DANDR READING GROUP - Preface & Chapt. 1 "The Promi

[Desertthorn]

JoanOh, I added AZKaren to the list and gave her this link.
Hope you don't mind
Hi Karen, :wave :wave :wave
Brain leaking out........your to funny 2big.
What a Chapter, I just don't know where to start. The Promise is really important as he promises Health, and beauty and Energy and what catches my eye right away is that he tells us, right from the beginning, this is not a diet, its a way of living for ever and by following his program we will maintain weight loss. The nay-sayers in our group, tell us "You'll gain the weight right back again. Obvious, they haven't even bothered to read the first page of the book.
The Two Pictures are really important also. How many times do we hear or read, "there isn't anything to eat" . There is plenty to eat and great food to boot.

[dreamof145]

I've already asked to join this group and read the assignment. I too was put on a low-fat diet. I didn't exercise with it and I walked around thinking about food all the time. I was hungry and miserable. I felt sorry for myself, which is why I finally quit. The doctor told me that I must not be following the low-fat diet because I didn't lose any weight after the first month on the diet. I did lose about 5 pounds the following month, but I still felt miserable and thought of food 24/7.

As for living a longer and healthier life, I agree that that is just as important as the weight loss. My body hurt everyday before. I couldn't move around much and my feet and knees hurt so badly. Now, my feet hardly hurt at all. My knees didn't give me any trouble in the summer (warm weather and swimming and less weight on them). My bloodwork was fantastic in November when I went in for my physical. Previously I was borderline diabetic. My vericose veins don't burn and itch anymore and I never feel sorry for myself. I am excited about my life and my future.

I just wish that everyone could follow the four principals of ANA. Too many people think you lose the weight and then go back to eating the way you did before Atkins. How do you drill in their heads that this is a LIFE CHANGE that will get your healthy and keep you healthy?

[idoru99]

I'd curious as to how many others here in the group succumbed to the "low fat craze" - your comparison of the two WOE's, and the differences you see in the two (besides the obvious food differences).
Joan J

I succumed to the low-fat / reduced calorie ways...actually that's what the US Naval Academy's nutritionist put me on. I weighed about 195 (about 40 lbs overweight) and wanted to lose weight, so I went and talked to her. After 3 months of hunger, I had lost 10 lbs. I was so happy...until I gained it all back, plus another 10 or 15 lbs.

During Christmas break, my sister told me about Atkins and how to do it. She was wrong on the specifics, but had the general idea. I bought the book and followed the instructions. Over the next 5 months, I lost 45 lbs, got better grades, stopped falling asleep in class, did better in my martial arts training and felt better than I had in years.

A friend asked how I was losing weight, so I told her and gave her my book to read. She didn't think she could give up her bean and rice, but that she'd try. She talked to her mom about it, who said that she shouldn't try it. She then talked to the nutritionist about Atkins and was told that is was unhealthy and should never be followed by anyone. My friend mentioned that she knew of someone who was on it and lost a bunch of weight, "it's all water weight" was the response. Then the nutritionist stated that if she found out who was on it, she'd issue a letter of reprimand and a letter of instruction stating that the Atkins diet was not to be followed. This was a big deal because if I was caught following Atkins after the letter was issued, I could have been kicked out of the academy. Fortunately, my friend did not give the nutritionist my name, so I was safe.

I apologize, I think I may have gotten a little off track. My point was that, Dr Atkins' promises of losing weght and living a more healthy and vigorous life were fulfilled. Unfortunately, I stopped following the good Drs advice and went astray. I can actually still remember where I was and the mea it was when I started my downward spiral of weight loss. That's why I'm back here today, fighting a battle that I already won. This gives me the courage to fight it again and the knowledge that it does work and that Dr Atkins' promises are there, we just need to grab them.

BLUE SKIES
Brian

Edited to remove signature - sorry.

[JoanOH]

Great discussions....

2big - post away - we're here to learn, you are the next-best teacher to Dr. Atkins that we have.

Lynne - all help is more than welcome!

Brian - Your story touches and scares me at the same time - to think nutritionists (who are looked upon as "experts" in their field) would ban a healthier eating style and way of life... ugh.

Dreamof145: Absolutely. As we're reading in this chapter, it's not JUST about the weight loss. I think those of us who are 40+ are especially aware of that! Personally, I haven't felt THIS healthy since I was in my 20's.

Joan J

[AZKaren]

Chapter 1

I, like so many others, was trying to do low fat for a long time. Everyone said that was what was healthy for you. I did lose about 30 pounds and kept it off for a year, but I was starving all the time. Needless to say I put all that weight back on and then some. One day, about 3 years ago, at my highest weight of 178,( I'm only 5 feet tall.) I picked up a copy of DANDR. I think it was the old one and have since gotten the 2002 version. What Dr. A was talking about in the book sounded like me, so I went on Induction. The first year I lost 30 pounds but I was stupid and didn't think of it as a permanent life style change, so I gained some of it back and have been on and off Atkins for the last several years. This last year I've mostly been on because I started noticing how I was feeling. I have Fibromyalgia and Post Polio Syndrome and on this WOE I had less pain. I also stopped using Aspartame and any products with MSG. So cooking natural foods makes me feel better. I was on Oxycontin and Vicodin, but now I'm totally off Oxycontin and rarely have to take a pain pill, unless I over do it. I went hatwire over the holidays because of family emergencies that really stress me out. (I know, I need to learn to deal with my emotional eating.) Anyway, I know this is the best way for me to eat because it has already improved my health. And that really is the most important promise for me. Now to answer the questions;
1. The low-fat, high carb diet is whats making everyone fat!
2. The other thing we will gain doing Atkins is that we will learn "a method for living a long, healthy life".
3. The four principles of the Atkins Nutritional Approach are:
a. You will lose weight.
b. You will maintain your weight loss.
c. You will achieve good health.
d. You will lay the permanent groundwork for disease prevention.
(This is an important element for me because we have everything from high blood pressure, heart disease to cancer in our family.)

Is this the kind of discussion you want? Sorry it was so long.

[Desertthorn]

Great posts and wonderful stories. I think this is really going to help us when it comes time to deal with the nay-sayers in the group.

[cleochatra]

1. What did Dr. Atkins state was the “perfect dietary plan” to create a nation of fat, tired, unhealthy people?

A high-carb diet, rich in refined starches which accentuates the faulty food pyramid and benefits those who lobby make their living from selling these items to the public.

We know that all carbohydrates break down into sugars within our bloodstream and play the hokey pokey lambada with our glycemic indexes, but look at the food pyramid-- it glorifies loaves of bread and appears as though these crackers, pastas and other refined starches are nothing more than glorified sugar. As a matter of fact, it not only categorizes sugar as pejorative and in the same company as fat, but the
very bread/starch category which is said to be the one to eat most breaks down into sugar! The food pyramid should look like a whole lot of sugar, and they should cease the facade that there are bread products there so much as most of that 80+ pounds of sugar we ingest annually!

Someone stop this Merry-go-round of gastronomic madness I want to get off.

2. Dr. Atkins stated that in addition to weight loss, we will receive an additional more important benefit by following his WOE. What is it?

The added benefit is disease prevention. Considering that our wild and wacky bloodsugars create jobs for the AMA, I sometimes wonder if the medical establishment ignores the poisoning of the American public due to greed and complacency.

I am sure that many ailments are misdiagnosed as being depression, ADHD, OCD, etc, when they are nothing more than food sensitivities. I knew a woman who suffered from migraines for over a decade and was medicated with everything under the sun, when the cause all along had been aspartame in the diet Coke she was drinking.

Doctors don't treat the cause. They treat only the symptoms.

Because this way of eating rights so many of the wrongs in our bodies, I am over $100 wealthier each month. I no longer am being medicated for high blood pressure, depression, anxiety and acid reflux.

Question 3 follows next.

[cleochatra]

3. What are the “Four Principles of the Atkins Nutritional Approach”?

While some could argue it could be Doc, Happy, Bashful and occasionally Grumpy (and yet, those are dwarves), the Four basic principles are: 1) One is guaranteed to lose weight; 2) One will maintain one's weight loss; 3) One will achieve good health; and 4) One will lay permanent groundwork for the prevention of disease.

The results speak for themselves!

And yet, I also believe that when portion control is implemented (an important satiety issue as proteins are self-limiting) there is finally balance in one's attitude shift of eating to live, as opposed to living to eat.

Portion control comes naturally with this lifestyle, and is one of the reasons so many naturally thin people are thin. Look to the French as an example. They eat a diet high in fat, and do consume breads to some degree, but look at how small their portion sizes are. In contrast, look at the portion sizes Americans demand! The French are happy to sample three bites or a sliver of cheesecake, and we eat the other 98% of the cheesecake in a sitting in America.

To me, Atkins allows those of us who are born into a wonderful yet FAT culture to finally react as the human body should to food.

Thank you Dr Atkins!

[RunAwayMichelle]

"Lose weight! Increase energy! Look great! This book will show you how it's done." Chapter 1 The Promise.

What a great promise! Isn't this exactly what we are all looking for. I know I am.

JoanOH - I loved your comments about not feeling deprived but rather "I just don't eat that". What a great attitude. I think I will try it on for size. (if you don't mind that is..)

[2big4mysize]

okay so you can all correct it when you see it on the board and are told about it here is the myth of high protein diets harming kidneys.

When you read the book further you will see Dr Atkins very carefully tells us that is we have a blood creatinine leve over 2.0 we can not follow his plan unless supervised by our kidney doctor.

Some types of impaired kidney function can't filter the wastes out of the blood and one of the waste products is nitrogen from protein metabolism you will see it as BUN in your lab results another is creatinine, waste product made from the metabolism of creatine which is produced in a steady state in the body.
And proteinuria the presence of protein in the urine itself can signal kidney damage.
Since they can't filter this stuff out and it will build up to toxic levels those kidney patients are put on a very low protein diet with just enough protein for cellular repairs and no more.
So some folk erroneously extrapolated that high amounts of protein must harm kidneys since those with harmed kidneys have protein damages from those high levels of BUN and creatinine in the blood.

There was actually a doctor at a very prestigious medical center that set out to prove once and for all the high protein diets like Atkins ( his words not mine) harmed kidneys. Well he actually had to admit that they didn't do any harm in folks with normal kidney function! His study was on the WebMD site and published in one of the national journals

[Desertthorn]

Great post 2big, but this isn't a high protein diet?


You know after a skillion diets I was attacted to Atkins and decided to read the book because it just sounded so right.
Carbs are sugars and sugar causes weight gain. And then I read the book and, I don't know about you guys, but I kept reading and kept thinking "of course, this makes so much sense" Of course, why didn't I think about that", of course thats why I keep eating more carbs, of course, of couse."
It was like an epitome
I have never looked back.

[Desertthorn]

Good morning!
I think that if I were to chose my favorite idea in Chapter one it would be "Its a way of eating for the rest of your healthy life"

[2big4mysize]

Great post 2big, but this isn't a high protein diet? ....
.

Well I'm glad you said that. high is all relative. for the UDSA it is 350% of the recommended daily protien amount for a 2000 cal proper ratio Atkins WOE so it is high protein. Compared to say Protein power it is low, less the half their protein recomendations so it is low protein compared to them.

That is why when Dr Atkins says in the book don't eat your Atkins too high protein nor too low fat it drives you nuts too high or too low compared to what? give me numbers please not subjective descriptive words open to personel interetation.

Have you noticed as you read posts on the board how many of the younger posters are only interested in the weigfht loss effect and want it yesterday, but those who have health problems or are older are just in awe of the lessening of the need for meds and the health improvements as they slowly lose weight too.

I love the posts when somebody who didn't read and understand their DANDR posts after a few weeks "hey my acid reflux is gone. Did it happen to anybody else". Or I just got back from the docs and he lowered my BP meds cause my BP was too low. Could Atkins have caused this? it is like they totally ignored the chapters on health benefits and just read the weight loss stuff

[2big4mysize]

where is the next chapter I can't find the topic?

EDIT

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