Ok, I'm so irritated (and kind of confused). I was getting my nails done today and was waiting for them to dry when the next client came in. The nail tech started chatting with her, and found out the client was a dietician. The nail tech laughed and said she was trying to lose weight and would take any advice she could get. The first thing out of the dietician's mouth is "Whatever you do, don't go on one of those high-protein, low-carb diets, they'll kill you". Oh boy, bring it on! So I'm acting innocent and curious, asking questions.

Ok, she told me that you should NEVER eat under 130 grams of carbs per day, because that's the minimum you brain needs to function. Every medical study has proven that it's extremely unhealthy for you, with terrible long-term effects. I'm headed for kidney failure, heart disease, many kinds of cancers, and the weight will come right back on as soon as I start eating carbs. I told her that I was confused, because I had read a number of medical articles stating that this WOE has not been found to be harmful. She flat-out told me that there are NO articles like this out there, and the ones I've read are by "Atkins promoters". She also said that the human body can only metablolize 1 pound of fat per week, so a 1 pound weight loss should be the most to shoot for.

Ok, I know that a lot of what she said was ridiculous (at least my head knows that) but my heart is a little freaked out. I'm trying to eat this way and lose weight to be healthier and be around for my 4 year old son. Can anyone make me feel better, please??

Thanks!!

You're talking to a lot of people here who have lived on far less than 130g of carbs per day for years. We're either dead and don't realize it or else the dietician is misinformed.

I think low carb got a bad rep when Dr.Atkins died of a heart attack. I started hearing how awful it is for you and that he died following his own diet and all that kind of thing. Most diets call for under 1200 calories but, if you look into that you will read tons of info on how that is not enough and it can lead to serious problems. You are always going to find someone that has something bad to say no matter what it's about. If you are happy doing the low carb thing and it's working for you then that's great. I know a lot of people that say bad things about low carb diets simply because they couldn't do it. I wouldn't let it get to you.

*sigh* and some people wonder why so many of us have such a low opinion of RDs.



First, your cells burn glucose, not carbs, so she's wrong right off the bat there. Second, the majority of the cells in the body function just fine on ketones instead of glucose and in some cases (heart and...surprise...brain) actually prefer ketones. Only those cells that lack mitochondria require glucose and cannot use ketone bodies for energy (there is a small portion of the brain that fits this category, but the majority of the brain does not). Third, your liver is quite capable of producing the glucose that those few cells in the body that cannot use ketones require through a process known as gluconeogenesis where protein is converted to glucose.




That's nothing more than compost fodder. I'm not sure what studies she's referring to but every one they've done on low carb so far has shown just the opposite.

Aaaarrrgghhh! Dr Atkins did not die of a heart attack!! He died of a head injury when he slipped on an icy footpath in New York City.

Unfortunately, his enemies jumped on the fact that he was dead, and spread all sorts of fictitious rumours. The doctors who treated him are on the record as saying he had a "weak" heart - he had a condition which was caused by a viral infection - but had definitely not had a "heart attack."

Rosebud

Whoops! Just for the record. Dr. Atkins died of a closed head injury that he sustained when he slipped and fell on ice outside his New York office.
There was no heart attack involved.

ETA: JINX! Rosebud and I posted at the same time.

My first question on reading that was "Where did she get that figure, 130 grams?" Doing a few searches, the reference I find is a recommendation released by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. Here is a summary (PDF). It does not say "that's the minimum your brain needs to survive." It says, "RDA based on its <carbohydrate's> role as primary energy source for the brain." She's misstating the case.

I haven't found anything saying what science they based this on, and they don't state anything dire about having less than 130 in the document.

As far as the kidney failure, etc. she is conflating the problem of ketoacidosis with simple ketosis. Some people (like those with liver or kidney disease) cannot eat very low carb, at risk of ketoacidosis. Most people do not have this problem.

She said you would increase your risk of cancer by eating low-carb? I think she's out of her mind for saying that. If you don't get enough fiber, you can increase your risk of colon cancer, but I think most low-carbers actually do consider fiber intake very carefully.

She's wrong about the 1-pound figure. It's higher, it's something like 2.5 or 3 pounds, but that's not terribly realistic for most people. She is right in that slow weight loss is best; however, when low-carbing you lose some serious water weight at first, and that's nothing to be afraid of.

Ok just so you all know I had no idea how he died I have been told by a lot of people he died from a heart attack. This is exactly what I was saying though you never know what you can believe because there are so many different things out there. Thanks for letting me know how he died but, when you look up Dr.Atkins death you get articles like this.

This is one of the many articles I have found

"It is known Robert Atkins did indeed weather a heart attack during his lifetime. In April 2002, the diet guru issued a statement saying he was recovering from cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

However, revelations in February 2004 from the city medical examiner's report let slip the information that Atkins had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure, and hypertension, before his death. The report was given to the Journal by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine "

Ah, the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, aka PCRM. They are a front for PeTA and one of their areas of focus is low-carb diets since people eating low-carb tend to eat meat. I recommend that people be very skeptical of the things they claim.

Amanda, PCRM is a front for PETA. If you see any articles citing them as the source, trow it in the garbage. That goes for Dr.Neil Barnard, too.

Just for the record, Ysabella, this has been proven to be not true.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...highlight=fiber

And Amanda, try this page: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4327741/from/RL.2/.
The PCRM are one of the "enemies" of Dr Atkins I mentioned. It is in their interests to make it sound as though he died from heart disease rather than from a head injury.

Rosebud

Thanks guys The more I started to read that site the more it freaked me out about the diet. I'm glad to hear it's crap.

One of my best friends is a Registered Nurse Practitioner. She and her family (two pharmacists) were visiting over Xmas to come out and ski.

We got into a discussion on Atkins and low carb. The three medical people swore up and down that it was the worst thing you could do to your body, and that it killed Dr. Atkins. I grabbed my laptop, pulled up snopes.com, and showed them the heart attack story is an urban legend, spread by those who disagreed with his diet. They refused to believe it.

Also, everyone started coming down with a cold. When I offered Zicam nasal swabs to lessen the effects of the cold, she refused, saying "I don't believe in homeopathic cures." I was the only one who used 'em.

Guess who suffered the least from the cold? (ME)

You believe what you're taught. Thankfully, I go to an M.D. who believes that the most dangerous things you can do to your body is to smoke, be heavy, and not exercise. When I last went low carb and was exercising regularly, I lowered my LDL, cholesterol and triglycerides, and raised HDL a lot. He asked how I did it, and when I told him, you know what his advice was?

"Do what works for you. Keep it up."

Thanks, Rosebud.

A better way to think of the brain's energy requirement is that it prefers ketones, but will use glucose as a backup in emergencies. All it really needs is about 30 grams per day of glucose which the liver can make without any problems.

The heart tests that my doctor did showed that all the problems that I had while low-fat eating improved and disappeared after he switched me to low carb.

The medical community is slowly coming around to understanding the health problems caused by eating too many carbs. It takes time for things that are 'different' to get accepted. It was only through the preserverance of Dr. Atkins that low-carb eating survived long enough to get the studies done that refute the 'it will kill you' sayers.