Articles
Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet has been around for many years, and is always in and out of the news and magazines with claims this celebrity is on it and another has lost large amounts of weight using it. Despite its often luring results, the Atkins diet is not a long term weight loss strategy, and often leaves its dieters weighing more in the months after they stop following its strict demands. In addition, it is by no means a healthy diet, and could lead to future health problems.
The Atkins diet advises its followers to completely eliminate carbohydrates for a set period of time, before allowing them to slowly introduce very small amounts over consecutive weeks. Dieters are able to eat large amounts of fatty, unhealthy foods, as long as they eliminate all food containing carbohydrate, healthy or unhealthy.
Generally, Atkins followers will lose weight in the beginning. The reason for this is quite simple. The body uses carbohydrate as its main energy source. It will burn carbohydrate to use it as energy before it will burn any other nutrient, such as fat. If there is no carbohydrate around to use as energy, the body must start to burn fat. In the Atkins diet, this means that the body will use the ingested fat, as well as stored fat. The Atkins diet relies on the idea that eating only high fat products will lead to a person becoming full sooner, and overall eating less. This would then lead to more fat stores being used as an energy source.
Sounds great doesn’t it? Unfortunately its not that simple. Firstly, although the body is able to use a variety of nutrients to use as energy, the brain relies on carbohydrate only as its fuel source. Without carbohydrate, the brain becomes sluggish. A person’s mental capacity decreases and their moods change significantly. They become tired, moody and overall very lethargic. This is often the reason people ditch the Atkins diet. They feel terrible, crave carbohydrate and go through whats called the ‘diet rebound’. They overeat, gain back the weight they lost, and a little extra as well. Secondly, the lethargic feeling leads people to become less active than usual. This leads to decreased physical activity, leading to weight loss and increases the risk of other health complications. Thirdly, long term high fat diets puts stress on the body organs that deal with processing these fats. This can lead to other long term health complications such as liver disease and heart disease. All this, not to mention the increased cholesterol and increased blood pressure.
It is true that women with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, or anyone with Insulin resistance will respond well to a lower carbohydrate diet but it needn't be as low as Atkins. Moderation is key. Understanding where we find carbohydrate and fat and emphasizing the importance of lean good quality protein is the best way to reduce weight in a healthy way. CSIRO advocates a similar approach that is lower in carbohydrate and fat and higher in protein, but still safe.
There is no diet alone that will cure obesity. There must be a commitment to a change in life style and eating habits. Dietitians can direct people in the most sensible pattern of eating, life style change and exercise suitable for them.
Added to site on : Tuesday, 18 January 2011