Atkins Analysis
Why does the Atkins Diet work?
The Atkins Diet works initially because you are losing a lot of water weight. You are depleting your glycogen stores. Also, when you consume that amount of protein, your body has to dismantle it somewhat in order to process it. That creates a toxin which we need to urinate out, so you tend to urinate more and that also contributes to the water weight loss. When we are on Atkins and we start to go into ketosis. Ketosis is the body's defense mechanism in the absence of carbohydrate. It also causes you to decrease your appetite so that you are not as hungry. It is a defense mechanism. Atkins also works because it is a reduced calorie diet. You are restricting large amounts of food from your diet and you are not consuming a whole lot of calories. On a diet that is high in protein, protein does seem to lend more satiety and a greater feeling of fullness than carbohydrate does. So, that also helps with our appetite.
Why does the Atkins Diet not work long-term?
The Atkins Diet usually doesn't work in the long term, because it's hard to follow long term. People get tired of eating meat all the time. They miss their bread. They miss their fruits. They miss their cereal in the morning. By restricting so many foods, it makes it very difficult to follow that over a life time. People get bored and they get tired of eating steak, believe it or not.
Who should consider the Atkins Diet?
If you're a big meat eater, maybe the Atkins Diet is for you. Maybe you can stick to it longer than most people can. Men tend to eat more meat so they tend to be more successful on the Atkins Diet than women are. But it's difficult for anyone to stick to a high meat diet for that long.
How is the Atkins Diet different from the 'South Beach Diet'?
The South Beach and Atkins Diets differ greatly. Because South Beach actually incorporates lots of whole grains, a lot of fruits and vegetables, and it does also go with the glycemic index principle, it has much more variety, and it's much more nutritionally complete than the Atkins Diet.
Can I follow the Atkins diet for a certain amount of time?
Our bodies are very resilient. Following the Atkins diet for a short period of time, the research that we have so far, when people follow it for short period of time, six months, it doesn't seem to have a big effect on their cholesterol. It can go up a little bit, but the cholesterol profile improves. Over the short term our bodies can always bounce back. It is nutritionally deficient because it's lacking in a lot of vitamins and minerals, so you do risk vitamin and mineral deficiencies. If we start to eat a healthy balanced diet, once you go off the Atkins diet we can gain that back.
How can I live a low-carb lifestyle and be healthy?
I think one of the positives that has come out of these high protein, low carbohydrate diets, like the Atkins diet, is they have taught people about different kinds of carbohydrates: processed carbohydrates versus whole, not processed carbohydrates. For example, we are now seeing many more foods that are marketed, made with whole grains. Before Atkins came along and some of these high protein diets came along, people didn't really understand the difference between say, white bread and 100 percent whole wheat bread, or white rice and brown rice. Brown rice is always going to be the better choice, as there's much more nutrition in there - the same thing with anything that you are comparing with whole grains. So it has taught us, or the general population, that there is a difference between carbohydrates. There are not so good ones and better ones.
