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Atkins Diet
What's the general consensus here on the Atkins Diet, or any low-carb diet?
Good or bad? Better than a low-fat diet? Anyone here on a low-carb diet? Thanks in advance. Barry |
#2
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Atkins Diet
Barry Walker wrote:
What's the general consensus here on the Atkins Diet, or any low-carb diet? Good or bad? Better than a low-fat diet? Anyone here on a low-carb diet? Thanks in advance. Barry This may not be the general consensus but it’s mine. Published diets are a way to upset ones over eating habits by limiting ingredients or food groups enough to limit portion sizes and caloric intake. They have different methods which may or may not control hunger, but the bottom line is getting to a point where calories in are less than calories burned for weight loss or equal to calories burned for weight maintenance. In answer to your question about which is better; which ever one’s complex method controls your appetite better so that you can achieve the simple goal of calorie reduction. |
#3
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Atkins Diet
As far as I can tell, the consensus is that you need exercise and proper eating habits to be healthy. My personal take is that any way of eating that admits it causes physical problems for some people or doesn't provide adequate nutrition is not healthy. "Barry Walker" wrote in message ... What's the general consensus here on the Atkins Diet, or any low-carb diet? Good or bad? Better than a low-fat diet? Anyone here on a low-carb diet? Thanks in advance. Barry |
#4
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Atkins Diet
Patricia Heil wrote:
As far as I can tell, the consensus is that you need exercise and proper eating habits to be healthy. My personal take is that any way of eating that admits it causes physical problems for some people or doesn't provide adequate nutrition is not healthy. And which ways of eating admit such things? While standing on your head? While running? With both hands tied behind your back? Does it matter what kind of diet you eat with these unhealthy ways of eating? -- jamie ) "There's a seeker born every minute." |
#5
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Atkins Diet
i personally think one should balance everything in a diet-- cutting out carbs
as a whole is a bad idea, and even limiting them to a very low level is probably not the best idea for the body. it is a good idea, however, to cut out certain carbs completely that are made with enriched flour, and basically any empty, starchy carb. look for *multigrain* pastas, breads, etc. and eat fruit and drink lowfat milk. if you cut out carbs from almost your entire diet, you have a high chance of gaining the weight back if you reintroduce them at some point-- at least i've seen it happen to people. it would have to be a lifetime commitment and carefully administered. sara hello teacher tell me what's my lesson, look right through me, look right through me. |
#6
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Atkins Diet
"Sarandipidy" wrote in message
... if you cut out carbs from almost your entire diet, you have a high chance of gaining the weight back if you reintroduce them at some point-- at least i've seen it happen to people. it would have to be a lifetime commitment and carefully administered. Actually, that's what Atkins, South Beach and probably all the low carb diets say. When you start, you're on them *for life*. Any diet that uses restriction and/or bans food groups has to be for life. That's why I'm not convinved by powered proteidic diets, it's hard to keep on them for life... It all depends on your view on obesity. If you consider it's like AIDS, and impossible to cure and that's it ok to be on treatment for whatever is left of your life and at whatever cost (side-effects, troublesome social life, loss of cultural and familial identification), I guess low carb is no worse than the other diets. Actually, if you consider the health-conscious varations (health conscious fat balance, greens, tolerance for some fruits...), they're ok diets. But if you consider that you can actually cure obesity, low carb (and low fat for that matter) are not the way to go, they don't cure obesity any more than AZT cure AIDS. |
#7
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Atkins Diet
Sarandipidy, while I agree with much of what you wrote, most so called
"multigrain" breads on the market are not much better than wonderbread. They have a few unmilled grains added and colored with molasses. i eat ezekiel bread. seems real to me. sara hello teacher tell me what's my lesson, look right through me, look right through me. |
#8
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Atkins Diet
"Lictor" wrote in message ...
"Sarandipidy" wrote in message ... if you cut out carbs from almost your entire diet, you have a high chance of gaining the weight back if you reintroduce them at some point-- at least i've seen it happen to people. it would have to be a lifetime commitment and carefully administered. Actually, that's what Atkins, South Beach and probably all the low carb diets say. When you start, you're on them *for life*. Any diet that uses restriction and/or bans food groups has to be for life. That's why I'm not convinved by powered proteidic diets, it's hard to keep on them for life... It all depends on your view on obesity. If you consider it's like AIDS, and impossible to cure and that's it ok to be on treatment for whatever is left of your life and at whatever cost (side-effects, troublesome social life, loss of cultural and familial identification), I guess low carb is no worse than the other diets. Actually, if you consider the health-conscious varations (health conscious fat balance, greens, tolerance for some fruits...), they're ok diets. But if you consider that you can actually cure obesity, low carb (and low fat for that matter) are not the way to go, they don't cure obesity any more than AZT cure AIDS. None of the low carb diets recommend that you eliminate carbs for the rest of your life. The first phase is the most extreme and it's primarily to break your addiction/cravings for starches and sweets. You reintroduce carbs into your diet selectively and as long as you continue to lose the weight you want to lose and keep your cravings at bay, you can continue to move through the phases of the diet. When it comes right down to it, Atkins and South Beach are pretty much diabetic diets. Personally, I'd rather control my carbs BEFORE I get diabetes than after and the fewer carbs I eat, the less I crave them. The first few weeks are a bitch, but beyond that, I don't find low carb diets all that tough to stay on. Eliminating whites - as in white flour and white sugar - never hurt anyone. Stay away from prepared foods and shop the perimeter of the grocery store. That's where all your fresh produce, dairy (if you can handle dairy) and fresh meats are. |
#9
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Atkins Diet
"Paula" wrote in message
om... None of the low carb diets recommend that you eliminate carbs for the rest of your life. They still "put a restriction and/or ban food groups". I doubt Aktins lets you eat an unlimited amount of carbs a day. I also doubt Atkins let you add four sugar cubes in your morning coffee. So, it's restrictive. And it does recommend that you continue that restriction for the rest of your life. You reintroduce carbs into your diet selectively and as long as you continue to lose the weight you want to lose and keep your cravings at bay, you can continue to move through the phases of the diet. You *reintroduce* them *selectively*. This is still a restriction. Control of your carb intake is going to be monitored by a formula or some kind of external signal, not by your own feelings. If you *stop* being on Atkins and resume your old habits, you *will* regain your lost weight. So, you do have to stay on Atkins for life. The fact that you won't eat the same Atkins on induction and on the day of your death doesn't change the fact that you're on it for life. When it comes right down to it, Atkins and South Beach are pretty much diabetic diets. Personally, I'd rather control my carbs BEFORE I get diabetes than after and the fewer carbs I eat, the less I crave them. Some diabetics do not control carbs as tightly as Atkins claims non-diabetics have to. IMHO, loss of weight and exercising does a lot more against diabete than reducing carbs themselves (especially if we consider low glycemic carbs). Also, carbs do not trigger diabete, some people will never get diabete, whatever they do, since they don't have the genetics for it. As for the craving relationship, that might be true for you. But there are other ways to control craving. I still don't know if the control over craving that some people on Atkins get is a direct effect of the diet, or a psychological consequence of the tight control its framework provides. And some people do *not* get good craving control under Atkins, they just stay the hell away from them, because they would binge if they ate any. I would not call that good control. I guess you don't really care about how things work, as long as they work for you anyway. Eliminating whites - as in white flour and white sugar - never hurt anyone. It depends on what you mean by "hurt". Sure, it doesn't hurt anyone's health. But if your whole culture uses flour, that means being cut from your culture, and that can cut like hell (especially if your culture is all that is holding you together in a foreign land). It also means losing familly customs, losing things that have been handed down from one generation to the next. Same with familly culture - if the diet means you can never eat with your familly again, it does hurt. If you ask an Indian or Japanese never to eat rice again, you're making his familly life difficult. If the diet means you will never ever be able to eat food that made you feel good (kid's memories and all), it does hurt. Sure, you might think it's not a significant hurt, and that all that matters is health. But how many diets have been dropped because of that kind of hurt? To human beings, eating is much more than fueling the body with the right stuff. It's also a social ritual. And it's also a way of identifying oneself to one's culture and familly. |
#10
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Atkins Diet
Lictor wrote:
"Paula" wrote in message . com... None of the low carb diets recommend that you eliminate carbs for the rest of your life. They still "put a restriction and/or ban food groups". I doubt Aktins lets you eat an unlimited amount of carbs a day. I also doubt Atkins let you add four sugar cubes in your morning coffee. So, it's restrictive. And it does recommend that you continue that restriction for the rest of your life. Have you ever read about the maintenance phase of the Atkins process? http://atkins.com Click on "How to do Atkins". Be prepared to have some assumptions reversed :-) There's a heck of a lot of carbs allowed in the maintenance phase. For what it's worth, there's a lot of "freedom" in any type of diet. Atkins isn't God and he's not going to strike you dead if you put 4 cubes of sugar in your coffee. The choice is the users. They are responsible for both the decision to, and the consequences of, putting anything they want in their mouth. If one considers the "rules" of a diet burdensome, then yes, it can seem like there is no "freedom". But if someone actually follows the rules for a time and begins to see the point of the rules, then it's like "Hey, sugar is not that big a deal for me!" (Once someone sees an easily-recognizable benefit of cutting down on their sugar). When I was a child I had a "rule" of "don't drink gasoline", but now that I'm a grown-up, I can see a lot of freedom resulting in not drinking gasoline grin. Sure, it's restrictive, but I think I can handle the deprivation ;-) |
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