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Thoughts on The Atkins Diet

Like the sales of the book (25 million copies at the last count) reports of successful weight loss on the Atkin's diet are impressive. Whilst the F Plan, the Scarsdale and the Cabbage soup diets have come and gone, the Atkin's diet has been in and out of fashion for around 30 years. So, maybe you are wondering whether to ditch the "high carb/low fat" mentality in favour of the diet guru's slab-of-steak approach to weight loss?

The basic idea behind the diet is to severely restrict carbohydrates and pack in the protein. In his book, Dr Atkin's claims that if you eat lots of protein and cut out carbohydrate, your body will stop producing floods of insulin - the hormone at the centre of carbohydrate and fat metabolism. With fewer surges in insulin, less carbohydrate is converted into fat. At the same time, when the body is loaded with protein, the kidneys are forced to work overtime to get rid of it. This essentially involves removing the nitrogen portion of the amino acid molecules (the basic units, which are built up into larger and more complex protein structures). An amino acid without it's nitrogen portion is equivalent to molecules broken down and metabolised from starches and sugars. Dr Atkin's claims that dealing with excess protein takes energy and, without carbohydrate, the body starts breaking down fat to make fuel. I believe that the reason why the diet has been so successful (for some people), is not so much the swing to high protein and fatty foods - but the shift away from carbohydrate foods. If you exercise regularly, doing without the carbohydrate fuel for your working muscles seems crazy.

However, the well worn healthy eating record with its message to "eat more carbohydrate and less fat " is too simplistic. To lump all carbohydrates and all fats under their own single banner and label them as "good" or "bad" doesn't tell the whole story. An Atkin's dieter, whose diet had previously been high in the highly refined, over-processed and/or sugary carbohydrates (white sliced bread, biscuits, ice-cream, instant soup and sauce mixes, quick cook porridge and most breakfast cereals, sweets and chocolate, pancakes and waffles etc made with white flour) is likely to lose weight. A less active lifestyle combined with regularly eating these carbohydrate foods will certainly result in a surge of insulin and promote fat synthesis rather than breakdown. Other carbohydrate foods (brown rice, baked beans, bananas, baked potato, lentil and barley based vegetable soups, porridge oats, wholewheat pasta, wholemeal bread, fruit loaf), which are less refined and processed, and eaten as close as possible to their natural state, come with a package of other nutrients and fibre rather than a cocktail of synthetic additives. These carbs will promote the release of insulin, but the increase will not be as dramatic compared with refined and processed carbohydrate foods. Add exercise into the equation and the increase in insulin can be a benefit. After strenuous exercise, a recovery meal based on un-refined carbohydrate foods will stimulate insulin but this will enhance glycogen production and help to replace liver and muscle carbohydrate stores. The early stages of the Atkin's regime does severely restrict many fruits and vegetables. These are fabulous foods since they provide a powerful range of nutrients essential for energy production. Research into the effects of low carb diets is in its infancy, but I suspect that studies will show that a switch back to unrefined carbohydrate foods, combined with regular exercise, will be important in successful weight loss and maintenance.

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