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Are you on a diet, thinking about starting a diet or wish you could find a diet that actually works? To answer all these questions, many people have turned to the latest fad in modern dieting – the Atkins diet. But is it healthy? We all know people who are on it, and we all see them losing weight. Well, the hard part’s been done for you. Once you read this, you’ll never again wonder whether or not to avoid the bread on your sandwich.
Here are the facts: if you start cutting carbohydrates out of your diet, and increase protein and fat to replace them, you will lose weight. The initial weight loss is mostly water from your liver when stored sugar, called glycogen, gets used up. Then, starving for glucose, your body is forced to break down fat for energy, and the weight, slowly but surely, continues to come off.
There are two major factors that help you lose weight with this diet. The first is something called the Glycemic Index Theory (GI). The higher the GI of the food, the more of that food a person would want to eat to get full. Protein foods have a very low GI and therefore, after eating these foods, a person is left feeling fuller and more satisfied. The thing about this GI theory is that in all of our research, we couldn’t find any reliable studies to back it up.
The second weight-loss factor with this diet is a decreased caloric intake. Just like any other diet with fewer calories, the end product is a thinner you. It just so happens that Atkins has you abstaining from all those high-sugar desserts, snacks and sodas. Those sweets are essentially carbs anyway, so cutting them out of your diet is exactly how you reduce your total caloric intake.
Unfortunately, we kept finding some pretty bad stuff about the Atkins regime. High-protein diets cut out most fruits, vegetables and whole-grain foods, when there are a ton of studies showing how important they really are. The Atkins Diet is missing out on phytochemicals – think of them as healthy plant chemicals – gut-friendly fiber and cancer-fighting antioxidants.
There are also a ton of unknowns about this type of diet. Cutting carbs out of what you eat makes your body think you’re starving, but you are not because you’re still eating – you’re just not eating stuff that is readily broken down. Your body then goes into something called ketosis, meaning your blood pH will drop, your kidneys get strained and your central nervous system becomes depressed. Not to mention you increase your risk of a heart attack and go into shock from dehydration. That’s why Atkins covers his butt by telling you to drink eight glasses of water a day, take a fish oil supplement for your cholesterol, and assures you that the tiredness will go away as you slowly add carbs back into your diet. If you don’t follow the diet exactly, it’s only a matter of time until your first heart attack.
High-protein diets are difficult to stick to and are unhealthy in the long run. This is not a way of life. Even though it works to lose weight, the average person is better off increasing his or her activity and eating a well-balanced and varied diet with an emphasis on moderation of fats and sweets. However, if you are obese, talk to your doctor about this diet. It may work short term and be a healthy way to bring you to a good weight. The trick is, once you reach your goal weight, you need to work with a nutritionist and trainer to find the right diet and activity level to keep you in shape and keep the weight off. Americans tend to be too obsessed with changing what they put into their bodies instead of increasing their activity level. It’s tough, but weight control requires healthy, balanced eating with exercise.
