[rushiddink]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.....ap/index.html



As they say in the Marines, Hooowahhh!


I have a buddy who has been in the Marines since we left high school in '96, he's a drill instructor now, the last time I talked to him he said they were implementing atkins unofficially at the "fat camp" for the people who join up but aren't fit enough for regular basic yet.


the people that need to lose weight, or the people that need to HELP people lose weight know about atkins, maybe this study will finally get people like my doctor and nutritionist to wake up.

[h4z1XBI7]

MSN ran an article on this yesterday... the NEJM with the study report comes out today! The only thing I found a little bit discouraging is that the low carb diet wasn't Atkins per se. They "encouraged" the low carb dieters to choose "vegetarian sources of protein and fats" to reduce saturated fat. They discouraged use of cream, full fat cheeses, etc. Low carb (good news) but not Atkins (bad news). Atkins Nutritionals helped fund the two year study... thank you AN!!! ... but did not have any input on the actual low carb diet used.

Too bad all that time and money had to be spent learning what WE already know...

Tril

[rushiddink]

True but at the least it will get people reading up on atkins and other low carbs again.

Then once they read up on the Low carb diets they will realize they all suck except for atkins.

[h4z1XBI7]

Oh, don't get me wrong... I'm VERY glad to see this report!!! DRs read the NEJM. Every one of them who see this study will at least have heard the message that low carb WORKS... and it does NOT raise cholesterol rates. THAT'S what they need to know. And, that patients can lose wt this way.

It's all good!

[rushiddink]

Yeah, I'm super excited about this. I've already emailed my doctor and my nutritionist with an in your face email, and requested that she provide me with a diet tailored to my needs based on the documentation of this and other studies, or that she at least look at the studies this time before dismissing my eating habits as dangerous and irresponsible.

As far as my doctor goes, I'm just hoping he reads it, he's of the opinion that I'm a hypochondriac, which is pretty ridiculous. I just like having my tests done so that I know where I am at and can adjust my intake of various things efficiently.

There's something ironic about a doc that comes up from the ground floor clinic huffing and red in the face, then stares you down with a gimlet eye and tells you that your diet is doing harm to your cardio vascular system, and is not long term sustainable, while he at the same time notes that your Lipids are spot on, and that you've lost 50 some odd pounds this time around and 100 last time.

Sometimes I really have the urge to kick his chair out from under him when he flops in it.

[h4z1XBI7]

OMG... that's perfect.

[rushiddink]

I'd like to note that I hate how doctors and nutritionists throw out the "long term sustainable" like just following the 40 year old FDA food pyramid and RDA stuff is.

Sustainable is a mental aspect, not a physical aspect.

Every diet in the world in the long term is sustainable only by your mental discipline and your enjoyment of it. Their concept is that you can't live on atkins because there isn't enough to eat to keep the variety, which we know is simply not true as long as you don't artificially limit yourself. I think unfortunately, that's what happened to mignon. If you remove vast swaths of the possible options on ANY diet, you're going to open yourself up to likely failure.

As long as you fully embrace what your choice is, whatever diet you're on is probably going to work for you in some sense, it's just that Atkins diet has some good science behind it and now that's starting to FINALLY hit the mainstream, which is ridiculous since it's been pretty much proven already.

The bonus here is that the study was long term, while not atkins, but low carb, and that shuts down a lot of the naysayers who have been yelling that no one is looking at these diets long term.

[cyslespitocop]

I'm not sure why they had the low-carb group choose vegetarian options for protein and oil. That's not a very common variation of low carb dieting.

I think that Atkins is really more of a combination of the low carb and the Mediterranean diet they described. I certainly eat a lot of poultry, fish, nuts and olive oil, which is what the article said was the food that set the Mediterranean diet apart from the others. Both low carb and Mediterranean had very positive outcomes.

Thanks for passing this article along!

[rushiddink]

heck i couldnt help but post it... I also had to put a darth vader avatar up till I could get my own silly picture working.

I just cant seem to get one shrunk down to that size.. but its ok because Darth Vader protects me.

I carry a Darth Vader trading card, had it with me the day I crashed the motorcycle. The dark side envelops and protects me.

[h4z1XBI7]

"I'm not sure why they had the low-carb group choose vegetarian options for protein and oil. That's not a very common variation of low carb dieting. "

No, it's not. I believe the people who designed the diets were afraid to ask people to eat saturated fat and red meat for two years (they probably thought they'd kill 'em and get sued) so they hedged their bets and "suggested" plant protein and fats instead. I doubt a true low carb believer would have done that. Some "expert" took out the part of low carbing the "MUST" be bad for us. They refer to the low carb diet as Atkins-like. I really wish they'd used the real McCoy.

[rushiddink]

The CNN article seems to indicate that the Atkins Foundation was pleased with the results though, so they must be reasonably satisfied with the menu given to the low carbers.

I'll be looking for this journal so i can see some of the more indepth details.

[rushiddink]

here comes some attacks and skepticism, it looks like.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...e-atkins-plan/

its not massively anti atkins, but it's just the start.

People will start trying to bury this study within a day or so.

[h4z1XBI7]

Oh, this was very much an Atkins attack. They totally disregarded the fact that the Atkins foundations was ASKED to help fund it. Atkins didn't do the study... or design the study... they only helped PAY for the study.

"A recent study funded by the Atkins Foundation attempts to compare the Atkins low-carbohydrate eating plan against two other diets."

They didn't even have the decency to say "partially funded" a study by this woman, Iris Shai, the lead author and a registered dietitian at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev at the S. Daniel Abraham International Center for Health and Nutrition. It wasn't even done in the US!! It was done in Isreal.

C'mon... a dietitian did the study, not Atkins Research Foundation. But you think the NY Times would include that in their report??? No way. I submitted a comment.

[h4z1XBI7]

Here's more on that study... this is how the participants and the changes over the two year period.

http://content.nejm.org/content/vol3...arge/04t2.jpeg

If it's small, click on it to make it bigger.

Kyp... you'll love this.

Tril

[h4z1XBI7]

I found this today... it's Gary Taubes response to this study.

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/...-fat/#more-344

[Nikitka]

This is causing a lot whinning among medical circles I know no matter what the diet was. They still do not get it (and I do not believe they will until the next generation)! When I started low carb over 4 years ago colleagues kept telling me how I was killing myself. This just reminded them to warn me again!

[nvideoe]

This is very interesting reading for me.
I love to tell this story...
A while back my doctor put me on meds for high blood pressure. Soon afterwards I started low carb eating and lost 25 lbs and blood pressure went back to normal and I quit the meds. At my next checkup (about 6 months later) she was surprised at the weight loss and that my blood pressure was normal, even without the meds. She asked what I was doing and I said low carb. She encouraged me to continue what I was doing because it was obviously working for me.
Some doctors "get" it!

[klubneras]

I have to tell you my favorite low carb doctor story: When I did low carb many years ago I was working at a company that flew in doctors/nurses every year to do "wellness checks" on employees. They'd draw blood, go away, and come back in another few weeks with the results. When it came my turn, I sat down with the doctor who looked over my results and he was just GLOWING - your blood pressure is great, your cholesterol is phenomenal, your blood sugar is perfect, every single measure is just outstanding! Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!!" I told him, "I'm doing low carb." His immediate response was, "OH NO, you can't do low carb, it's VERY UNHEALTHY!!" I'm not kidding, this really happened.

I just sat there, looking back and forth between him and my exceptional/over the top blood results and I basically laughed at him and walked away. This was about 8 years ago and it still makes me laugh every time I think of it.