Comments on: Atkins: Lost Souls

By: dancinpete

dancinpete — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:55:01 +0000

I see a great deal of similarity between diet corporations who have a financial incentive to get you to buy their own brand of food, be it low carb, low fat, low sugar.. etc. and the medical establishment who has a financial incentive to diagnose you with something that requires surgery or ongoing drug therapy.
There is significantly less money to be made in promoting/selling prevention, or promoting cheap over the counter supplements, or whole foods, especially locally grown foods.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a better way of combating this greed based system, other than by spreading the word one by one with sites such as this… I'm just afraid that we're seriously outnumbered…. good thing we'll live longer than them. -dancinpete

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. ~Max Planck, A Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, 1949

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:37:10 +0000

Excellent assessment, Willis. I agree across the board.

By: Willis Morse

Willis Morse — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:33:55 +0000

I’d like to put in a conditional thumbs up for Atkins. I read the 2004 edition of his book a year and a half ago when I started low carbing, right after reading GCBC. I dropped 50 pounds easily, saw decent body recomp and fixed a lifetime of chronic pain and lowgrade health problems. I’m more on the Paleo side now, but the Atkins induction as laid out in the 2004 edition is pretty close to Paleo. It ends up telling you to eat lots of animal products, some green veggies, a few nuts, very little cheese and no wheat or milk. At 20 grams of carbs, you basically can’t eat any amount of normal wheat products, and the franken food low carb breads taste so awful that I just gave up on grains long before I found out about all the historical problems with grains. Nowhere in the book do I remember him advocating this Atkins Nutritionals soy crap.

I’m a lot more pissed off about South Beach. By telling you to avoid white flour, sugar and animal fat while keeping the healthy whole grains and healthy fructose, it does nothing to improve your appetite control or remove the vast catalog of wheat-induced problems. I know people who tried it and lost some weight, but never got past the hunger and wheat/sugar cravings. And now they’re totally discouraged about carb restriction, thinking they’re in for a lifetime of hunger and missing their favorite foods.

By: StephenB

StephenB — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:08:36 +0000

I noticed Atkins gave a nice quote on the Nourishing Traditions book. Too bad his organization didn’t lean more in that direction.

By: Valda Redfern

Valda Redfern — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:28:28 +0000

I tried Atkins in 2000 and although I did lose about 20lb, I fell off the wagon and regained most of it. I think my problems were a) obsessing about the number of grams of carbohydrate I could get away with (how many slices of toast, how much pasta, how much pie, etc.) instead of concentrating on getting enough good quality nutrients; and b) not fully believing Atkins’s argument. About three years ago I started another attempt to lose weight, initially aiming simply to eat less. Because I wasn’t willing to cut out fats, though, I drifted into to a low-carb regime. All the reading I’ve done since then, on blogs like this one (thanks, Richard), has helped me adopt an enjoyable and convenient diet that has improved my health and enabled me to lose 35lb. I eliminated gluten-rich grains from my diet six months ago and don’t miss them at all, but I will occasionally snarf down favourite desserts when eating out (I never waste creme caramel opportunities).

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:47:16 +0000

Me either.

A 1 scoop in a cup is a perfectly reasonable ocassional indulgence.

By: Aaron Blaisdell

Aaron Blaisdell — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:40:34 +0000

Man, I still love my Ben & Jerry’s! I don’t think I’ll ever loose that enjoyment. Fortunately, it’s a once every 2-3 months kind of splurge, so no biggie. I’m not religious about being paleo. Just realistic.

By: Aaron Blaisdell

Aaron Blaisdell — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:36:37 +0000

I’ve been using ghee, coconut oil, and bacon drippings for all my cooking needs for the past 4 months. My scrambled eggs have never been fluffier and tastier than when cooked in ghee! I’m definitely a convert!

By: Aaron Blaisdell

Aaron Blaisdell — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:31:40 +0000

Sounds like the Christian approach to sin and salvation.

By: Andrew S

Andrew S — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:51:24 +0000

I don’t understand the desire to continue eating bad food. Whether it’s Weight Watchers, or diabetics eating low-sugar cookies &c, the viewpoint seems to be “I *liked* cookies, and I resent not being able to eat them.”

I liked cookies. And bagels, especially the asiago cheese bagels that Einstein’s has, with onion & chive cream cheese… yum. Ice cream, cake, candy bars, the works. I didn’t eat that many sweets, but I still really enjoyed the flavor. I craved them, but managed those cravings by eating something ‘healthy’ instead, like bagels or pasta.

But now I have no desire to eat that stuff. It tastes different now — I don’t get cravings for it. I had some Ben & Jerry’s a couple weeks ago, and it was just bland. I ate maybe a third of the pint; I couldn’t finish it.

I think the difference is that I’m off the carb train, whereas people eating Atkins & WW and especially diabetics are often *still* addicted to carbs. Obviously they never looked for the benefits of a paleo diet, or don’t want to believe it — or else they’d switch. Like Richard’s mom, once you start seeing results, it’s difficult to go back.