The Atkins Diet - Pros and Cons
Some people have successfully lost weight on the Atkins Diet and recommend it highly. However, some nutritionists and doctors criticise it. How do you decide if it is right for you? Weigh up the benefits and drawbacks for yourself.

The Atkins Diet is probably the most successful diet of the last few years in terms of books and products sold.

The diet works by cutting out carbohydrates, food like bread, rice and potatoes. As the body uses carbohydrates as its preferred energy source, when these are cut out, the body then has to use fat and protein instead.

• There is no need to cut out the food you like best like meat, cream, cheese and other high fat foods.
• Because you can eat as much as you like of the permitted foods, you don't get hungry.
• Because so many foods are permitted, there is greater variety on the Atkins Diet than on low calorie diets so the risk of cheating is small.
• Not all carbohydrates count in the total allowance. Those rich in dietary fibre can be eaten more freely because fibre is not digested. This allows even more latitude in food eaten.
• It is argued that a low carbohydrate diet is more natural for the human body because grains in the form of wheat, rice, etc, only became a regular part of our diet 10,000 years ago so our bodies have not had time to evolve to cope with them satisfactorily.
• Some reseach indicates that people with type 2 diabetes have better insulin function and better blood sugar control on a low carbohydrate diet.

Disadvantages

• Although a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine is sometimes cited as providing evidence that the Atkins Diet works, in fact its conclusion is that although more weight was lost at the end of 6 months on the Atkins Diet than on a low calorie diet, after one year, the difference was insignificant.
• The same study found that both types of diet, Atkins and low calorie, had a large drop out rate so it seems the apparent choice of food on the Atkins Diet is not a sufficient inducement to keep people on it.
• The metabolic processes involved in using fat for energy instead of carbohydrates can lead to increased uric acid and ketones which can cause kidney problems, gout and headaches.
• There can be low amounts of dietary fibre on the Atkins Diet leading to constipation and chronic bowel disease.
• Some experts believe that the high amounts of animal fat eaten on the Atkins Diet can have a bad effect on cholesterol levels and can lead to cardiac disease.
• There is some argument that a reduction in carbohydrates automatically leads to a reduction in calories because many high fat foods are unpalatable in large quantities without carbohydrates. For example, many people would not want to eat an egg without bread either fresh or toasted, or a burger without the bun or at least potatoes.
• The Atkins diet doesn't conform to the American Heart Association's dietary guidelines for a healthy heart.

Conclusion
So where does this leave us? Should we go on the Atkins Diet or a traditional low calorie one? Perhaps the answer is that we all have to decide for ourselves. If a diet leads to weight loss and we feel healthy on it - no headaches, weakness, fatigue - then it probably suits our bodies.

Personally I believe that the only safe way to lose weight is to totally change our eating patterns. It is those that led to increased weight so, even if we lose weight on a diet, if we then go back to our old eating habits, the weight will go back too. If we eat less than we need, we will lose weight. When all the excess weight has gone, keep to the same healthy diet but with slightly increased levels of food to maintain your weight and say goodbye to yo-yo dieting.

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Copyright © 2003 Carol Fisher. All Rights Reserved.