241. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jul 28, 2005, 10:03 pm PDT

and another thing.....they are dead, and if you do the research on fat and the heart, you will find that all cardiologists will prescribe a diet low in saturated fat for a healthy heart. There is no long term discoveries here.

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242. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jul 28, 2005, 10:20 pm PDT

I'm suprised no one has mentioned that Dr. Atkins was a cardiologist who was looking for a way to lower the cholesterol and blood pressure of his patients when he found that weight loss was an unexpected side effect of the eating protocol he had found. This is why critics of the diet who think that it is bad for cholesterol and blood pressure are obviously operating on theory and not on actual evidence. My own experience was that I followed the old food pyramid to the letter for 15 years; walked religiously; and gained nearly 60 pounds (28 while pregnant twice). NOTHING would budge the weight, until I tried Atkins. See, estrogen makes your body want to keep weight on--and you have plenty while pregnant and nursing. Or when eating soy, which mimics estrogen! And guess what Atkins products are packed full of. It is simple to say "excerise, eat in moderation" etc. but sometimes your metabolism drops so low and your blood sugar is so messed up you can't do both without passing out, even if you don't look too fat. I couldn't both diet and exercise. When I started on Atkins, right after he died (in his 80's, slipped on icy steps and hit his head--the weight had something to do with some bloating of some temporary meds he was on at the time), there weren't many Atkins products out. I lost 14 lbs. the first two weeks. Over the next couple of months I lost a total of 46 lbs. And I kept it off for another 2 years, until I became pregnant again. I realized too late that the soy in the products I had started eating after the first couple of months had caused me to lose very, very slowly and even plateau. In spite of that I felt like I had dropped a couple of decades along with the weight. ANY type of diet that contains processed food is going to be unhealthy, period. I did Atkins the Traditional Nutrition way--everything organic; pasture-fed and free-range animals; no modern oils like soy or canola, which are stripped of vitamins and have lots of free radicals because of how they are produced. Now that I am on lifetime maintenance (Phase 4), I almost never set foot in either a grocery store or a doctor's office. My husband did this along with me. We are now 40. Our daughter is incredibly healthy; at 8 months has never been sick (our older two have had a cold apiece in the last two years. They are not on Atkins but we eat no processed food as a family). Big Agribusiness and Big Medicine don't get much money from us. And to the lady who wrote you have to wait a year after doing Atkins to get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy--no, not if you're doing Atkins right. You should be taking supplements through that first, short phase. After that you are adding in fruits and vegetables. And if you are eating Traditional Nutrition you will be getting way more nutrients than the general public anyway. My husband's grandma, who still believes in conventional nutrition, thinks we're going to drop dead of poor health. At a recent gathering she brought her portable, top-of-the-line blood pressure cuff and tested everyone. She and her husband, who follow the food pyramid and eat processed oils, had the highest. Next was my BIL, who follows South Beach. They were sure that we, who eat only farm-raised food with plenty of butter, raw milk, beef, tropical oils etc. would have terribly high readings, but instead we both were very low (mine was 95 over 65). Likewise, our cholesterol is very low, our blood sugar is normal, and our weight is normal. Before we started on Atkins and switched to Traditional Nutrition (www.westonaprice.org --they sell nothing) we were both borderline diabetic, high cholesterol, blood pressure, the works. Bottom line: Atkins jumpstarted our weight loss when our metabolism was all messed up. Traditional Nutrition keeps us super-healthy. Try www.eatwild.com for sources of non-proccessed food.

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243. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jul 28, 2005, 10:41 pm PDT

Actually, no, all the cardiologists *don't* prescribe a low saturated fat diet. There has been a lot of controversy on this, mainly from researchers advocating low fat, low cholesterol who have very obviously not read the research on the other side of the issue--and there is plenty of it. And J.stults, fat did used to be good for you. It still is, if the animal is raised eating what it should be eating. A cow that is raised on pasture has the same fatty acid profile as a wild salmon; lots of the healthy omega-3's in the right ratio. BUT, a farm-raised salmon fed corn and soy has the same fatty acid profile as a cow that is raised on corn and soy--both really bad for you. Or take the fat around beef heart. It has exactly what your own heart uses as fuel. Did you know your heart and kidneys burn saturated fat as fuel, or that much of what keeps your cell walls firm is saturated fat? If your body can't get enough saturated fat from your diet, it will make due--but your cell walls sag, your heart has to work harder (high blood pressure) and your kidneys don't do their job as well. Heart disease, by the way, used to be considered a symptom of diabetes. And diabetes, heart disease, cancer, allergies, autism etc. all used to be RARE, back when people didn't eat much in the way of processed foods, didn't eat industrial-produced oils, and ate much less sugar and refined flour (and there was much less pesticide use). An interesting side effect of doing Atkins the no-proccessed-food way is that my skin became much smoother, when it should have been looking wrinkly from loosing so much weight so rapidly. Atkins wasn't originally about selling product. It's been around for over 40 years and has been extensively researched. Food for thought...

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244. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 12:03 am PDT

Coming from a family history-way back of diabetics, I was determined early on that "I was not going to get that". That was a good goal, but genes aren't everything. I struggled with beating back overweight from the time I was in my mid-teens. My parents helped me make good food choices, and due to some health issues with painful knees and hips, missed out on regular strenuous exercise in gym class, but was active as any other teenager-never still. At 18 and a5'3" I was slender at 110 lbs. Then with marriage and 3 pregnancies, active as I was, the weight mounted despite dieting 'sensibly' under Dr's care, always, no diet pills, cooky diets or purging, etc. Just those Lo/no fat 900 and 1200 calorie diets which I was told "You must not be staying on-or you would HAVE to be losing weight-you are FOOLING yourself if you think you are not slipping up somewhere, just DO IT RIGHT" as though I was lying to the one person I thought would KNOW what was happening, Instead I was paying for 'guilt trips' to be brow-beat by someone I trusted to guide me on a diet to help me find one that I COULD live with-without dizziness, jitters, hunger constantly in the forefront of my consciousness. I finally eventually figured out on my own, that it was an exercise in futility to continue on that route. Eventually I joined a few of the 'diet clubs' going around. Always as with any diet I went on, there would be an initial 20 loss followed by an abrupt shutdown of loss, I'd struggle for weeks on end, with paltry results-this while raising 3 children, running them to activities and doing errands while they were at sports to make my time count, as I was also taking a full load at college. walking up &down hospital halls, doing WeightWatchers & becoming more & more frustrated as the years went by. I finally topped out at too close to 300 lbs to joke,-I sure wasn't. I read Atkins, studied it, considered and prepared my grocery list & purged my cupboards of things not on the Atkin's diet. I went on it, lost 20# in a mo. But was jumped on by my HMO DR. for "going on that terrible diet-GET OFF NOW ! She later threatened me: "If you don't let me put you on one of the good reliable weight management drugs that have been around a long time-THEY WORK--'you will get no more referrals to rheumatology or orthopedics for those problems you have'-YOU JUST NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. (Now there was an idea she didn't give me credit for ever trying)-I'd have been 300 if I didn't'daily diet &exercise' as best I could, almost all my life. Well, she gave me one of those 'GOOD DRUGS-- It was FEN-PHEN. When I mentioned "weird irratic heartbeats & dizziness", I was told I was just being anxious-don't call and tell us that again--UNLESS YOU'RE ALSO HAVING CHEST PAIN, THEN GO TO E.R! Yes--I quit that Dr & HMO. It took a new outside Cardio to find that 3 of the 4 heart valves were now seriously damaged-(the next week all the news about FEN PHEN hit the TV ). He also found previously normal Triglycerides now ^529! Cholesterol, HDL,LDL totally ^out of whack, normal blood sugars on my old records suddenly going sky-high, then sent me to a seasoned, well known Endocrinologist ASAP- who Dx'd early diabetis, also. Endocrin. Rx'd immediate Low Carb-Hi Protein Diet. Looked so much like Atkins the HMO had such a fit over,I asked him about it. His comment: Very much so-100%!- You may use the Atkins exclusively, & we'll continue to monitor blood tests as usual. Well 2 1/2 years later,WITHOUT a moment of GNAWING HUNGER, DIZZYNESS, 100% FOCUS ON FOOD, dreading but adhering to ineffective diets-etc, I've lost half - my body weight.I'm w/in 20# of my goal for height & bone structure, I feel best I have in 30 years. Go figure. Anyone eating only high-fat meat,cheese & eggs of the many foods on the vast allowable list in Atkins mustn&

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245. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 1:20 am PDT

Eating low carbs, fish, lean meats and steamed veggies in moderation combined with exercise works for me. I avoid MSG and artificial sweetners and drink lots of cold water.

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246. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 2:54 am PDT

I have to comment on the all-or-none statement that fat's essential and carbs aren't, posted by the member who referenced tribesmen who eat "no" carbs. Most people wouldn't survive, let alone thrive, on an Inuit or Masai diet. Those who do manage to live in the severe climes of the Arctic circle on polar bear fat and fish are the result of thousands of years of slow migration of their ancestors, many of whom died miserably and didn't get to pass their genes on. After several generations, those who're still kickin' are the ones best able to _tolerate_ a high fat diet. But, like the hunter gatherers who supposedly "enjoyed robust good health," members of these populations have a shorter life expectancy. I'm sorry that this Yahoo! member had a heart attack, and it may've been partly triggered by the restriction of fat as s/he believes -- who knows? -- but there's no evidence to suggest an MI was caused by a lack of fat. Again it's about the quality of the fat. Testimonials and science agree here: more liquidy oils (with essential fatty acid Omega-6's); plus ones with Omega-3's; most carbs coming from whole grains/starchy veggies -- instead of processed products where much of the carbohydrate is sugar, and the least healthful fats are used to in order to achieve the right "mouth feel" -- lots of veggies of different colors; and of course some good lean protein, perhaps with the _occasional_ not so lean redmeat, maybe from a cow that had a decent life before slaughter. Among the tribespeople who do live long lives, it's likely due to their regular activity (read EXERCISE), rather than a diet hardly representative of the _relatively_ wide array of foods our ancestors have had available for the last few thousand years.

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247. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 7:58 am PDT

Calories in, calories out....balanced diet. 6 WORDS

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248. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 9:02 am PDT

Regarding the diets of the Masai and Inuit: there is a lot of good research on the Weston A. Price Foundation website, and it is more than just eating high-fat; it's the kind of fat and a number of other factors. In the case of the Masai it wasn't just natural selection; in central Africa they had a lot of other food choices--but they are still one of the healthiest groups in the world; in size, healthy, longevity, vigor in old age, and infant mortality. Dr. Price was a dentist (president of the ADA) who travelled all over the world with a team of researchers to try to find out why people's health seemed to be degenerating from generation to generation. What he found was that people eating their native diets were healthier than people eating a Westernized diet; and that there were certain factors that were present in the diets of the healthiest groups, whether they were on the outer Hebrides or South Pacific islands, Andean or Swiss mountains, central Africa or Asia. He studied something like 40 groups that were in a state of transition between their traditional ways and Westernization, taking not just dental measurements but looking at incidences of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and general illness. The website www.westonaprice.org contains not just his research but many, many articles and references that support his work, including sources like The Lancet, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), The New England Journal of Medicine, and many more mainstream medical publications. Yet most dieticians haven't read his work or made the connections. When you read it, many "conflicting" studies suddenly make sense, because most researchers do not distinguish between processed, factory-farmed foods and naturally-produced, unprocessed foods. Lactose intolerance, for example, was unheard of before pasteurization. Some people's bodies can't handle how heat changes the shape of the milk sugar and/or protein. Many people who are lactose-intolerant find they can drink fresh raw milk. But the research is there for anyone who will read it.

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249. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 9:07 am PDT

It isn't just as simple as calories in, calories out. Lots of things can affect the thyroid, so that while theoretically you should be able to eat "x" amount of calories, your body isn't burning it. This is what happened to me. You get to the point where you are eating barely anything and yet you are still slowly gaining weight or at best plateauing. I know many, many overweight people who eat like birds. And is it terrible to be able to eat maybe a couple of tablespoons at a meal, go away hungry, and still watch the scale creep up. And when you try to exercise when you're on a starvation diet you pass out, no joke. This is where I was at when I started Atkins the Traditional Nutrition way (not the shop-till-you-drop way). There is plenty of research to back this up, too. Anyone who says otherwise either has never had serious weight problems and hasn't looked at the research.

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250. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 9:18 am PDT

It isn't just as simple as calories in, calories out. Lots of things can affect the thyroid, so that while theoretically you should be able to eat "x" amount of calories, your body isn't burning it. This is what happened to me. You get to the point where you are eating barely anything and yet you are still slowly gaining weight or at best plateauing. I know many, many overweight people who eat like birds. And is it terrible to be able to eat maybe a couple of tablespoons at a meal, go away hungry, and still watch the scale creep up. And when you try to exercise when you're on a starvation diet you pass out, no joke. This is where I was at when I started Atkins the Traditional Nutrition way (not the shop-till-you-drop way). There is plenty of research to back this up, too. Anyone who says otherwise either has never had serious weight problems and hasn't looked at the research.

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251. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Jul 29, 2005, 6:22 pm PDT

I understand that water is good for you, but there are cultures out there that never drink water from infancy up such as France. They drink wine all day with meals and they are not alcoholics, and they eat very rich foods. The only fat people in France that you see in pictures are Americans who are visiting. So how come only in America do we need so much water and low carb foods? And if we drink every day we become addicted? So whats up with this? How come they can do it but I can't?

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252. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Sep 20, 2005, 9:42 am PDT

atkins is good if you want a quick fix. I lost 15 lbs in two weeks. Then gained it all back and then some. I decided to do it the right way portion control and excersise and i lost 35 lbs in two months.

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253. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jun 14, 2007, 8:02 am PDT

Is anyone else having trouble starting a diet and keeping it. I can get my self to eat healthy and excercise for like three days, and then it just goes all downhill again. If anyone has any suggestions or tips please comment. HELP!!!

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254. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Dec 17, 2007, 12:12 pm PST

Perhaps it would be wise to term low carb diets as low sugar instead. I for one eat much healthier when I follow a low carb diet versus the advice of the food guide pyramid. It is also well documented that cancer feeds of sugar not fat. Quite amazing how obesity rates have skyrocketed since fat was deamed as the enemy. Cut way back on sugar/starches and see how great you will feel.

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255. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 12:45 am PST

Cheryl, what do you consider "long-term" weight loss? Over three years ago, my BMI was 24. I went low-carb, lost 30 lbs in 3 months and 10 more lbs over time. My BMI is now 19.2. I feel better, my lipid profile is dramatically better (even though I am on a high-fat diet!), I have more energy, and I haven't had a cold in 3 years even though I stopped taking a multivitamin. If that's not long enough for you, how about the first 2 million years of human history, when carbohydrates in were limited. Grains are a recent addition to the human diet (only about 20,000 years ago). Now I eat as much as I want, whenever I want, because now my appetite responds to my body's fuel requirements. Eating carbs fools your body into thinking it needs more fuel that it does. For more information, check out the following: How to Start Losing Weight: Exercise Alone May Not Be Enough to Get Results http://weight-loss-methods.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_start_losing_weight What Not to Eat: Give Up These Carbohydrate-Loaded Foods and Lose Weight http://proteins-carb-fats.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_not_to_eat The Right Way to Lose Weight: http://weight-loss-motivators.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_right_way_to_lose_weight Are Low-Carb Diets Safe? http://diet-trends.suite101.com/article.cfm/are_lowcarb_diets_safe

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