News
ATKINS ALERT Aug 13 2003


Diet followers at risk, says expert

Keith Mcleod


SLIMMERS following the controversial Atkins diet are gambling with their health, a nutrition expert has warned.

Dr Susan Jebb said it would be "negligent" to recommend the diet, favoured by stars such as Geri Halliwell and Catherine Zeta-Jones, to anyone overweight.

Millions of people around the world have tried the low-carbohydrate, high-protein regime.

But Dr Jebb, of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said its claimed benefits were based on "pseudo-science".

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

Dr Robert Atkins, who developed the diet, believed that carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables made the body produce too much insulin.

He claimed that led to hunger and weight gain.

His answer was to avoid such foods and eat unlimited amounts of fat and protein, leading the body to burn fat.

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

For most people, protein accounts for a mere 15 per cent of their calorie intake. But much higher levels are eaten on the Atkins diet.

Dr Jebb said: "We simply do not know the long-term health implications.

"I certainly think we should be adopting a precautionary principle in terms of public health."

Her warning comes two months after two teams of American scientists declared the Atkins diet was effective and safe.

They found that over six months, 63 Atkins slimmers lost almost twice as much weight, an average of one and a half stone.

After a year, the gap had closed though, with the Atkins dieters down to an average weight loss of a stone compared with half a stone for others.

But Dr Jebb said the studies were too limited to provide meaningful evidence.

Dr Atkins died in April, aged 72, after slipping on ice outside his New York office and hitting his head.

Ah, yes. Dear Dr. Jebb. Who happens to be receiving large sums of grant money from the flour industry. Think she just might be a little biased in favor of her benefactor?

You know, none of the negative news reports or garbled misinformation floating around is going to change the minds of those of us who have experienced:


1. The weight loss
2. The increased energy
3. Improved blood work results
4. Better self-esteem

Shall I go on?

From a letter from Lavely & Singer, Attorneys at Law, to Court TV:

(Read it here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/czj1.html )

The funny things (to me) is this: Reports of her following the diet are over a year old, and she never denied it then. But a few days before this legal twist, another actress (the one from Ms. Jones Diary) was paid millions to lose weight on Weight Watchers. Maybe Ms Zeta-Jones is upset that the Atkins folks never paid her for advertising, and she feels the free publicity they're getting out of celebrities should be compensated.....

Wa'il

Well, I have no quarrel with Catherine Zeta-Jones wanting to keep control of her public image as much as possible. At 34, she's probably at the top of her career, and she may well have reason to want to protect her name and fame -- for example, she may have an exercise video coming out.

My concern was this statement from the lawyers: I don't know if they include www.lowcarber.org as a representative of the "electronic media" they intend to pursue claims against, but if a "Forum Founder" isn't worried, I guess I shouldn't worry either.

Well, they'll need to send us a cease and desist notice, if they want us to remove any reference to their client's media coverage over the last couple of years from our forum.

It would be really hard for them to argue that this is a surprise to them, as it's been a while, and they were happy with all the media publicity, until their PR and/or marketing concerns changed.

Wa'il

Just wanted to be sure the forum would be around, ya know --
You guys do a terrific job!

Okay someone please help me with the math here:
______________________
They found that over six months, 63 Atkins slimmers lost almost twice as much weight, an average of one and a half stone.

After a year, the gap had closed though, with the Atkins dieters down to an average weight loss of a stone compared with half a stone for others.
___________________________

One stone is equal to 14 #'s, so the 63 slimmers lost 21 #'s which was twice what the other dieters lost (10.5 #'s) according to the first paragraph.
After a year the gap closed(?) because the Atkins followers lost an average of one stone (14 #'s) and the other group lost 1/2 stone (7#'s).

So how did the gap close? In both cases the LC group lost twice as much as the other group.Am I doing my math wrong? Blessings, Karen