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!

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

Breathe, Kerry... breathe!

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?!

Phew... Needed to get that off my chest too. 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!!! Vive la Revolution!

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!!

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! ) 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...!

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!

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

I didn't see the 1 o'clock news today, but it looks like I didn't miss much. 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.

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!!

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!"

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?!

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...

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.

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!

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."

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.

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.