OK wow I was watching CNN (as I am apt to do) and they where doing a segment on “Fad diets”. Yes you are thinking it and you are right the Atkins WOL was on there.
My question would be how long do hundreds of hundreds of hundreds of people need to be doing something before it is no longer a “fad”.
Seriously I have been doing this for only a month and I feel great. I am loosing between 3 and 4 pounds a week, sleeping like a baby (I had serious sleep issues), and just feel good.
I think, for myself, I am going to sum up the type of people that put that little segment together as “flat out chuckle heads”
Thank you much for you time, you may continue to eat meat and feel healthy

Oh, so true! The sugar industry (as well as most processed foods industry - read most large corp in America) are very powerful. Our WOL would seriously cut into their profit line should all overweight Americans figure out our well publicized secret! Our farmers would be realize a much larger profit margin!! Consider this - Dr. Atkins came out with his first book in the 1970s - and it's still a fad??

Dr's profit line would plummet also - so many more people would be healthy!!!!!

Congrats on your success - it just keeps getting better!!

Anna

I have come to the realization over many, many years that the news media are, as a rule, very sloppy with verifying their sources and make little effort to actually get to the truth of something. Accuracy is a very low priority for many of them - especially if it would cut into the sensationalism they can get from it.

Most media outlets have a stable of "experts" and "advisors" and "consultants" that they blindly turn to. These are the same people year after year after year. The news folks are concerned primarily with generating stories rapidly with minimal expense.

These "talking head" experts usually fit very comfortably into that same mold and seldom make any effort to update or verify their information. They get off on being the "expert" and if they actually had to investigate something that would somehow take away from their "expertness".

It's rare to see a really well put together piece. You do see it from time to time and when you do it is really refreshing. It's sort of like the legal profession - most of the time it makes you want to throw up but, in the moments when it is at its best and momentarily lives up to its potential, it does itself proud.

I for one would appreciate it if the whole world would stop calling Controlled Carb programs Fad diets. The low-fat movement is more of a 'fad' than low-carb. Doesn't anyone remember before 1980? Sheesh. I mean before we invented this crap we didn't always have Twinkies, Wonder bread, margarine, etc. I believe the definition of a 'fad' is -

Main Entry: fad
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1867
: a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal : CRAZE

Controlled or Low-carb has been around forever, and if I have anything to say about it, it will be around for all time to come.

Who's with me? It's time to wipe out the low-fat FAD for all time!!!

Melissa

The thing that I often ponder is where this will all lead. We sue the tobacco companies, we sue the gun manufacturers, we are seriously taking about sueing and taxing junk food makers. What will happen when the word finally becomes common knowledge that they very diet that the federal government (of the U.S. and many other nations) has been shoving down our throats, preaching in our schools and subsidizing none ways to hell is not only bad for you, is not only the source of so many of today's leading killers, but that the information about this has been known and available for decades.

Some day there will be a reckoning.

and obesity. Surprise!

Feed them a high carb, high sugar diet and the kids get super fat. So fat that they mature too early and develop diabetes...
...but the news story I watched said many parents and schools are now trying to switch kids over to a low cal, low fat WOE to help the situation. Makes you wonder if anyone is offering up our WOE as an alternative.

Lordy mercy...this board will be super-populated in the years to come...

It's truly sad that schools let McDonald's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut (not to mention all the soda machines) into schools based on the argument that they had to give kids what they want to eat. I thought children are in school to be educated...why not teach them how to eat? Sure they're kids and they'll always eat fast food, but if you arm them with the information maybe they would eventually take an interest and help themselves. Kids who are fat, shunned and unable to participate WILL want to change something...

But I've gone off on a tangent...

Donald

I have to say Dateline did a segment on Dieting and they said that the Atkins approach although unorthidox was a very effective way to lose weight. Thay said that they would keep track of the people who were on the diet to see if they kept it off in a year. The only beef that I had with it was that they only used men. Men lose weight easier than women do as a general rule. They should have used one man and one woman. But I was glad to see that Atkin's was not be criticized but actually taken seriously.

I agree with you! My children started going to public school 1 1/2 years ago and the encounter with the "hot lunch" was something I didn't quite expect. We homeschooled our children until they were in 2nd and 3rd grade, so lunch was always prepared by mom or dad. We've always tried to eat well, balanced meals.. even though we always chose pasta over meat, low fat over higher fat brands and little cheese.

When they started going to school, I watched the menus and read them carefully to make sure they at least had one or two good hot meals during the week. I would pack their other lunches on days they either didn't like what was on the menu or they weren't in the mood to stand in line and then gobble the food down in the remain 10 or 15 minutes they had left.

The menus, I'd say about 50% of the time, matched what was on the menu calendar. There are little vegetables offered, lots of fruit, and burgers, pizza, etc. an ocassional salad.

It seems that if the government is going to take the time to worry about what kids are getting for lunch in school, they'd actually take the time to investigate what the food does to a child.

I guess that would be asking too much.

Lisa

Good grief...they give our kids food high in sugar, carbs and caffeine and then wonder why so many of them have to be put on Ritalin to control their behavior! School was questioning whether or not both of my first graders had ADHD and I have to admit, I was partly responsible for that. I was letting them have far more sugar than I should have. So....the first thing to go was the sugar; no more sugar loaded something or other pops for breakfast, no more candy, doughnuts and cookies. They get ice cream once a week as a treat on Friday afternoons. Meals now contain meat, veggies and the occasional starch. Whole grain breads with sugar free peanut butter for lunch with fruit and cheese. The improvement in their behavior has been remarkable. It appears that they both may still have ADHD, but at least now I know that it's not being aggravated by what they are eating! Granted, they weren't absolutely thrilled with the dietary changes, but even they admit that they feel better.

If you think the school lunch program is bad, you should see the school breakfast program. Carbs, carbs, carbs, carbs, and carbs. Once in a while they have sausage patties (I think they would have fillers and sugar in them), or a breakfast pizza with sausage on it but it's mostly sugared cereal, toast (cinnimin and sugar and margarine), danish, maybe bagel..etc. No eggs, no meats that haven't been severly tampered with...no wonder these kids are falling asleep during class when they're not all hyped up.

Beth

I had never really thought of it before, but even though my daughter has been having to watch her weight since 6th grade, it really jumped this year. This year is the first year that she also ate breakfast at school...she is a senior in high school. She had held her weight to around 145, which was still too much for her 5' frame, but this year it jumped 20 pounds. Before this, she had eaten eggs and bacon or sausage for breakfast.

Also, a friend of hers that is diabetic checked my daughters blood sugar at school one day after lunch and it was 30. Talk about low blood sugar. I am surprised the girl was still on her feet! That is when we started Atkins. Her blood sugar now stays within normal levels and she has lost 10 or the 20 pounds that she had gained.