Registered User
Ahh Christy, that sucksBut at least you know that you're providing the best diet for your family, and you're not giving yourself all the extra nasties that come with food thats come from who knows where.
Do the Dr's have any ideas at all? Is it something to do with stomach acid?
Moderator
Low-carb rated best diet
By Mike Stobbe July 16, 2008 10:00pm
THE Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.
A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite.
"It is a vindication," said Abby Bloch of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, a philanthropy group that honors the Atkins' diet's creator and was the study's main funder.
However, all three approaches - the low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and a so-called Mediterranean diet - achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol.
The study is remarkable not only because it lasted two years, much longer than most, but also because of the huge proportion of people who stuck with the diets - 85 percent.
Researchers approached the Atkins Foundation with the idea for the study. But the foundation played no role in the study's design or reporting of the results, said the lead author, Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Other experts said the study - being published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine - was highly credible.
"This is a very good group of researchers," said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
The research was done in a controlled environment - an isolated nuclear research facility in Israel. The 322 participants got their main meal of the day, lunch, at a central cafeteria.
"The workers can't easily just go out to lunch at a nearby Subway or McDonald's," said Dr. Meir Stampfer, the study's senior author and a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
In the cafeteria, the appropriate foods for each diet were identified with colored dots, using red for low-fat, green for Mediterranean and blue for low-carb.
As for breakfast and dinner, the dieters were counseled on how to stick to their eating plans and were asked to fill out questionnaires on what they ate, Stampfer said.
The low-fat diet - no more than 30 percent of calories from fat - restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits as options. The Mediterranean diet had similar calorie, fat and cholesterol restrictions, emphasizing poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts.
The low-carb diet set limits for carbohydrates, but none for calories or fat. It urged dieters to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein.
"So not a lot of butter and eggs and cream," said Madelyn Fernstrom, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center weight management expert who reviewed the study but was not involved in it.
Most of the participants were men; all men and women in the study got roughly equal amounts of exercise, the study's authors said.
Average weight loss for those in the low-carb group was 10.3 pounds (4.67 kilograms) after two years. Those in the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds (4.54 kilograms), and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5 pounds (2.95 kilograms).
More surprising were the measures of cholesterol. Critics have long acknowledged that an Atkins-style diet could help people lose weight but feared that over the long term, it may drive up cholesterol because it allows more fat.
But the low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. For example, someone with total cholesterol of 200 and an HDL of 50 would have a ratio of 4 to 1. The optimum ratio is 3.5 to 1, according to the American Heart Association.
Doctors see that ratio as a sign of a patient's risk for hardening of the arteries. "You want that low," Stampfer said.
The ratio declined by 20 percent in people on the low-carb diet, compared to 16 percent in those on the Mediterranean and 12 percent in low-fat dieters.
The study is not the first to offer a favorable comparison of an Atkins-like diet. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found overweight women on the Atkins plan had slightly better blood pressure and cholesterol readings than those on the low-carb Zone diet, the low-fat Ornish diet and a low-fat diet that followed U.S. government guidelines.
The heart association has long recommended low-fat diets to reduce heart risks, but some of its leaders have noted the Mediterranean diet has also proven safe and effective.
The heart association recommends a low-fat diet even more restrictive than the one in the study, said Dr. Robert Eckel, the association's past president who is a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado-Denver.
It does not recommend the Atkins diet. However, a low-carb approach is consistent with heart association guidelines so long as there are limitations on the kinds of saturated fats often consumed by people on the Atkins diet, Eckel said.
The new study's results favored the Atkins-like approach less when subgroups such as diabetics and women were examined.
Among the 36 diabetics, only those on the Mediterranean diet lowered blood sugar levels. Among the 45 women, those on the Mediterranean diet lost the most weight.
"I think these data suggest that men may be much more responsive to a diet in which there are clear limits on what foods can be consumed," such as an Atkins-like diet, said Dr. William Dietz, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It suggests that because women have had more experience dieting or losing weight, they're more capable of implementing a more complicated diet," said Dietz, who heads CDC's nutrition unit.
Registered User
"It does not recommend the Atkins diet. However, a low-carb approach is consistent with heart association guidelines so long as there are limitations on the kinds of saturated fats often consumed by people on the Atkins diet, Eckel said. "
Exactly!
Moderator
Yes, but is not the devil incarnate way of eating either! Just remember with the heart association that a lot of their early recommendations were based on some very dodgy assumptions regarding fat and its affect on the heart and it is hard for them to get away from some of those. The article shows that they are starting to come around and it is nice to see written in mainstream media what many low carbers have known for years about low carb and cholesterol levels.
Registered User
Just to clarify, I wasn't thinking that you were attacking my opinion, I just wanted to put up a little safety barrier as some of my comments in other threads have been quite quickly growled at
BTW where is our hiding smilie??
ETA thank you for posting that article and showing me another reason that I shouldn't make sweeping generalisations!
Registered User
Astrid, I see what you mean re the "low-fat" thing. I agree, most low fat packaged products contain way too much salt and sugar and are far worse for you in the long run.
I think my biggest beef with low carb diets is the effect it has on exercise. Glucose (a form of Carbs) is a major fuel source for the body and when too little carbs are consumed the body uses fat and protein to make energy. The problem is your body takes a lot longer to provide fuel from fat rather than glucose or glycogen so can really only be used when exercising at a low intensity. I think that the majority of the population should be undertaking more exercise and as such should be fueling their bodies appropriately but this is my personal opinion so please don't attack it!
Last edited by C~Q; August 16th, 2008 at 02:30 PM. : Changed from population as a whole!
Moderator
Won't attack your opinion, it is just there is just so much myth out there about low carb, Atkins or some other style, that I like to show that is is not just about eating mounds of bacon. Low carb with exercise is something to be careful of, but then so is any eating with exercise. I have know of people who go to the extreme of exercising whilst only drinking juice for breakfast and eating fruit salads for lunch. I suppose it is all about balance and what is best for each individual.
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From someone who has personally suffered "bonking" (yes that is the technical term folks) half way through a triathlon from not consuming enough carbs for dinner the night before I totally agree!
I am not a fan of low carb diets personally as I find them too restrictive being a vegetarian, however I am all in favour of balance - particularly a balance for the amount of exercise output vs food intake.
At this point in my life I am being driven by my body and it wants carbs - if I don't eat a high carb dinner at night I am waking at 4am with a rumbling tummy and have to get up and eat to stop from feeling nauseous and headachy. This baby must be doing all night gymnastics in there it's going through that much energy
Moderator
I found when pregnant I craved white toast with vegemite. Don't know what it was that my body wanted, but that combo seemed to help, especially with morning sickness.At this point in my life I am being driven by my body and it wants carbs - if I don't eat a high carb dinner at night I am waking at 4am with a rumbling tummy and have to get up and eat to stop from feeling nauseous and headachy. This baby must be doing all night gymnastics in there it's going through that much energy
I do find with myself though I am more satisfied not having the white carbs in my diet. Take a 1/4 chicken and chips for example. If I eat just the chicken I feel more satisfied hunger wise than when I eat the chips as well. I feel stuffed, but still hungry and am looking for more food sooner, even though I have eaten more calories than the 1/4 chicken on its own.
Registered User
Mmm white toast with vegemite, hot chips *licks lips* - stop teasing the pregnant woman!
Registered User
Chips have a high GI factor which means they cause a large and very quick increase in your blood glucose levels which releases large amounts of insulin into your body to regulate your those levels. This happens quite quickly so your left feeling hungry again really soon.
I'd be interested to know the GI of Nutragrain. Even though it's advertised as "ironman" food, I have a bowl and i'm hungry again about an hour later...off to check the net
Registered User
oh man anything like Nutragrain with that much sugar and salt can't be good for you... :P
Registered User
Wouldn't you know it, the Nutrigrain website has all this nutritional information but no mention of it's Glycemic Index...Hmmmmmm
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