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Monday, February 26, 2001
Posted at 3:58 pm by lil_ms_drama
Permalink
http://members.tripod.com/DIABETES-MELLITUS/dePROTDIET.txt
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>There is a serious complication called ketoacidosis which is caused
by too many ketones. For a diabetic, this can cause convulsions,
comatosis and eventually death if not treated immediately. It is
more common in insulin-dependent diabetics than non-insulin dependent
diabetes. For this reason, my doc has suggested a diet that is a
balance of all foods, including a measured amount of carbohydrates.<
Unfortunately, this information is not quite correct. In school,
doctors, nurses, etc. are taught to be on the lookout for
ketoacidosis in diabetics. This state indicates an extreme emergency
in which the patient can indeed go into coma and even death.
The problem is that the ketoacidosis is NOT the problem, it is an
INDICATOR of a problem with glucose and insulin levels. The cause of
coma and death is that glucose and insulin levels are out of control
and the body does not have enough available energy.
Doctors and nurses are locked into the thinking that ketosis is the
problem, rather than just a symptom. They think that because ketosis
in a diabetic means trouble, that ketosis is something to be avoided
at all cost, no matter who you are, and how much weight you need to
lose.
In a low-carb dieter, ketosis actually means the opposite of diabetic
ketoacidosis. It means that glucose and insulin levels are stable,
which means that the body is able to naturally break down body fat as
a fuel source. At the turn of the century, before the development of
injectable insulin, low-carb diets were the standard treatment for
diabetics, because low-carb programs stabelize glucose and insulin
levels. The death rates from diabetes for those on low-carb programs
was virtually nonexistant, and diabetes was not a major health
problem.
Today, diabetes is among the top 3 causes of death, and the rates are
escalating. Why? Because low-carb diets to control diabetes are no
longer recommended. Instead, they are put on high-carb diets, which
throw off glucose levels even more, which then requries even more
injected insulin.
About 90% of type II diabetics who require insulin can get off of
insulin completely using a low-carb diet. The other 10% can greatly
reduce the levels they need to take. Even for a diabetic, going into
ketosis due to a low-carb diet is not a problem. Again, it is only an
indication that the body is attempting to break down body fat for
energy.
Many of the younger, doctors now know the difference between
ketoacidos caused by out of control glucose and insulin, vs ketosis
caused by stable levels from a low-carb diet. Unfortunately, it's
been so ingrained in their training, than lots of the more
established health professionals simply do not make the distinction
between the two entirely different states (which just happen to have
the same indicator). It's difficult for them to realize that the
ketoacidosis that can indicate comma or deat in a matter of minutes
or hours, is not exactly the same situation as someone who stays in
deep ketosis for weeks or even months to improve their health. Even
though the ketone levels are the same.
>The diet makes me feel great and I'm losing weight. <
That's all that counts. As long as you are happy and healthy on a
high-carb program, then I see no reason to change. In the long run,
these programs are generally not successful (Statistically speaking).
There is a high rate of weight regain, and people end up doing the
yo-yo thing because they have problems staying on the program.
>Are you concerned about triglycerides and cholesterol on the protein
diet?<
I am on the Atkins program. Dr. Atkins is a cardiologist who
developed the program to treat heart disease. Weight loss was an
important, but secondary factor (obesity, along with the blool
lipids, is also an indicator of heart disease).
Remember that blood levels are relatively unaffected by what is
absorbed through the digestive system. The majority (75% to 100%
depending on diet) is made by the body. The body can absorb at most
about 25% of cholesterol needs daily through the digestive system.
Even if you were to eat much more than your body needs, it would be
impossible to have high cholesterol simply through the diet.
The only way you can have high lipid levels (or more importantly a
bad ratio of HDL/LDL), is if your body is overproducing them (or
producing them in the wrong ratio). For most people, the reason they
are overproducing, is that the high-carb diet, which throws off
glucose and insulin levels, stimulates the body to produce more than
it needs (partly in attempt to mitigate the damage caused by
unbalanced glucose/insulin).
In addition to stopping the overproduction of cholesterol, low-carb
diets have another benefit. When you are on a high-carb diet, your
body gets its energy from sugars. The body does not produce the
chemicals needed to break down fat for energy (fat mobilizers),
because there is plenty of sugar available. So any fat in the diet
can lead to clogged arteries, heart disease, etc.
However, if you are on a low-carb diet. The body is able to restore
it's natural levels of fat mobilizers. Any fat in the diet is quickly
broken down and processed, so that it does not lead to heart disease.
This is why low-carb diets are such a powerful and effective means of
treating, and even reversing heart disease. It's better at reducing
cholesterol (and improving HDL/LDL ratios), triglycerides, and blood
pressure, than drugs, and with fewer side effects. And it's often
better than surgery, since it can treat all blood vessels, not just
the major ones like surgery does, and with much less risk than
surgery.
> I always want to learn as much as I can.<
So do I, which is why I asked about the ketones. I thought maybe
there was some new studies or something which showed that they were
harmful or something. I was glad to hear that it was just the old
diabetic ketoacidosis confusion.
Take care,
Ed
#: 674838 S7/Diet & Exercise (CIS:DIABETES)
11-Dec-96 14:10:31
Sb: Protein Diets
Fm: MICHAEL BOLTON 106324,2212
To: Nancy Stinar 103063,1757 (X)
Replies: 0 TID: 96237 Par: 674797 Chd: 0 Sib: 0
Nancy,
I would agree with Ed (and I am a doctor) that ketones in themselves
are not a concern. Long before I became diabetic, I went on an ultra
low calorie diet to lose weight. During this, I had so many ketones
in my bloodstream I could have removed nail polish with one breath,
but came to no harm whatsoever.
Stay cool,
Michael Bolton
#: 675517 S7/Diet & Exercise (CIS:DIABETES)
Posted at 3:46 pm by lil_ms_drama
http://www.omen.com/adipos.html
FLASH
NEW YORK, Feb 18 2000 (Reuters Health) -- The extremely carbohydrate-restricted Atkins diet is a safe, effective way to lose weight, according to studies presented at the Southern Society of General Internal Medicine in New Orleans.
In a press release, the researchers also say that their study did not find any of the safety concerns voiced by the American Dietetic Association, such as potentially dangerous effects on liver and kidney function.
"In four short months on the Atkins Diet, we were able to confirm scientifically what Dr. Atkins states he has seen in his practice over the past decades. The diet lowers cholesterol and triglycerides and raises HDL... which may represent an entirely new approach to the control and prevention of heart disease," said lead researcher Dr. Eric C. Westman, assistant professor of medicine at North Carolina's Duke University.
Posted at 3:31 pm by lil_ms_drama
Permalink
http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Seminars/GND/Proceedings.txt
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT WHICH HAS NOT YET BEEN REVIEWED
FOR ACCURACY OR SPELLING. WE WILL BE POSTING THE EDITED VERSION AS SOON AS
IT IS AVAILABLE. (Posted on March 10, 2000).
1
1 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
2 In the Matter of: )
3 MILLENNIUM LECTURE SERIES )
4 SYMPOSIUM ON THE GREAT )
5 NUTRITION DEBATE )
6 The Jefferson Auditorium
7 U.S. Department of Agriculture
8 14th Street and
9 Independence Avenue, S.W.
10 Washington, D.C.
11 Thursday,
12 February 24, 2000
13 The above-entitled matter was convened, pursuant
14 to notice, at 10:10 a.m.
15 BEFORE: CAROLYN O'NEIL, Moderator
16 APPEARANCES:
17 SHIRLEY WATKINS, Under Secretary for Food,
18 Nutrition and Consumer Services
19 DAN GLICKMAN, Secretary of Agriculture
20 Presentations:
21 DR. ROBERT C. ATKINS
22 DR. BARRY SEARS
23 DR. MORRISON C. BETHEA
24 DR. KEITH-THOMAS AYOOB
25 DR. DENISE C. BRUNER
26 DR. JOHN MCDOUGALL
27 DR. DEAN ORNISH
2
1 C O N T E N T S
2 Page
3 Opening Remarks:
4 SHIRLEY WATKINS, UNDER SECRETARY FOR FOOD, 3
5 NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SERVICES
6 DAN GLICKMAN, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE 5
7 Presentations:
8 DR. ROBERT C. ATKINS, 18
9 AUTHOR OF DR. ATKINS' NEW DIET REVOLUTION
10 DR. BARRY SEARS, AUTHOR OF THE ZONE 35
11 DR. MORRISON C. BETHEA, 48
12 CO-AUTHOR OF SUGAR BUSTERS! CUT SUGAR TO TRIM FAT
13 DR. KEITH-THOMAS AYOOB, 61
14 ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
15 DR. DENISE C. BRUNER 70
16 PRESIDENT, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF BARIATRIC PHYSICIANS
17 DR. JOHN MCDOUGALL, 76
18 CHAIRMAN, "DR. MCDOUGALL'S RIGHT FOODS"
19 DR. DEAN ORNISH, 86
20 AUTHOR OF EAT MORE, WEIGH LESS
21 DR. ERIC WESTMAN, DURHAM VA MEDICAL CENTER 111
22 Closing Remarks:
23 DAN GLICKMAN, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE 135
3
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 (10:10 a.m.)
3 MS. WATKINS: Good morning.
4 ALL: Good morning.
5 MS. WATKINS: I'm Shirley Watkins, the Under
6 Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services here at
7 the Department of Agriculture. We're delighted to see all
8 of you and look forward to an exciting morning.
9 I know we're going to have a lively two or three
10 hours. This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for us
11 here at the Department of Agriculture, and we hope that you
12 will have as much fun as we're going to have during this
13 session and even afterwards.
14 I know you're perhaps wondering why did the
15 Department of Agriculture organize something called The
16 Great Nutrition Debate? Well, I'll tell you. This morning
17 about 2:30, my usual wake up time, I thought well, we could
18 have said The Great Nutrition Conversation, but, anyway,
19 it's going to be a conversation that is long overdue.
20 The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
21 sponsored a seminar last year, and it was entitled Why We
22 Eat What We Eat. That symposium had followed one we had
23 earlier on childhood obesity prevention, and those seminars
24 were held right here in this room. The rooms were packed,
25 as we had expected, and in the course of the Secretary of
4
1 Agriculture's remarks he turned around and looked at me and
2 said Shirley, why don't we get all of these leading doctors
3 together and have a debate?
4 Now, we did not put that in his remarks, so
5 obviously I was quite flabbergasted, and I said what any
6 loyal person here at USDA would say. Yes, sir, Mr.
7 Secretary. We'll get it done. Yes, sir, Mr. Secretary,
8 we've done exactly what you asked us to do.
9 Dr. Raj Anand, who is head of the Center for
10 Nutrition Policy and Promotion, and his staff, along with
11 Clyde Williams in the Secretary's office and Dan Dager on my
12 staff, have worked tirelessly putting this together and
13 insuring that we had a distinguished panel of guests. Each
14 one of our panelists here today bring a unique perspective
15 to this whole issue of how and what we eat.
16 I'm reminded of a joke I heard recently, and I
17 can't help but share it with you. A man goes into his
18 doctor's office, and there's a banana stuck in one ear and a
19 carrot stuck in another one and a cucumber up his nose. The
20 man said, "Doctor, this is terrible. What's wrong with me?"
21 The doctor simply said, "Well, first of all, you're not
22 eating right."
23 (Laughter.)
24 MS. WATKINS: Well, we're all concerned to varying
25 degrees about our nutrition and about our health, and few
5
1 subjects occupy the American consciousness as much as
2 dieting, and few issues have as a profound and lifelong
3 effect on health. Here at USDA, good nutrition is the
4 foundation of all of our programs, so it follows that we
5 would want to sponsor a public discussion of diets and
6 eating habits.
7 Each one of you in the audience today will have an
8 opportunity to submit a question, and I hope you have your
9 cards so you can write your question down as the panelists
10 are speaking. We'll have people in the audience to pick up
11 those cards, and I can't promise you that your question will
12 be asked and answered, but we're going to get as many
13 answered as we possibly can.
14 So welcome again to all of you, and thanks to our
15 distinguished panel for being with us today, and now I'd
16 like to turn the event over to the mastermind of today's
17 event, our beloved Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman.
18 Mr. Secretary?
19 (Applause.)
20 MR. GLICKMAN: Thank you. Thank you, Shirley.
21 Shirley Watkins and her team does an outstanding job, and I
22 want to thank them plus Clyde Williams of my staff for
23 setting this event up.
24 I think there were two things that precipitated
25 this. One, we had this couple of forums here on nutrition
6
1 and obesity, and I did mention this to Shirley, and then I
2 happened to be at a White House dinner I guess it was a few
3 months ago, and I sat next to Dr. Ornish, and we talked
4 about the fact that how it would be good to bring people
5 together in and further enlighten the public, so out of that
6 came this particular forum.
7 I'll tell you an interesting story. When I was
8 nominated to be Secretary of Agriculture and I went before
9 the Senate for my confirmation hearings, before the hearings
10 began somebody asked me what were my qualifications to be
11 Secretary of Agriculture, and I responded that when I was
12 young my mother would tell me to eat, eat, eat, and the fact
13 of the matter, however, is that's the problem in this
14 country. We eat too much.
15 There's so many of us that are overweight and
16 unhealthy, and given the fact that our studies indicate that
17 as many as one in five children are obese and a lot of these
18 eating patterns start in the earliest stages of life, and
19 consumers are spending millions, hundreds of millions of
20 dollars, maybe even more, to find ways on how to be healthy
21 and particularly how their diet affects their health
22 I thought this was an appropriate place for us to
23 have a discussion of not only the diets, but of the whole
24 issue of diet and nutrition from the perspective of some of
25 the leaders in the country, at least leading authors and
7
1 some nutritionists, and try to give some not only balance,
2 but to give some clarity to the American people as to, you
3 know, what they ought to do and what isn't necessarily
4 appropriate.
5 We at USDA do a lot of things. In addition, of
6 course, to helping farmers, which is a big part of what we
7 do, we run virtually all federal nutrition programs. The
8 school lunch program was perhaps the greatest social program
9 in modern history started after the second world war by
10 Harry Truman to insure that there was at least one meal a
11 day that everybody in this country would have. Of course,
12 we manage those programs and buy much of the food for them.
13 We run the food stamp program, the women, infants,
14 children program. Along with the Department of Health and
15 Human Services, we are engaged in periodically updating
16 national dietary guidelines, which is basically information
17 to consumers about what kinds of foods or food groups, more
18 than foods, that they should eat.
19 But the fact of the matter is that as a society,
20 I'm convinced that we remain very confused and conflicted
21 about what it is that we should eat. In addition to that,
22 the question is not just losing weight, but the question is
23 how to keep it off and maintain a nutritionally balanced,
24 healthy lifestyle over the long term.
25 You know, these are factors that I think are
8
1 really high priority in the American people's minds, so we
2 decided to hold this forum to try to if not clear up the
3 confusion, at least bring the issues out in an objective way
4 so that the country can make its own mind up because we're
5 not here to endorse any diets, any particular perspective at
6 least at this forum, but it is to give both the public, as
7 well as our own people here at USDA, some opportunities.
8 We run most of the nutrition laboratories in this
9 country. The two perhaps ones that most people have heard
10 of are the Tufts University Center in Boston and Baylor
11 School of Medicine, School of Nutrition, primarily for
12 children, at the University of Texas Medical Center. Those
13 are USDA laboratories.
14 Most of the nutrition research done by the
15 government is done by this department, and we know that diet
16 relates a lot to health, and health we spend billions and
17 billions and billions of dollars a year. One of the things
18 we've found and all of us believe is that we can improve our
19 health by improving our diet, so we want to ask the right
20 questions. That's the purpose of this hearing today.
21 I want to thank this distinguished panel for being
22 here and giving them the opportunity of presenting their
23 perspective on what we ought to be doing, and at the close
24 after the questions I may have a few comments to try to tie
25 the whole thing up, but again I appreciate everybody being
9
1 here very much.
2 Our moderator we're pleased to have for today's
3 program as Carolyn O'Neil from CNN. In addition to serving
4 as executive producer and senior correspondent for CNN's "On
5 the Menu," she is a registered dietician, holds a Master's
6 degree in Nutrition, is also the chief travel reporter now,
7 and I think that we're very, very honored to have her
8 leading the effort here, so now I'd like to turn things over
9 to Carolyn O'Neil.
10 (Applause.)
11 MS. O'NEIL: Good morning, and welcome to Who
12 Wants to Be a Millionaire Diet Doctor.
13 (Laughter and applause.)
14 MS. O'NEIL: Welcome to our panel. It's terrific
15 to see you all in one place at one time. I've seen many of
16 you, met many of you through the years in different places
17 at different times, but this is certainly unprecedented and
18 a great service, I think, to everyone who wants to know
19 about diet and nutrition today.
20 You know, I think a lot of people will be very
21 interested in the outcome of this debate or the
22 conversation, as Shirley has renamed it, to decide what diet
23 to go on tomorrow, so this is in your hands.
24 I did tons of research, and I went through all of
25 the descriptions of all of the diets, and just to put you at
10
1 ease, too, as you try and find the common ground and see
2 what's different, see where the challenges are, even as a
3 registered dietician with a Master's degree in Nutrition, it
4 is still very complicated, and it is still something that
5 you need to do great study, and that's why this
6 conversation/debate is important today.
7 But, I did check with some experts in the third
8 grade. I was driving my daughter to school the other day in
9 the car pool, and I said hey, kids. They said why are you
10 going to Washington, and I told them about the debate. They
11 said well, Mom, we sing a song in the third grade that's all
12 about why people are fat.
13 Well, I'm not going to sing it, but I will tell
14 you the words. It goes like this. All you people can't you
15 see, can't you see, what happens when you eat too many
16 calories? Every pound we gain, the more you weigh, and that
17 makes you larger than life.
18 (Laughter.)
19 MS. O'NEIL: I hope today we can find some common
20 ground because that, of course, is the most helpful thing to
21 the American public and the public of the world to figure
22 out what to eat when.
23 From time to time, I don't know if you've noticed,
24 but in the past year or so menu print has gotten so much
25 smaller, and I have to use glasses now. This also is an
11
1 indication that I've been at CNN for a long time. I've
2 covered a cavalcade of diets over the decades, and I've
3 essentially come out of retirement from the nutrition beat
4 to moderate this significant session on popular diets.
5 I have not written a diet book. Therefore, I
6 don't have a conflict of interest yet. I now do CNN "Travel
7 Now," and if I'm not surfing I'm snorkeling, and if I'm not
8 snorkeling I'm sightseeing in Sydney, and it's really a
9 whole lot of fun, but it's really about food, culture and
10 discovery, and I think people need to know more about the
11 diets of the world and cultures of the world to understand
12 the foods and the diets that we enjoy wherever we live.
13 So I wanted to share a secret before we get going,
14 and I have a slide that through the years I've learned how
15 the media covered health and nutrition.
16 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
17 MS. O'NEIL: Do you see the slide yet? You do.
18 Now, here we go. There are three wheels that we spin in the
19 news, and the first one is the offending practice or
20 product. Is this the three wheeled slide? Okay. I can't
21 see it.
22 You spin that, and you figure out what people are
23 eating wrong. Then the second one you spin, and that gives
24 you the cause, whether it's a positive or negative effect,
25 and then the next one you spin gives the affected
12
1 population, so you can see you can just do that.
2 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
3 MS. O'NEIL: Now, here's how the American public
4 sees nutrition information we give them. They just do their
5 own spin. This is how we might integrate what we say today.
6 This gentleman says, you know, it's not fat. It's just that
7 new fat substitute.
8 (Laughter.)
9 MS. O'NEIL: So with a sense of humor, and
10 hopefully no bullets will be discovered today, I'm afraid.
11 Well, maybe we will. What will emerge perhaps today again
12 is that common ground.
13 You know, there's been lots of misinformation
14 about nutrition. No news to anybody, but, as everyone on
15 this panel will tell you, there's been misinformation and
16 myths about their theories, their beliefs, their thoughts,
17 so that's why this exchange of ideas if very important, too,
18 so if you're going to criticize something, you should really
19 know about it. That's an old line from Steve Martin, who
20 said don't criticize things you don't know about.
21 So let's get to introducing the panel, and I will
22 start with Dr. Atkins. Dr. Atkins is the author of Dr.
23 Atkins' New Diet Revolution and is the founder and medical
24 director of the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in
25 New York City.
13
1 A 1951 graduate of the University of Michigan, he
2 received his medical degree from the Cornell University
3 Medical School in 1955 and went on to specialize in
4 cardiology. He's been a practicing physician for 30 years
5 and continues to see patients daily. Dr. Atkins, a
6 modern-day founder of complementary medicine, supports
7 natural healing arts as an alternative to pharmaceutical
8 drugs and surgery. Dr. Atkins?
9 I wanted to say that Dr. Atkins' diets were
10 popular in the 1970s. They've certainly come back full
11 circle. So have bell bottoms, --
12 (Laughter.)
13 MS. O'NEIL: -- so we'll find out why they're both
14 back in fashion again.
15 The next panelist I will introduce is Barry Sears.
16 Dr. Sears is author of The Zone and president of Sears
17 Laboratories. He has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indiana
18 University.
19 A former research scientist at the Boston
20 University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts
21 Institute of Technology, Dr. Sears has dedicated his
22 research efforts over the last 25 years to the study of
23 lipids and in particular over the past 15 years to the
24 development of drug delivery technologies using lipids. He
25 holds 12 U.S. patents in the areas of intravenous drug
14
1 delivery systems and hormonal regulation for the treatment
2 of cardiovascular disease.
3 I don't know why you're not in your villa in the
4 Caribbean.
5 (Laughter.)
6 MS. O'NEIL: Next on the panel, Morrison Bethea.
7 Is that correct how you say your last name?
8 DR. BETHEA: Close enough.
9 MS. O'NEIL: Welcome from New Orleans. Dr.
10 Bethea, a co-author of Sugar Busters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat,
11 completed his post-graduate training in thoracic and cardiac
12 surgery at Columbia University Presbyterian Medical Center
13 in New York. He's a graduate of Davison College and Tulane
14 University School of Medicine.
15 Currently he practices thoracic, cardiac and
16 vascular surgery in New Orleans. He's an author of many
17 publications in the field of cardiovascular disease and is a
18 diplomate of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.
19 New Orleans, of course, world famous for enjoying
20 what they eat in that city, and so it's amazing to find out
21 that Sugar Busters! has taken the city by storm and, of
22 course, the rest of the country. I'm looking forward to
23 that.
24 Next, Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob is director of
25 nutrition sciences as Rose Kennedy Children's Evaluation and
15
1 Rehabilitation Center and clinical assistant professor of
2 pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New
3 York. He's a board-certified pediatric nutritionist, and he
4 counsels children and caregivers on issues including
5 oversight and underweight, nutritional deficiencies and
6 eating behavior problems.
7 He has a Doctorate in Education, Master of
8 Education and Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition
9 from Columbia. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Nutrition
10 Science at the University of California at Davis. We look
11 forward to hearing from you as well.
12 Dr. Denise Bruner is president of the American
13 Society of Bariatric Physicians with a medical practice in
14 Arlington, Virginia. Dr. Bruner received her undergraduate
15 education at the University of Southern California and at
16 George Washington University. She received her Doctor of
17 Medicine degree from the Howard University College of
18 Medicine in Washington.
19 She has been in private practice of bariatric
20 medicine and family medicine since 1981. Recently she has
21 appeared on several television programs discussing a range
22 of topics, including the medical treatment of obesity, so
23 certainly Dr. Bruner has been in the grassroots of working
24 with patients to find out what works and perhaps what
25 doesn't work.
16
1 Next, John McDougall, M.D., is a board-certified
2 internist and author of ten national best-selling books.
3 Dr. McDougall is the medical director of the live-in
4 McDougall program at St. Helena Hospital in the Napa Valley.
5 Do you do diet foods and wine pairings there?
6 In addition, he's the chairman of "Dr. McDougall's
7 Right Foods" and has a weekly national television show,
8 "McDougall, MD," not to be confused with "Doogie Houser,
9 MD," --
10 (Laughter.)
11 MS. O'NEIL: -- along with a monthly newsletter,
12 "To Your Health."
13 Dr. McDougall received both his undergraduate and
14 Doctorate in Medicine from Michigan State University, and he
15 did his residency -- smart guy -- in internal medicine at
16 the University of Hawaii, so food and fitness there. Okay.
17 Dean Ornish. Dr. Dean Ornish received his medical
18 training at Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical
19 School and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the
20 founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine
21 Research Institute and clinical professor of medicine at the
22 University of California, San Francisco.
23 For the past 25 years, Dr. Ornish has directed
24 clinical research demonstrating for the first time that
25 comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even
17
1 severe coronary heart disease without drugs or surgery, and
2 he got insurance companies to pay for it. That's
3 significant, too.
4 He has published in many peer-reviewed journals,
5 and he's the author of five best-selling books, including
6 Eat More, Weigh Less, and also, you know, Health Living for
7 Better Intimacy. Maybe we'll get to that later --
8 (Laughter.)
9 MS. O'NEIL: -- after we're all skinny and
10 beautiful, you know.
11 Okay. Here are the ground rules. This is the
12 tough -- oh, there's Suzanne Somers is calling, I think.
13 Suzanne Somers on the phone.
14 (Laughter.)
15 MS. O'NEIL: No 800 numbers, guys, during this
16 presentation.
17 Anyway, I wanted to set the ground rules. During
18 the session here, each of the presenters will speak about
19 their signature diets, about their program in research,
20 etcetera. There will be no questions, no comments, strictly
21 timed for each of the participants here, so during that
22 period of time write down your questions for the Q&A
23 session.
24 Don't drink too much coffee or water either
25 because there are no breaks.
18
1 I wanted to begin and say, Dr. Atkins, from your
2 seat and each of you from your seats, if you would like to
3 begin? Thank you for setting us off on The Great Nutrition
4 Debate.
5 DR. ATKINS: Right from my seat. Okay. I've got
6 a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it, so I'm not
7 going to be very sociable.
8 After analyzing virtually every scientific paper
9 written on the low carbohydrate diet over the last 80 years,
10 beginning with when it was first offered as a treatment for
11 epilepsy, I am convinced that a diet low enough in
12 carbohydrate to automatically convert our stored fat into
13 the body's primary energy fuel is qualified at present to be
14 considered the treatment of choice for obesity and related
15 conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and
16 atherosclerosis.
17 I know that to gain mainstream acceptance of this
18 proposal I must first demonstrate that the nutritional
19 program, which I believe can put an end to the lion's share
20 of obesity right now, is both safe and effective over both
21 the short and the long term, so in the brief time allotted
22 let me do just that.
23 First PowerPoint.
24 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
25 DR. ATKINS: This is how the Atkins diet works.
19
1 Now, I can't see if the PowerPoint is up. Can you put it on
2 the monitor there so I can see that it's there?
3 Stored fat is, after carbohydrate, the body's
4 backup fuel system. The human body cannot store more than a
5 two day supply of carbohydrate. In the absence of dietary
6 carbohydrate, fat becomes the primary fuel. It's next on
7 the pecking order.
8 This metabolic changeover is supported by
9 biochemical catalysts which facilitate the steady burning of
10 fat, producing more energy, increased well-being and a
11 dramatic loss of appetite.
12 Next?
13 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
14 DR. ATKINS: What are ketones? They are simply
15 the energy fuels derived from our fat stores. Fat delivers
16 energy via ketones, just as carbohydrate delivers energy by
17 way of glucose. Enzymes are present within all our cells,
18 including our brain cells, to convert ketones into useable
19 fuel.
20 Next?
21 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
22 DR. ATKINS: When ketones are used as fuel, the
23 most consistent finding is a decrease in appetite. Insulin
24 is not involved in ketone production. Thus, the
25 consequences of elevated insulin, which are many -- there
20
1 are increases in triglycerides, in blood pressure, in
2 adrenaline, in cortisol; all of these are avoided.
3 Obese individuals and people who are overweight
4 are keto resistant. Pay attention to this term. What it
5 means is that there will be no accumulation of ketones in
6 the blood.
7 Next?
8 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
9 DR. ATKINS: The best documentation of keto
10 resistance was brought to us by two very important
11 researchers, the department heads of London's Middlesex
12 Hospital, Alan Keckwick and Gaston Pawon.
13 In their documentation they showed that obese
14 subjects given the ketogenic diet that I'll tell you about
15 momentarily produced a flat level of ketones rising from two
16 milligrams to an average of four milligrams, never more than
17 six, whereas the non-obese subjects had their ketones
18 escalate rapidly.
19 This is one reason why overweight people will
20 never have problems with ketosis, but ketosis is a negative
21 catch word for many people. The only reason can possibly be
22 that they're confusing it with diabetic ketoacidosis.
23 Next slide?
24 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
25 DR. ATKINS: But look how diametrically opposed
21
1 they are. Ketoacidosis occurs in Type I diabetes, meaning
2 it occurs because of an insulin absence or an insulin
3 deficiency. Benign ketosis is achieved in overweight
4 subjects whose metabolism is characterized by the fact that
5 they put out too much insulin.
6 Ketoacidosis is caused by an increased intake of
7 carbohydrate, benign ketosis by a decreased intake of
8 carbohydrate. There is, of course, acidosis in
9 ketoacidosis, but in benign dietary ketosis the pH is
10 normal. There is no acidosis. In ketoacidosis, patients
11 are extremely symptomatic, and in ketosis the subjects
12 describe an improvement in well being. Now, that's pretty
13 different. Don't let anybody confuse it ever again.
14 Much of the success of the low carbohydrate diet
15 is that it is extremely effective for people with large
16 appetites who enjoy eating, and these are the two main
17 reasons why. First, hunger is eliminated. Hunger is not
18 even allowed. Hunger is eliminated because the biochemical
19 changes I will outline momentarily reduce the appetite.
20 Secondly, and this is something that bears
21 emphasis. More weight is lost on low carbohydrate diets
22 than on balanced diets identical in calories. This benefit
23 is called metabolic advantage. We're going to look at these
24 two phenomena right now. First we'll look at the hunger
25 aspect.
22
1 Next slide?
2 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
3 DR. ATKINS: The guru of fasting as a weight loss
4 system, Dr. Garfield Duncan, back in the 1960s when fasting
5 was in vogue, he described a dramatic decrease in hunger
6 after the second day of a fast. He attributed this to high
7 levels of ketones. In his words, "In every case, there was
8 a relationship between hyperketonemia and loss of appetite."
9 Next slide? It's not a slide, but anyway.
10 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
11 DR. ATKINS: In 1963, Walter Lyons Bloom and
12 Gordon Azar in Atlanta discovered that the same degree of
13 ketosis could be achieved simply by eating protein and fat
14 containing foods and eliminating carbohydrate. There was no
15 need to fast. Instead of a fast, a meat and salad diet
16 would do the trick. Therefore, carbohydrate restriction
17 will suppress the appetite.
18 Bloom and Azar's paper convinced me to go on the
19 only diet I've ever been on. That was 36 years ago, and I'm
20 still counting, and I'm still on it, but here's the second
21 point.
22 Is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie really
23 true? This axiom that everyone repeats, is it really true?
24 The truly significant breakthrough came from Keckwick and
25 Pawon. After a series of animal experiments, including the
23
1 discovery that rats on a low carbohydrate diet put out a fat
2 mobilizing substance which, when injected into other
3 animals, caused an automatic weight loss, they directed
4 their attention to obese humans.
5 Two groundbreaking studies were published in 1956.
6 Next?
7 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
8 DR. ATKINS: First, they studied 1,000 calorie
9 diets, but it was a research study that they had done on
10 rats, and this is what they did. There were diets 90
11 percent fat, 90 percent protein, 90 percent carbohydrate.
12 They wanted to see the effect.
13 One thousand calories of 90 percent carbohydrate
14 produced no weight loss. As a matter of fact, there was a
15 slight weight gain. The 90 percent protein diet produced a
16 weight loss between three and a half and four pounds in the
17 week that people followed it. The 90 percent fat diet did
18 even better. Between five and six pounds of weight were
19 lost. That is a dramatic portrayal of how different foods
20 can lead to different amounts of weight loss.
21 But, of course, there were all 1,000 calorie
22 diets, and they wanted to look at diets with sufficient
23 calories not to provide guaranteed weight loss.
24 Next?
25 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
24
1 DR. ATKINS: So look at this one. Look at this
2 one. For an average of eight days, six subjects were
3 alternated between a 2,000 calorie balanced diet and a 2,600
4 low carbohydrate diet.
5 The 2,000 calorie balanced diet led to a one pound
6 weight gain, as you see on this slide, whereas the 2,600
7 calorie low carbohydrate diet given to the very same subject
8 -- it was a cross over study -- produced a three pound
9 weight loss in the same amount of time. Keckwick and Pawon
10 did water balanced studies, and it wasn't water.
11 The mathematics. A half a pound a day more weight
12 loss is 1,750 calories of advantage plus the 600 in the
13 extra food. This provided an edge totaling 2,350 calories
14 per day. That means they demonstrated for the first time a
15 phenomenon called metabolic advantage, a refutation of the
16 calorie theory where diets of different compositions lead to
17 disproportionate weight loss.
18 Keckwick and Pawon, despite their important
19 academic position, were met with skepticism, but nine years
20 later Dr. Fred Benwa and his colleagues at Oakland Naval
21 Hospital furthered the concept. Their technology allowed
22 them to measure body fat, and this is what they found.
23 Next?
24 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
25 DR. ATKINS: They compared a total fast, which
25
1 certainly was in vogue in those days, with a 1,000 calorie,
2 ten grams -- very low -- carbohydrate diet for ten days.
3 They found that the fasting took off 21 pounds, but only
4 seven and a half of those pounds were fat. The other 14
5 were lean body mass.
6 The low carbohydrate diet, despite the extra 1,000
7 calories, took over 14« pounds, all but one-half pound of
8 which was fat. Virtually none was lean body mass. Again it
9 met with skepticism, but it was quite logical. In
10 starvation, you will start to build your protein for fuel,
11 but when ample fat and protein are included in the diet
12 there will be no need to do so.
13 More skepticism and more studies. This time the
14 professor of medical nutrition at Cornell, Dr. Charlotte
15 Young, studied eight obese 23-year-old men, undergraduates
16 at Cornell and graduate students at Cornell. They were all
17 overweight, and she used an 1,800 calorie diet.
18 May I see the next?
19 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
20 DR. ATKINS: An 1,800 calorie diet of differing
21 amounts of carbohydrate. One was 104, moderate low; one was
22 60, even lower; and the other was 30 grams of carbohydrate a
23 day. She also did body fat estimations.
24 This is how much body fat they lost. Two pounds a
25 week for the nine weeks on the 104 gram diet, two and a half
26
1 pounds a week on the 60 gram diet, and 3.6 pounds per week
2 on the 30 gram diet. This means that cutting down from 60
3 to 30 grams, from low to even lower, without cutting
4 calories led to an increase ten and a half pounds of fat
5 being lost in the nine weeks of the study.
6 I hope I've proven that the diet is effective, so
7 now let's turn our attention to the safety. Over the years,
8 I've heard myriad concerns, but very little in the way of
9 observed complaints. In fact, in 1973 the AMA requested
10 that its members be on the lookout for adverse effects from
11 my diet and report them to AMA headquarters.
12 Three years later when we checked, despite the
13 fact that millions had been on my diet, no examples of
14 adverse reactions were in their files. None. Some
15 complaints, by the way, that organs such as the kidneys or
16 the liver are damaged by the diet must be dismissed
17 immediately as being total inventions fashioned out of the
18 whole cloth. Not a single case of kidney or liver damage
19 was ever reported, even as an isolated case history.
20 The major issue then seems to be the speculation
21 that it would be bad for the heart. I hope you agree that
22 it's not the cholesterol and fat in the diet that leads to
23 heart disease, but rather the cholesterol and fat in the
24 blood. If so, we can review the changes in the lipid
25 profile on low carbohydrate diets. They fall into a common
27
1 pattern.
2 The total cholesterol usually drops a bit, and
3 there is usually a tendency for the HDL to rise and the LDL
4 to fall, much as a recent study out of Wilmington, Delaware,
5 on a modified low carbohydrate diet shows.
6 Next?
7 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
8 DR. ATKINS: In this particular study, all the
9 lipid variables moved in the right direction. You will
10 notice that these people lost a lot of weight, and the first
11 group that I'm about to show you the changes were fairly
12 dramatic.
13 Next one?
14 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
15 DR. ATKINS: Another group was done with more
16 people who lost very little weight, but they had a major
17 effect on their blood sugar. They were diabetics. However,
18 again every single one of the parameters, the cholesterol,
19 the triglycerides and the LDL, all went down, and the HDL
20 went up.
21 Okay. Now, most of the other studies throughout
22 the years, and I've reviewed the literature, and it goes
23 back to the 1950s and 1960s -- there are about ten of them
24 -- report a striking improvement in triglycerides
25 particularly.
28
1 I want to talk about triglycerides because this is
2 much more important than you might imagine. It's logical,
3 by the way, that it should be beneficial in controlling
4 triglycerides because body fat biochemically in
5 triglyceride, and we know that the diet causes a loss of
6 body fat.
7 The first demonstration of this -- Next?
8 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
9 DR. ATKINS: -- was very dramatic, and it dates
10 back to 1966. It was done at Harvard, P.K. Ressel and his
11 colleagues.
12 That doesn't look like it. You better do one
13 more.
14 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
15 DR. ATKINS: Is that it? I can't see it.
16 The subjects had very high triglycerides in
17 Ressel's study. Their triglycerides ranged from 500 and up,
18 and a typical fall was from 1,300 down to 300.
19 There were many, many other studies, which I don't
20 have time to show, but you can be sure that high
21 triglycerides are corrected by a low carbohydrate diet.
22 May I see the next slide?
23 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
24 DR. ATKINS: All right. We'll leave that one.
25 The impact of high triglycerides cannot be
29
1 underestimated. Let's look at another Harvard study, this
2 one very recent, published in Circulation, October, 1997.
3 Gaziano was the senior author.
4 He took 340 patients who survived a myocardial
5 infarction and got out of the hospital. They were compared
6 with age and sex matched controls. Of all the lipids
7 studied, and they studied every lipid there was, they were
8 most fascinated by the elevation of triglycerides combined
9 with a low level of the good cholesterol, the HDL.
10 This is what the study showed. They divided them
11 into quartiles of this ratio, triglyceride to HDL. The
12 lowest quartile or the most ideal number, so to speak, was
13 given a factor of one. They were assigned that number.
14 Then 4.1 times more of that group in the second quartile
15 were in the heart attack group, 5.8 times in the third
16 quartile, but in the fourth quartile, the upper 25 percent,
17 there was 16 times more likelihood of being in the heart
18 attack group if you had triglycerides combined with low HDL.
19 This is the most powerful risk factor for heart disease ever
20 described.
21 If you look at what cholesterol does, it's maybe
22 two to one. If you look at what homocystine does maybe five
23 to one, but 16 to one? This is what you must be looking for
24 if you want to reverse heart disease.
25 Next PowerPoint?
30
1 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
2 DR. ATKINS: The importance of high triglycerides
3 then is that they are perhaps the most important cardio risk
4 factor at all, but they are a known surrogate market for
5 hyperinsulinism. Now, we haven't talked about
6 hyperinsulinism, but a lot of people have. High
7 triglycerides and low HDL are surrogates for this
8 phenomenon.
9 You do see, by the way, the same incidence of high
10 heart attack rates when you study insulin levels as well.
11 Even more important is that triglycerides are a known
12 responder to carbohydrate restriction.
13 Next?
14 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
15 DR. ATKINS: We've done a retrospective study on
16 319 subjects at the Atkins Center we're going to really skip
17 most of. We don't have time. I just want to point out that
18 in the group of 85 people who had triglycerides of over 150,
19 the value one year later was less than 50 percent of what it
20 was at the beginning of the study.
21 Go to the next two. Skip the next one, and we'll
22 go on to the next.
23 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
24 DR. ATKINS: To dismiss the complaint that the
25 Atkins diet skimps on fruits and vegetables, I would like to
31
1 point out that it is nutritionally naive to lump fruits and
2 vegetables together. There is a wide variance in their
3 phytochemical content.
4 In my latest book, Age Defying, I deal with this
5 issue. Carbohydrates per se are not nutritionally
6 essential, only the phytochemicals that they contain.
7 Future dieters will be instructed to select foods with a
8 high antioxidant to carbohydrate ratio. The best
9 phytochemicals act as antioxidants.
10 This is a very good study. By the way, it was
11 done out of Tufts, and I wonder if it was done from the
12 USDA. I hope it was because this work is very, very
13 valuable.
14 Let's look at the PowerPoint that shows it.
15 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
16 DR. ATKINS: These are the foods that have the
17 highest ratio of antioxidants, done by the Tufts study, per
18 gram of carbohydrate.
19 Fruits and vegetables were studied. Go to the
20 next one just briefly and then back to this one.
21 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
22 DR. ATKINS: All right. Now, you see there's a
23 lot of blue in the next one. That's the lower half.
24 Back to the previous one?
25 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
32
1 DR. ATKINS: You see that at the top of the list
2 are foods like garlic, kale, onions, leafy greens, spinach.
3 These are the foods with the highest ratios. The only
4 fruits on the list were berries.
5 If we now turn to the next list, you're going to
6 see the bottom of the list.
7 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
8 DR. ATKINS: You're going see that things like
9 apples and pears and bananas have a reading of 0.2, and yet
10 kale a reading of 6.5, so that if you pick the right green
11 vegetables you will do 30 times better than if you pick the
12 wrong fruits.
13 One leaf of lettuce has double the antioxidant
14 power as an entire banana, so let's no longer lump fruits
15 and vegetables together. Let's learn to be selective and
16 pick the vegetables that work.
17 All right. Next? Next PowerPoint?
18 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
19 DR. ATKINS: Now we have to deal with the
20 accusation that the Atkins diet is low in vitamin and
21 mineral content. Here's an example of a 2,000 calorie
22 version of my strictest diet from the standpoint of
23 carbohydrate. It only has 20 grams. It starts with a three
24 egg omelette of avocado and cheese and tomato and two strips
25 of bacon and so on. You can read the rest. I hope you can.
33
1 I can't from here, but maybe you can.
2 All right. I want to show you it measures up to
3 the RDI, which stands for the recommended daily intake, of
4 12 different vitamins. Next, please?
5 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
6 DR. ATKINS: Do you see that black line? That's
7 100 percent. These are 12 vitamins. Nine of the vitamins
8 go way over that line, two of them are virtually at the
9 line, and only one, pantothenic acid, is at the 50 percent
10 mark, and it's a question of whether we can do better.
11 Now, I personally believe in nutritional
12 supplements for everyone. I believe that people on the food
13 pyramid diet need nutritional supplements a lot more than
14 people on the Atkins diet, and so if I tell people to take
15 nutritional supplements it's not because my diet is
16 inadequate. It's because they were on an inadequate diet
17 before they started my diet.
18 Okay. Now the main question about the long-term
19 studies. No one has one. There are no long-term studies
20 showing that any diet for weight reduction is both effective
21 and safe. Mostly it's not hard to show that they're safe,
22 by the way, but none have been shown to be effective. To be
23 effective, they must be followed. They must be easy and
24 pleasant enough to follow.
25 The recidivism rate of most diets falls into the
34
1 95 percent range, which indicates that very few people want
2 to follow them. I predict that my diet will be the first
3 diet to achieve the long-term effectiveness award, and the
4 reason is -- let's see the next PowerPoint.
5 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
6 DR. ATKINS: The reason is that it is easy to
7 follow. It's easy to comply with. You're never hungry.
8 You have a metabolic advantage. You can take in more
9 calories than you can on other diets and still lose weight.
10 You can go to restaurants, order from the best of the main
11 courses. You can eat in luxuriously, and you will correct
12 an awful lot of other health problems.
13 It will correct diabetes, hypertension, most of
14 the risk factors for heart disease, gastritis, esophageal
15 reflux disorder, headaches and a variety of other problems,
16 and for all of these reasons I hope -- the reason I'm here,
17 by the way, is to help the people of our nation and of our
18 nation, and I hope that this misinformation that people have
19 had to abide by, all of the statements that a low
20 carbohydrate diet is scientifically unsupported, I hope
21 we've put an end to that this morning.
22 I hope that some government official will decide
23 okay, it's pretty clear that long-term studies are going to
24 have to be studied by the government and that they will do
25 that. When they do, they will begin to get some of the
35
1 exiting results, much as Dr. Eric Westman has gotten in his
2 short-term studies, and I hope we can hear from him.
3 Thank you.
4 (Applause.)
5 MS. O'NEIL: Thank you, Dr. Atkins. I promise
6 that the rest of the panel will be just as technical. I
7 can't wait to get to panel discussion and some of the
8 questions.
9 Didn't I see you at Smith and Walensky last night?
10 DR. ATKINS: No.
11 (Laughter.)
12 MS. O'NEIL: Thank you very much.
13 Our next panelist is Dr. Barry Sears, entering the
14 ring now. Dr. Sears, your time begins now.
15 DR. SEARS: Thank you. Presently we have an
16 epidemic spreading across our land that threatens to destroy
17 our entire health care system. Currently, 55 percent of all
18 American adults are overweight. Obesity has increased by 50
19 percent in the last seven years, and more than 300,000
20 Americans die each year due to excess body fat.
21 The question is what has caused this epidemic?
22 We've been told for the last 20 years that dietary fat is
23 the villain, and the question is we have basically pulled
24 dietary fat out of our diet, as shown in the first slide,
25 which I hope basically is up there.
36
1 (Whereupon, a slide was shown.)
2 DR. SEARS: It's there? Unfortunately, it's not
3 down here.
4 As you can see from that slide is that over the
5 last several decades we have reduced the amount of fat in
6 our diet as a percent of calories, but this leads to what I
7 call the American paradox. That is, we are reducing the
8 amount of fat in our diet, yet we are becoming the fattest
9 people on the face of the earth, and this trend is
10 accelerating.
11 Three of our most renown nutritional researchers
12 looked at this very carefully, reviewed all the long-term
13 studies and wrote a report published two years ago in the
14 New England Journal of Medicine. In this report they came
15 to two conclusions. The first was replacement of fat by
16 carbohydrate has not been shown to reduce the risk of
17 coronary heart disease. They also came to the conclusion
18 that beneficial effects of high carbohydrate diets on the
19 risk of cancer or body weight have also not been
20 substantiated.
21 In essence, they are quoting that great scientist,
22 Jerry Maguire, saying show me the data because they're
23 saying there is no data that very low fat, high carbohydrate
24 diets have significant health benefits when
Posted at 3:26 pm by lil_ms_drama
Veggies that can be consumed on Atkins
SALAD VEGETABLES
these veggies have 10% or less of your daily carbohydrate intake
Lettuce Romaine Escarole Arugula Endive Radicchio Chicory Sorrel Mache Bok Choy Chives Parsley Cucumber Radishes Fennel Peppers Celery Jicama Posse Pied Alfalfa Sprouts Mushrooms Morels Olives
OTHER RAW or COOKED VEGETABLES
these veggies have some carbohydrates - please limit to 1 cup per day
Asparagus String or Wax Beans Cabbage Beet Greens Cauliflower Chard Eggplant Kale Kohlrabi Tomato Onion Rhubarb Scallions Leeks Spinach Summer Squash Zucchini Okra Pumpkin Turnips Avocado Bamboo Shoots Bean Sprouts Water Chestnuts Snow Pea Pods Sauerkraut Collard Greens Dandelion Greens Christophene Broccoli Spaghetti Squash Celery Root Brussels Sprouts Artichoke Hearts Hearts of Palm
Posted at 1:08 pm by lil_ms_drama
Permalink
The Atkins Diet in a Nutshell
What is The Atkins Diet?
A lifetime nutritional philosophy, focusing on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation. The Atkins diet restricts processed/refined carbohydrates (which make up over 50% of many people's diets), such as high-sugar foods, breads, pasta, cereal, and starchy vegetables. Core vita-nutrient supplementation includes a full-spectrum multi-vitamin and an essential oils/fatty acid formula.
A lifetime nutritional philosophy that has been embraced by an estimated 20 million people worldwide since the release of Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in the 1970s.
The cornerstone of the treatment protocols for over 60,000 patients of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York City.
The Major Benefits of the Diet, In Short
Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta, cereal, and other mainly 'low-fat' processed foods increase your body's production of insulin. When insulin is at high levels in the body, the food you eat can get readily converted into body fat, in the form of triglycerides (to top it off, high triglyceride levels in the body are one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease).
Even worse, high carbohydrate meals tend to leave you less satisfied than those that contain adequate fat levels; so you eat more and get hungrier sooner. If you find this hard to believe, think about how much pasta you can eat at lunch and then how hungry you are running to the vending machine for another 'carbo-fix' in the mid-afternoon. If the pasta you ate was really giving your body what it needed, you would stay full until dinner time. So the typical low-protein, low-fat meal leaves you eating more and hungry sooner.
So what should you do? Get off the insulin generating roller coaster of the low-fat diet and start cutting down on your carbohydrate consumption, especially the worst offenders: sugar, white flour and other refined carbohydrate-based products. What can you expect from this? Three wonderful results:
You'll start to burn fat for energy:
Since carbohydrates are the body's primary energy source, you'll rarely use your secondary energy source, you own body fat, for energy unless you restrict carbohydrate consumption. This offers a lifetime of body fat burning, which is the goal of most people trying to lose weight.
You won't feel hungry in between meals:
The biggest battle that most people have with weight loss is the constant obsession with food (for example, if you've ever thought about dinner when you're eating lunch). Again, much of this is caused by blood sugar fluctuations that are aggravated by carbohydrate consumption (especially the refined kind). By cutting the carbs, you'll maintain a more even blood sugar level throughout the day. No more false hunger pains or mid-afternoon brain drains.
Your overall health will improve and you'll feel better:
Many of the toxins you take into your body are stored in your fat cells. By getting your body to burn stored fat, you allow it to clean itself out. Combined with the benefits of stable blood sugar, the end result is that many common ailments you have been experiencing could well be alleviated. Fatigue, irritability, depression, headaches, and even many forms of joint and muscular pain simply go away. Furthermore, you should see a significant improvement in your blood profile, (including cholesterol and blood pressure levels). All this leads to better health and well-being-- something all of us strive to bring into our lives.
Key Information About Sugar
It contains no vitamins. No minerals. It is 100% carbohydrate. So it must be metabolized immediately. The stores of nutrients built up in your body are called out like militia men, to 'charge' the sugar, and similar forms like glucose and fructose, and turn it into ready energy, depleting your body in the process. Sugar is an energy sucker: the Anti-Nutrient.
White flour is its second-cousin, almost as bad. When you partner the two together, flour and sugar, it spells disaster for anyone trying to maintain a healthy body, let alone someone who is fighting disease or trying to lose weight. If they are consumed on a regular basis, the body is in a constant state of nutritional deficiency. If you don't believe that sugar is an anti-nutrient, try having a rich dessert after dinner on a night you're feeling under the weather, you'll be sure to wake up the next morning with a full-blown illness.
What's frightening is that in recent years, the government and other advisory groups like the American Medical Association have encouraged the consumption of flour by unveiling a new food pyramid that is based on grains and recommends six to eleven servings a day. And no distinction is made between white processed flour, which is stripped of the nutrients, especially important trace minerals, and the much more healthy whole grains (unless you have a food allergy). And the result? Americans now think they're making healthy choices by loading up on cereals, pasta, crackers and breads. We even have products like Pop-Tarts®, with 39 grams of carbohydrate, 20 of which are sugar, carrying the American Heart Association Seal Of Approval. It is a travesty.
So how do we protect ourselves and stay healthy? One thing we can do is eat a healthy, balanced diet of low-carbohydrate foods. And when our foods fail us, as they often do after being picked, shipped, stripped, processed and packaged, we can protect ourselves with solid vita-nutrient support. It is critical that you include this extra 'insurance policy' to take you into the kind of healthy life we all want to lead.
(Pop-Tarts® is a registered trademark of Kellogg's USA, Inc.)
Answering The Critics
While mainstream medicine and nutrition have, on the whole, criticized the Atkins Diet, the facts speak for themselves:
Dr. Atkins and his colleagues at The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York have treated over 60,000 patients using the Atkins Diet as a primary protocol. These patients experience all the beneficial effects detailed above, as well as improved blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and a lower or completely eradicated dependence on prescription drugs.
While the mainstream critics continue to lament the consumption of fat as the root of America's weight problem, only carbohydrate consumption (mostly refined) has increased in the past few decades, while fat consumption has declined (as the 'low-fat/high carb' diet has been promoted as the best nutritional option for every living person). During this time:
Obesity, which in the past had consistently applied to about 25% of the population, increased to 33%
Heart disease now accounts for 50% of all deaths, up from 40% in the 1970s
Cases of diabetes are growing in near epidemic proportions (in fact, children are now contracting adult-onset diabetes)
Hypertension, chronic fatigue and attention-deficit-disorder are now well recognized conditions.
All of these conditions are linked not by the amount of fat in ones diet, but by blood sugar disturbances and insulin disorders caused by excessive refined carbohydrate consumption (FYI: The average person now consumes over 150 pounds of sugar a year, up from less then 10 pounds in the 19th century).
While medical and nutritional journals are filled with studies documenting the body's requirement of essential fatty acids and essential amino acids (derived from protein), there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Why then does the FDA recommend an average of 16 servings a day?
The Atkins Diet is not a no-carbohydrate diet. The diet focuses on very limited consumption of the types of carbohydrates that tend to spike blood sugar levels the most, including non-whole grain bread, pastas, refined sugar products, juices, and high sugar/starchy fruits and vegetables. Atkins Dieters learn to determine their personal sensitivity to carbohydrates, as a way to manage their weight and health for life.
Scientific References Related to a Low-Carbohydrate Eating Philosophy (such as the Atkins Diet):
ON CANCER:
'Saturated fat was not associated with the risk of breast cancer'& 'we found no positive association between intake of total fat and risk of invasive breast cancer'. *
*Reference: Wolk, A. et al, Archives of Internal Medicine 1998; 158:41-45
'We found no evidence of a positive association between total dietary fat intake and the risk of breast cancer. There was no reduction in risk even among women whose energy intake from fat was less than 20 percent of total energy intake. In the context of the Western lifestyle, lowering the total intake of fat in midlife is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast cancer substantially.'*
*Reference: Hunter D. et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 1996; 334:356-61
'The risk of breast cancer decreased with increasing total fat intake (trend p0.01) whereas the risk increase with increasing intake of available carbohydrates (trend p=0.002)'& 'The findings also suggest a possible risk, in southern European populations, of reliance on a diet largely based on starch.'*
*Reference: Franceschi S. et al, Lancet 1996; 347: 1351-56
'Sugar consumption is positively associated with cancer in humans and test animals.* Tumors are know to be enormous sugar absorbers.'
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 129.
'Johns Hopkins researchers have found evidence that some cancer cells are such incredible sugar junkies that they'll self-destruct when deprived of glucose, their biological sweet of choice'...'Scientists have long suspected that the cancer cell's heavy reliance on glucose, its main source of strength and vitality, also could be one of its great weaknesses, and Dang's new results are among the most direct proofs yet of the idea.'*
. Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions' news release
*Reference: Shim H, Dang C, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 1998 Feb 17; 95(4): 1511-1516.
ON CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE:
'Hence, many observations indicating reductions in plasma lipid levels when people are on low-fat diets may be due to changes in the fatty acid composition of the diet, not the reduction of fat calories.'*
*Reference: Nelson, GJ, et al, Lipids, 'Low-Fat Diets do not Lower Plasma Cholesterol Levels in Healthy Men Compared to High-Fat Diets With Similar Fatty Acid Composition at Constant Caloric Intake' 1995 Nov; 30(11): 969-76.
'In Framingham, Mass, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol& we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.'*
*Reference: Castelli, William, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1992 Jul; 152(7): 1371-1372
'Abnormalities in glucose and insulin metabolism are commonly found in patients with high blood pressure [1-9]'& 'there is evidence suggesting that defects in glucose and insulin metabolism may play a role in both the origin and the natural history of high blood pressure.'*
*Reference: Reaven G. et al, The American Journal of Medicine 1989; 87(supp 6A):6A-2S
'If, as we had been told, heart disease results from the consumption of saturated fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fat in the American diet. Actually the reverse is true. During the sixty year period from 1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet plummeted from 83% to 62%, the proportion of butter consumption from 18 pounds per person per year to 4. During the past eighty years dietary vegetable fat in the form of margarine, shortening and refined oils increase about 400% and the consumption of sugar and processed foods increase about 60%.'*
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: US Department of Agriculture statistics quoted in Douglass, William Campbell, MD The Milk of Human Kindness is Not Pasteurized, 1985 Copple House Books, Lakemont, Georgia, 184; and in Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 144.
'In the United States, 315 of every 100,000 middle aged men die of heart attacks each year; in France the rate is 145 per 100,000. In the Gascony region, where goose and duck liver form a staple of the diet, this rate is a remarkably low 80 per 100,000.' *
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: The New York Times, November 17, 1991
'More plagues than heart disease can be laid at sugar's door. A survey of medical journals in the 1970's produced findings implicating sugar as a causative factor in kidney disease, liver disease, shortened life-span, increased desire for coffee and tobacco, as well as atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease.*'
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Howell, Edward, MD Enzyme Nutrition 1985 Avery Publishing Group, Inc
'Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.'*
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Nutrition Week March 22, 1991 21:12:2-3
ON DIABETES:
'A very high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet has been shown to have astounding effects in helping type 2 diabetics lose weight and improve their blood lipid profiles. . The thing many diabetics coming into the office don. t realize is that other forms of carbohydrates will increase their sugar, too. Dieticians will point toward complex carbohydrates & oatmeal and whole wheat bread, but we have to deliver the message that these are carbohydrates that increase blood sugars, too.'*
* Reference:
'These results suggest that a high protein, low-carbohydrate diet, with nutritional supplementation can be useful to reduce several cardiovascular risk factors in obese adult onset diabetic patients including weight, blood sugar and lipid parameters. There is also no evidence that the nutritional regimen adversely affects kidney function.'*
*Reference: Edman, JS et al. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, to be published in October 1998.
'it seems prudent to avoid the use of low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets containing moderate amounts of sucrose in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.' *
*Reference: Coulston, A.M. et al, American Journal of Medicine 1987 Feb; 82(2):213-220.
'As compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, the high-monounsaturated-fat diet resulted in lower mean plasma glucose levels and reduced insulin requirements, lower levels of plasma triglycerides and very low-density lipo-protein cholesterol , and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)(good) cholesterol. Levels of total cholesterol did not differ significantly in patients on the two diets.' *
*Reference: Garg, A. et. al, New England Journal of Medicine 1988; 319 (13): 829-34).
ON STROKE:
'Intakes of fat, saturated fat, and monosaturated fat were associated with reduced risk of ischemic stroke in men.'* (design and setting from the Framingham Heart Study)
*Reference: Gillman M. et al, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1997; 78(24): 2145-2150
ON THE LOW-FAT DIET:
'Low-fat diets low in polyunsaturated fatty acids induce essential fatty acid (EFA) insufficiency, and can increase the biochemical risk factors for heart disease: they may also increase appetite.' *
*Reference: Siguel, E. BioMedicina, January 1998; 1(1): 9
'low-fat, high carbohydrate diets also reduce high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and raise fasting levels of triglycerides.'*
*Reference: Mensink RP, et al, Arteriorscler Thromb 1992 Aug;12(8): 911-919
'Hence, many earlier observations indicating reductions in plasma lipid levels when people are on low-fat diets may be due to changes in the fatty acid composition of the diet, not the reduction in fat calories.' *
*Reference: Nelson, G.J. et al., Lipids 1995; 30(11): 969-976.
'The relative good health of the Japanese, who have the longest life-span in the world, is generally attributed to a low-fat diet'& 'Those who point to Japanese statistics to promote the low-fat diet fail to mention that the Swiss live almost as long on one of the fattiest diets in the world. Tied for third in the longevity are Austria and Greece. both with high fat diets.'*
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Moore, Thomas J Lifespan: What Really Affects Human Longevity, 1990 Simon & Schuster, New York
'Mother's milk contains a higher portion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially development of the brain.* Yet, the American Heart Association is now recommending a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet for children!'
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference:Alfin-Slater, RB and L Aftergood, 'Lipids', Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, RS Goodhart and ME Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p. 31
'& there is still the potential for low-fat intakes to adversely affect the nutritional adequacy of the diet of children& Given the assumption that there are some potential nutritional dangers associated with the unsupervised use of such diets, with no proven benefits, this diet should definitely not be advocated for infants and young children.' *
*Reference: Zlotkin, SH Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1997;151:962-963
'In 1821 the average sugar intake in America was 10 pounds per person per year; today it is 170 pounds per person, over one fourth the average caloric intake. Another large fraction of all calories comes from refined flour and refined vegetable oils.'*
. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 144-1
Posted at 12:24 pm by lil_ms_drama
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Saturday, February 17, 2001
an excerpt from http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/food/66181_EGGS.html
He points out that the countries with the highest egg consumption - Japan, Spain and France - also have the lowest incidence of heart disease.
from http://www.healthstar.com/Pages/WhyEnzymes4.html
More Food For Thought!
The benefits of a raw food diet are evidenced by the classic Arctic Eskimo diet of 80% saturated fat consisting primarily of raw fat and raw meat. Essentially, these people were disease-free. Their sled dogs ate the same diet and were also disease-free. A study of over 3,000 of these people revealed that none of them had high cholesterol, heart disease, arteriosclerosis or high blood pressure. Only one out of 3,000 was slightly overweight. This 80% saturated fat diet is almost twice that of the average American diet, and more than three times what the American Heart Association says is safe, calling into question the presumptions made by traditional science as to the causes and source of these diseases.
from http://www.nejm.org/content/1997/0337/0008/0562.asp
Exceptions to these associations were observed, however. The intake of saturated fat and animal fat correlated better with the incidence of coronary disease than did total fat intake, as is now widely recognized. It was subsequently shown that saturated fats, as well as dietary cholesterol, elevate plasma total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by down-regulating the LDL receptors in the liver. (5) Another exception was observed in Crete, where there was a high intake of olive oil (a monounsaturated fat) but a low rate of death due to coronary disease in a population adapted to a frugal lifestyle. (3) The Greenland Eskimos also had a low incidence of coronary disease despite a diet rich in fat and cholesterol. The Eskimo diet was protective against coronary disease because it contained n-3 fatty acids from fish and seal. (6) These fatty acids are antithrombotic and lower serum lipid levels.
Posted at 10:45 pm by lil_ms_drama
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