble cheese, eggs, bacon, prime rib and burgers, it was healthy.
Better yet, it claimed that all carbohydrates are bad, which meant we no longer had to be concerned with making certain we consumed those bothersome daily servings of vegetables and fruits. Wow! What a wonderful way to diet!
The only good thing about the Atkins approach was the emphasis on not eating simple sugar. The fact that Atkins dieters accomplished this is the reason why some good things happened to them, especially early on.
Unfortunately, the marketing skills of the Atkins group convinced dieters that good things were happening because they were eating lots of fat, and because they were avoiding "all" carbs.
Shame, shame, shame — nothing could be further from the truth. I have been screaming about this in my columns for the past several years. The truth is, on Atkins, the good things that were happening in the short run were happening in spite of the fact that too much fat and not enough of the healthy carbs were being consumed.
The truth comes out
Finally, after endangering the health of millions of Americans, the Atkins group has come clean ... sort of.
The Atkins group now acknowledges that consuming all that saturated fat is bad for you and has lowered its guidelines to reflect this incredible revelation.
The group suggests that only 20 percent of daily calories should come from saturated fat, and that ingesting all that red meat is a no-no. This 20 percent figure is still far too high (twice the limit for saturated fat set by American Heart Association guidelines), and such a diet is still dangerous to health, but it is at least a step in the right direction.
With 15 million books sold and a booming beef industry, why did the Atkins group change its story?
I'd like to say that it finally got around to reading the voluminous medical research that condemns its approach, and that the group suddenly developed concern for the long-term health of the American public.
Sorry, but I suspect the decision was purely economical — because the South Beach Diet, with its sane approach, is catching on.
South Beach tells us to get the simple sugar products out of our diet, but that's where the similarity with Atkins ends.
Thankfully, South Beach condemns saturated fat, and favors vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other complex carbs. Unlike Atkins, it's a healthy approach to dieting. Physicians have embraced it and are telling their patients about it. As a result, sales of "The South Beach Diet" have soared.
Biting my tongue
So, how have I managed to hold up under the incredible momentum created by the Atkins craze, to bite my tongue and avoid being surly and cynical every time someone told me the Atkins Diet was wonderful and, by inference, told me that I really needed to get onboard and quit being so old-fashioned and out of touch?
One, I trust that the truth has a way of making itself known, in spite of brilliant marketing and millions spent on advertising. And, two, all fad diets, without exception, fail and fade. The reason is, they can't work in the long run. I knew that it was just a matter of time before folks would begin to figure that out.
What I didn't do was invest lots of energy arguing and trying to convince folks who had adopted Atkins that they were making a mistake.
How can you turn someone around who has lost lots of weight quickly on a crash diet that allows them to eat good-tasting sludge and convince them that their efforts are foolhardy and potentially health damaging?
You can't. It's like trying to tell investors that buying too many high-flying tech stocks in 1999, even though the stock market was skyrocketing, may not be a good idea in the long run.
I have learned that you cannot save folks from themselves when they are determined to do foolish things. Heaven only knows how many times I've worn those shoes myself.
No, instead of wasting my energy, I saved my breath, biding my time, knowing the day would come when the truth would unfold and I could smile broadly and shout from the rooftops — "I TOLD YOU SO!"
The bottom line
If the Atkins Diet had emphasized ridding the diet of sugar, while telling how bad saturated fat is and how good complex carbs (vegetables, fruits, whole grains) are for you, it could have made a wonderful contribution to the health and well-being of Americans.
But then, it wouldn't have sold 15 million copies, would it?
Thank goodness the latest diet craze, South Beach, is correcting the foolishness that Atkins imposed on the American public for so long.
"Body Shop" runs Thursdays. Bryant Stamford is a professor and director of the Health Promotion Center at the University of Louisville. If you have questions or suggestions, go to his Web site at DrBryantStamford.com. Or address questions to "Body Shop," The Courier-Journal, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.