Group Cites Evidence Atkins Diet Dangerous

[Socialist Christian]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20031120/hl_nm/health_diet_dc

<snip>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A nutrition advocacy group said on Thursday the popular Atkins diet has caused heart disease and could have killed a teen-age dieter and urged the U.S. government to monitor the high-fat weight loss approach.


The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine stressed it could not prove the diet hurt or killed anyone, but one dieter said he was convinced the approach clogged his arteries and the parents of a teen-ager who died while on the diet also blame her meat-heavy regimen.


The PCRM called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) to monitor diet approaches and check for evidence that the Atkins and other high-fat, high-protein diets may be harming people's health.


"You can never say this diet caused this death," PCRM director Dr. Neal Barnard cautioned. That is why he said the CDC should monitor large groups over time to see if there is an association.

[cspiguy]

1. I know this group. They are a bunch of phonies.

who are ranting about meat, more than Atkins, because they are founded on a strict vegan belief system. This puts them in species-denial in any discussion about carbs and RDA's. Too much fat (of the wrong kind) will kill you. Too little will, too. Some folks have religious zeal about these things but you need to talk with scientists to know what's important and what's philosophical propaganda.

I have no qualm with anyone's beliefs. If you think eating exclusively blue food is required by your God(s) - have a great day doing it. But do not tell me it is science that I have to obey.

...
Neal Barnard, M. D., a psychiatrist, started a group, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which advocates medicine based on nutritious vegetarian diets and other positive life style changes, rather than reliance on animal experimentation and the use of drugs and surgery. His approach is given in his book, The Power of Your Plate (1990), in which he presents the views of many modern doctors who have practiced wholistic medicine. To counter the negative effects of the old "Basic Four Food Groups", with its heavy reliance on animal products, Dr. Barnard presented the "New Four Food Groups", which puts fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes at the center of the American diet. Dr. Barnard has recently written other nutrition books, including one on weight reduction, based on the use of the "New four food groups".
...

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cspiguy]

3. Actually, Jesus and his disciples really liked their fish - YUM

:9

[demdave]

4. My, how tolerant you are. Pray tell, what religion are we allowed to have?

Do you always attack people over a passive display of their religion? Perhaps he/she should change their name to suit you also.

Is it any wonder some Dems. are seen as hating religion?

[Socialist Christian]

5. Hey i'm a Liberal Christian. You have us confused with Denominational

fundamentalists. I spend my time posting the stories for people to see, i dont agree with it, in fact i don't agree with 99.9% of what goes on regarding my faith.

[bmbmd]

6. Unbelievable.

Don't you believe in personal freedom and expression?
Keep the cross.

[Lurking Dem]

7. ditch the attitude

[DS1]

9. 700 club alert

for the less observant :evilgrin:

[Mentalist]

8. How exactly?

urged the U.S. government to monitor the high-fat weight loss approach.

How exactly would the goverment do this? Monitor my grocery buying? Follow up on my orders at restaurants? Place a limit on how much of certain things I could buy and eat?

[Terran]

10. Low-carb is healthy

I don't know all the rules of Atkins (I know it's very strict), but sensible low-carb dieting is as healthy as can be. There's no rule that says you have to eat nothing but meat, that's a ridiculous myth that's likely been propagated by corporations who manufacture low-fat crap junk food. If the person who died ate nothing but meat, they were acting against common sense (a form of species-denial also, actually).

Dirk

[info being]

13. Exactly

The system has been trying to discredit low-carb since the 1970's. I don't know or care who this organization is, but I know low-carb as worked for me for the past 5 years...my physical proved what I already knew...never been healthier.

[Emillereid]

11. Bunkum --

Actually the Atkins approach improves cardiovascular parameters! This group is philosophically against the eating of meat!

[Classical_Liberal]

12. Exactly

it is like aids laced condoms for fundamentalist catholics.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I know only how I feel

When I base my diet primarily on animal protein, vegetables, and small amounts of whole grains, I feel better and my weight holds steady. (I don't like most fruits, except for apples and berries, so they are a small part of my diet.)

When I eat a lot of carbs, as when I am presented with other people's cooking, I get into a carb-craving cycle that is hard to break, and my weight goes up.

Even the Atkins induction diet, the most severe phase, is not made up entirely of meat. Anybody who eats a total meat diet and says they're doing Atkins is mistaken.

[Bragi]

15. Quite right

Atkins and most other low carb diets basically call for eating high protein foods (like meat, poultry, fish, etc.) and getting your carbs primarily through vegetables and fruit. I've lost 30 pounds on it, and now find that it makes me feel good, and is a damn sensible way to eat.

I can see how the vegans would be distressed by it, though. Of course, they've adopted a philosophy that leads to much dietary distress anyway. I once visited a vegan bbs, and was impressed that the big topic of the day was comparing notes on dealing with their hair falling out.

- B

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. You have to respect your own body's individual needs

Some people thrive on a vegan diet, while others suffer physical and even mental symptoms. A member of the choir at my previous church was vegan, and I noticed that he scarfed sweets at an incredible rate. That's a sign of malnutrition, but he wouldn't hear of it.

I'd never tell anyone not to go vegan, but I'd caution against becoming the vegan Taliban. If it's not agreeing with people, they should have an egg or a carton of yogurt once in a while.

[reprobate]

16. I'll tell you what my cardiologist told me.

He said that a low carbohydrate diet based mostly on vegetables, with fish and fowl added, is the best for both weight control and long term health. In fact, it's so healthy that it can even reverse cardio-vascular disease.

When you start adding red meat to this diet you are taking a risk. If your body can't convert your dietary fat to good cholesterol, you run the risk of INCREASING any tendancy to cardio vascular disease.

In fact the only real difference between the Atkins diet and the Ornish diet is the use of red meat. People actually reduce their heart disease thru the Ornish diet. People actually increase their heart disease thru the Atkins diet.

Go ahead and eat all the red meat you want, and make sure its the kind that loaded with fat. Enjoy. It's your life. And your death. If you want an interesting exercise, research all the chemicals present in beef today. Then tell me it's healthy.

[amazona]

17. their evidence is less than convincing

A lot of teen girls die from eating disorders. It's called anorexia or bulimia. While I'm no fan of Atkins, we should be fair. To what extent was the young girl using the claim that she was on Atkins to fool her parents into going along with her restricted diet? I've heard of girls restricting by claiming they're vegetarian or even vegan, which is why some inpatient treatment centers for eating disorders refuse to allow vegan/vegetarian diets. Any diet that restricts food choice could be abused by an E.D. person, vegan or Atkins or whatever. The point is that the E.D. victim restricts more and more. I don't think teen girls should be on any diet that restricts food choices, but to single out Atkins when the same thing happens to vegans seems a bit unfair.

As for the 53 year old man who noticed that he developed clogged arteries, I've got news for him...bazillions of men in their fifties develop these symptoms every day. It's called getting older. Does he blame the fact that he needs stronger reading glasses on Atkins as well?

Again, I don't personally support the Atkins diet but I'm not seeing any argument of merit against it in this piece.

[wabeewoman]

21. There was a blurb about this on one of the

morning shows and it said the man had had heart scans before going on Adkins and they were clear and then after and they were clogged. They said the healthiest diet(and people with lowest rate of heart disease) was the Mediterran with lots of whole grains, pasta, olive oil, fruits and veggies.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. Since the article contradicts itself, there's no need to rebut it

The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine stressed it could not prove the diet hurt or killed anyone, but one dieter said he was convinced the approach clogged his arteries and the parents of a teen-ager who died while on the diet also blame her meat-heavy regimen.

[truthisfreedom]

20. we'll be seeing a lot of anti-atkins stuff in the near future.

bread sales are down 40% and manufacturers are scared. unfortunately for all of these people, the atkins diet does work, unlike many other diets... that's why people are on it. and as far as it being dangerous... life is dangerous.

[remfan]

25. Life...the leading cause of death

;-)

As to Adkins, I've been on it for almost 5 months and haven't felt this good in years.

[govegan]

22. As hospital operating rooms continue their land-office business

It's very amusing to see the denial of those who have so much disdain for true science.

A calorie is not a calorie anymore, according to some of these folks.

Although all vitamins and minerals required by homo sapiens are rife in nature, mainstream western thought seems to be adamant that they must first be recycled through the jaws of living flesh, and subsequently received second-hand after the violent destruction of that flesh.

Also, we are required to swallow the great wisdom of burning massive volumes of fossil fuels, dispensing with and polluting enormous amounts of fresh water, destruction of natural landscapes the world over, for the sake of those oh-so-precious mouthfuls of flesh.

I have no problem with all of the baloney which the masses are made to swallow. But the faux science used to substantiate the madness rings somewhat hollow.

These low-carb, high-protein diets are almost invariably compared to bleached and denatured, sugar saturated fare which is the common western interpretation of "bread". In addition the limp and sorry mass of matter commonly regarded as "vegetables" in the model western diet is somehow supposed to represent the plant kingdom's contribution to nutrition.

Western civilization continues to cling violently to its myths.

[Malva Zebrina]

28. I have a fascination with old cemetaries

How on earth did these people live to be in their seventies and eighties (minus the women who died in childbirth and the children who died from childhood diseases such as diptheria and the like)without the advantage of all of these health institutes telling us what to eat. I mean people grew their own food, hunted game, planted herbs and a few vegetables and lived mostly on meat and fat as well as wine and beer!! and here are tombstones attesting to the fact that in the 18th centure a lot of them lived to the age which we now consider to be the average life span.

[Mentalist]

29. My wife is pregnant

and I am amazed at all the "rules" that are laid down for pregnant women as to what they can and can not eat. What they should and should not eat. Same with drinks. Activities to avoid. Bla bla bla.

How did humans survive so long without all these rules.

I frimly believe, though I have absolutely no evidence to support it, that children today are more suseptable to disease, illness, and mental issues because they are not being exposed to negatives in the womb that "toughen them up".

[Fleshdancer]

23. healthy or unhealthy, I have no idea...

...but I do know that a low carb diet is not something I can do while maintaining my sanity. Moderation, a daily multivitamin, and excercise works just fine for me.

[lanlady]

24. I'm with you, Gloria

I'm on my own kind of "French diet"--moderate amounts of good, real, wholesome food of all kinds, plus exercise. I look and feel great.

[Malva Zebrina]

26. Seems like no one can make up their mind what kind of a diet

people need.

In spite of all that has been done. in this country people continue to get fatter and fatter.

Dr Bernstein's diabetic diet is a diet that recommends only thirty grams of carbohydrates per day for diabetics. He has been following this regime himself for at least ten years. He thinks it is absurd that the American Diabetic Assoc, says that sugar is as acceptable as a carb because studies show it does not raise the blood sugar any moresoe than other carbs. So diabetics can indeed injest as much sugar as they are allowed according to the ADA diet. He says no.

Personally , I do not trust a thing that any government institution says--I believe, at this point, that they are all corrupt through the campaign donations given to any particular candidate and that we are all being jerked around by the corporate pharmas and the various food lobbyists.

Where to go to find accurate and trustful information? I have no idea.

I am just going day by day, finding out as much as I can, trying to avoid taking any medications and taking charge of my own health, because I cannot afford any other,and see the coming disaster ahead with Bush in charge--the recent AARP debacle tells me this is the way we seniors will be eliminated without advantage of modern medicine so I may as well enjoy what there is now for me and have become an incurable Epicurean! Honestly do not trust a single thing anyone says about my health because I have lived long enough to see that it changes over time--and it seems to be cyclical.

[Mentalist]

30. lifestyle

In spite of all that has been done. in this country people continue to get fatter and fatter.

Sedentary lifestyle of most people. And children have become glued to the TV by programming and especially video games. Now baseball is played on playstation and not with a wiffle ball in the yard.

I will never forget the days of my mailbox being 3rd, my neighbors being 1st, a tree being 2nd, and my roof being a homerun.

The Big Red Bat Kicked Ass!

[corarose]

27. Let me guess Jenny Craig is part of the group right?

Damn it must be cutting into her sales.

[Mentalist]

31. Jenny Craig

Who the hell at Jenny Craig thought it was a smart business move to hire Monica Lewinsky? I hope they were fired.

But, my wife did lose a good amount of weight on Jenny Craig, and to be honest, the food was actually very good tasting.

On Edit: And their "mini" bags of microwave popcorn made for great snacks at the office.