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Atkins Diet

What is Atkins Diet All About,

Based on Medical Research?

The Atkins Diet (or Atkins Nutritional Approach) was developed by Dr. Robert Atkins somewhere around the 1960s. The Atkins Diet is informally known as the low-carbohydrate craze. It rejects the concept of a pyramid food diet but does recognize nutritional supplements and exercise as valid parts of the Atkins diet.

The first book of Dr. Robert Atkins was the Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution (1972) and a series of his books also give details of the Atkins Diet. But in spite of the popularity of Dr. Robert Atkins and his diet program, many still criticize the Atkins Diet, up to the present.

The Atkins Diet articulates two factors as the causes of obesity. The first is eating refined carbohydrates including sugar, flour, and high-fructose corn syrups. The second factor is consumption or use of saturated fats such as hydrogenated oils.

The Atkins Diet involves the process of lipolysis in which excess stored body fats are burnt in place of glucose. This process begins when the body is in the state of ketosis wherein the body runs out of excess carbohydrates to burn as fuel.

The Atkins Diet also restricts the use of net carbohydrates that heightens risks due to blood sugar levels too. The Atkins Diet proponents claim that the diet can eventually allow for the lowering of the medicine intake of a diabetic type-2 patient who follows the Atkins Diet.

The Atkins Diet involves four phases such as Induction, Ongoing Weight Loss, Pre-Maintenance, and Lifetime Maintenance.

The Induction phase is also known as the ketosis or fat burning phase. A rapid burning of excessive fats happens in this first phase due to the limited intake of carbs (equal to consumption of only 20 net grams of carbohydrates per day.) The food sources which an Atkins Diet follower is allowed to intake for this phase includes a certain amount of meats, fish, shellfish, eggs, 4 ounces of semi-soft cheese, salad vegetables, butter and vegetable oils.

The Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) phase determines the craving control of a dieter at remaining weight loss level. During the OWL phase, a patient is required to increase the daily intake of carbohydrate by 2 net grams per week. Food intake includes introduction of acceptable amounts of vegetables, fresh dairy, nuts, berries, starchy vegetables, alcohol, legumes, fruits, and grains.

In the Pre-Maintenance Phase, the patient aims to find the Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance by adding 10 net grams per week. Meanwhile, during the Lifetime Maintenance Phase, the dieter has to see to it he will continue his Atkins diet literally for an entire lifetime.

This last phase aims to prevent patients from suffering from common end-of-diet backsliding habits which will return them back to their previous weight (so that they become obese again.)

Observations about obese people who participated in the Atkins Diet were done in the past to obtain evidence to support the claims of the Atkins Diet, and to contradict the criticism made by opponents of this diet. One finding was that the Atkins dieters actually experienced significant weight loss for the first six months on the Atkins Diet.

According to a study created by the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Atkins Diet does help patients with diabetic dyslipidemia (or atherogenic dyslipidemia) in losing weight. This is because atherogenic dyslipidemia requires glycemic control (meaning, glucose levels must be normal), and the Atkins Diet prevents the large intake of carbohydrates (which in its other form is glucose).

Hence, excessive fats are burned and it puts off atherogenic dyslipidemia.

The longest study ever done about the Atkins Diet effects lasted for one year, and many journals about it were published simultaneously. One misconception about the Atkins Diet is that it tolerates the consumption of fatty meats and cheeses by patients.

Critics of the Atkins Diet may be confused between the difference on ketosis and ketoacidosis (metabolic deamination of amino acids).

Confusion also arises when trying to understand the Induction Phase

and the rest of the diet phases. It is said that in the Induction phase a dieter can stick with this phase for a longer period of time.

Once the desired weight loss has been achieved, carbohydrate intake can gradually be increased. But the low quantity of carbohydrate intake is still observed later on.

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