Something I never understood about Atkins...

[winthorp69]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

I just sincerely hope you are not adocating cheating occasionally as a way of life. ESPECIALLY if you are diabetic on insulin, and take extra insulin along with a binge to "keep the blood sugar under control". (I know some people do this! )

I'm not. Just pointing out that if you cheat on Atkins it seems to have more severe repercussions than if you cheat on a traditional eating plan.

[not2late]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

What's a "traditional eating plan"? You've used that term several times.

[winthorp69]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

What's a "traditional eating plan"? You've used that term several times.

Low fat, high fiber, "good" carbs, and overall balance. I know what's coming so don't bother. Save yourself some time. You know the difference between traditional eating plans and the Atkins version better than most.

[winthorp69]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

still waiting for you to list those unhealthy foods.

if you read or listen to Dr Atkins tv interviews you will see it is the news folk not Dr Atkins pushing the pan full of bacon grease with eggs frying as an atkins meal.
Dr Atkins was a tease and did like to cut up with the press saying things like I can have cream or I can have bacon when he was on the Larry King show and Larry King couldn't cause of his heart condition doctor diet restrictions, but if you read the transcripts he says very clearly yes Atkins Induction is restrictive but it is only 14 days and you have the rest of your life to have those (the foods folk complain about not being abkle to have on his plan)
When ask if a person COULD eat bacon, cream, butter, eggs, fillet migion sp?, and/or cheese as Larry King did then Dr Atkins says yes. (Because you can if you chose eat any or all of that but you can have other fats like olive or canola oil if you chose even though butter fat is short chain healthy fats too and the cut of meat Dr Atkins mentions have less fat then a chicken breast too.)

Most folk who think it is unhealthy are shocked to discover the premaintnenance and later stage OWlers are having 6-8 cups of veggies a day along with fruits.

Remember I belive in Atkins and understand why and how it works and have defended it to the type of people you mention above.

You don't need me to list TRADITIONALLY the unhealthy foods. You know as well as anyone.

[ladyinred]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

But still....if "traditional" eating plans worked then we'd all be doing them and there'd be no need for Atkins. Aside from being a weight loss plan it seems to help with a host of other medical conditions.

I don't think the repercussions I'd experience from eating a Twinkie after being on Atkins are any more severe than before. Except before I didn't know why I felt so crappy all the time and now I know why I did and I don't want to ever again. A Twinkie isn't going to be good for you no matter what eating plan you are on.

[Sheshy]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

I'm not. Just pointing out that if you cheat on Atkins it seems to have more severe repercussions than if you cheat on a traditional eating plan.

Winthorp,

Take a poll and ask the ADBB members how many followed a traditional eating plan (assuming you mean low calorie/low fat plan) and ended up gaining weight back plus additional weight ... I'll bet you'll see the majority did that yo-yo and plus weight results prior to finding Atkins.

If anyone falls off Atkins for a meal or snack (ie has some fries or a bowl of ice cream) they aren't going to gain 5-10+ pounds in a day...however, if they fall off for weeks/months, then yes...but then that could be said about any eating plan.

[ladyinred]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

You don't need me to list TRADITIONALLY the unhealthy foods. You know as well as anyone.

You mean the foods that we have been brainwashed as a society to believe are bad for us? Stupid cavemen!!! Just think how we could have evolved if they hadn't squandered their lives away eating meat and berries!!

[G-Mom]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

Winthorp, I hate to say this, but you are a bit passive-aggressive, which is highly annoying.

We, as humans, are healthiest on a hunter-gatherer type of diet. It is fact that when we developed grain as a primary food source, we were no longer as healthy. This "traditional" diet you speak of is highly flawed and dated. Do your research and you will see that.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

LOL actually if you examine that traditional plan you posted about you will see that it is only about 60 years old and was a product of what could be grown to support the nation and deliver the needed to stay alive nutriants cost effectively. Yep the food pyramid came a long after the war and is a 20th century invention. prior to that we as americans ate a very high fat diet and according to medical science never was a heart attack had till the 20th century. The USDA plan cutting back the fat and increasing the carbs has lead to american as a whole becoming much fatter and unhealthy. They even had medical papers saying as earlyas 2003 it wasn't the fat % it was the carbs that were making cholesterol go up and the American Heart Accosication changed it possition to say it was unhealthy trans fats not fats a s a whole.

[not2late]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

Low fat, high fiber, "good" carbs, and overall balance. I know what's coming so don't bother. Save yourself some time. You know the difference between traditional eating plans and the Atkins version better than most.

Just a historical note....the diet you described did not come into the American diet until after the second World War. Prior to the 1960s, the American diet was about 40-50% fat.

The low fat diet became popularized due to the "Lipid Hypothesis" which stated that the lower the dietary fat, the lower the risk for cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, the guy who did the research cherry-picked his data, using 7 out of 21 countries. Had he used all the data available to him, the "lipid hypothesis" would have been tossed into the trash heap with other hypotheses, like the mood is made of green cheese. Anyhow, the low fat diet was adopted and diseases like diabetes Type 2 and high cholesterol/heart attacks which were virtually non-existent during the first half of the 20th century, suddenly became very existent during the last half.

With the exception of the Induction phase, Atkins is higher in fiber than the standard American diet and even the diet proposed by the USDA. That is, if you choose the higher fiber foods. I realize there is an emphasis on "healthy carbs from grains". It wasn't until I read What to Eat by Marion Nestle that I learned why: the Standard American Diet is low on vegetables and fruits because we don't like vegetables and don't like eating whole fruits, so nutritionists advocate getting the missing fiber from grains. In fact, it's quite possible to eat the recommended 25 grams fiber from vegetables, fruits and legumes alone. Unfortunately, many people don't do this on their Atkins because they have a tendency to skip the OWL and Pre-Maintenance phases.

As for fat content, I do realize that the word "Atkins" brings up images of mountains of butter, lard and other "fatty" foodstuffs. But again, it's up to you to decide what you eat on Atkins. I eat primarily lean meats (chicken, turkey) and seafood which are lower in fats than beef. I also use "healthy" oils, primarily olive oil for my cooking and my salads. Do I use "alot"? That depends, if you think 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of olive oil is "alot", then I guess I do! See that's another misconception about Atkins, you don't need to eat "alot" of fats: 1 tablespoon of olive oil on your salad is enough to make it at least 50% fat by calories. And many OWLers are surprized when they find out that eating 1 ounce of nuts with fruit or veg makes that "meal" at least 50% fat too.

[jcapulet]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

You mean the foods that we have been brainwashed as a society to believe are bad for us? Stupid cavemen!!! Just think how we could have evolved if they hadn't squandered their lives away eating meat and berries!!

Well...I did have a moonpie with that leg-o-T-Rex earlier...

[ladyinred]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

Well...I did have a moonpie with that leg-o-T-Rex earlier...

*gasp* Well you're gonna gain 5 - 10 lbs now for sure, because it's a known fact that moonpies have 17,500 - 35,000 calories per pie. You can't go off plan. Ever. Hmmmm, is this how urban legends get started? lol Too bad dinosaurs aren't still around. It would be nice to have a different protein source. (Instead of all that bacon and eggs - lololol - okay, I'm cracking myself up now! Cracking!!! heeeeeeeeee)

[gazaleh]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

The repurcussions are WAY higher if you stray from this plan. YEs, I gain 5 lbs with a cheat. MAy it's cause I'm 5'8 and 121 lbs but still. That never used to occur on any other lifestyle. I know of others who also gain 5 lbs overnight if they stray and 10-15 lbs if they stray for a week. HEy, eat some bread and tons of fruit for a week. You will SURELY gain 10-15 lbs. On other plans, you may gain 1-2 lbs.

[winthorp69]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

Winthorp, I hate to say this, but you are a bit passive-aggressive, which is highly annoying.

We, as humans, are healthiest on a hunter-gatherer type of diet. It is fact that when we developed grain as a primary food source, we were no longer as healthy. This "traditional" diet you speak of is highly flawed and dated. Do your research and you will see that.

Are you reading the other posts?

I'm being PERSONALLY attacked after attacking no one and you have problems with ME?

[ladyinred]

Re: Something I never understood about Atkins...

But gazaleh, maybe that's because our bodies have a hard time with that stuff in the first place. And it's usually water weight. You would have to eat 17,500 calories in order to gain 5 lbs of fat. I would think you would be in a lot of pain before you could cram that many calories into yourself in one sitting. I did cheat a bit on my vacation. I ate a couple of cherries and I was only on the berry rung. I also overate nuts and I probably overate whipped cream when I had my legal amount of fresh-picked blueberries. I came back from vacation with no gain. Had I been cheating with crap food then I probably would have gained, yes. And I would have felt lousy too. Crap food should be avoided no matter what plan you are on.