dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) (11/20/85)
Some of you may be familiar with the book "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution." A few years ago I went on this diet for about 4 weeks; I lost weight rapidly and felt great. But I left the diet because it severely limited my choice of foods, and because I was experiencing side-effects of irritability. What is the current medical consensus on this diet? Caveats? Long range side effects? In case you are not familiar with this diet, the theory is this. Most people with weight problems, according to Dr. Atkins, have "functional hypoglycemia." The symptoms of this condition are obesity, general tiredness and weakness, and a tendency to be very sleepy after a meal loaded with carbohydrates. The pancreas overreacts to the carbohydrates and floods the body with insulin, thus making the individual sleepy. Dr. Atkins' diet is a treatment of this condition. First, one stops all intake of carbohydrates for a week. At most, he limits himself to 2 grams a day. At the end of the week, he should be in a state of ketosis, as measured by Ketostix (R). Dr. Atkins says that the ketones in the urine represent partially burned calories, which the body "sneaks" away without exercise. As long as one is in this state of ketosis, he will lose weight. The body is breaking down fat to produce the glucose and other carbohydrates needed. Thus we have weight loss without exercise. On this diet the functionally hypoglycemic will begin to feel more energy. Once one has entered ketosis, he increases his daily carbohydrate intake week after week until his urine no longer shows ketone content on the Ketostix (R). This is his maintenance level of carbohydrate intake, which he should keep for life. Some can have quite a lot of carbohydrates per day; others have especially intolerant systems that must be limited to less than 5 grams per day. Is Dr. Atkins full of B. S.? Is his diet downright dangerous? Or is it a safe and effective method of weight control? I have a personal stake in this. A week ago I limited my carbohydrate intake to 25 grams/day, and my acetoacetic acid level quickly shot up to 50-60 mg/dL as measured by Ketostix (R). I began feeling irritable, so on the third day of this diet I adjusted my carbohydrate limit to about 100 grams/day, which is the level my physician suggested for optimum weight loss at my last physical. In the last week I have lost almost an inch around my waist and have gained new energy. But my acetoacetic acid content has leveled out at 40 mg/dL (moderate ketosis). I am concerned that this level of ketosis might be dangerous in the long run. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Kirby ( ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave)
jak@mtgzz.UUCP (j.a.kushner) (11/20/85)
The loss of weight is certainly due to burning fats and excreting them through the urine. These fats are NOT making glucose, or other CHO's, though. They are being broken down to 2 carbon units which, with sufficient CHO intermediates, would normally produce a lot of energy (ATP) by going through the Krebs cycle and then the respiratory (electron transport) chain. They are building up in excess and the only thing the body can do is to form 'ketone bodies', the keto- acids acetoacetic, beta-hydroxy-butyric, and acetone (the volatile substance giving the 'fruity' odor on the breath of a diabetic approaching diabetic coma). By ridding yourself of these 'energy units', you certainly will lose weight without exercise (similar in fashion to the anorrexic!) What the body does to battle this acidosis is really the main problem. The dieting/weight-loss theory is fine, but the body cannot withstand the low pH. The kidneys are the main compensatory organ (what is your urinary pH?), and get some help from the lungs (how fast are you breathing). The most serious response is that the cells in the body will attempt to buffer the pH by exchanging intracellular K+ with extracellular H+. The rest of the body sees a relatively normal blood pH, thanks to all of the compensators, but inside the cells the normal electrical potential gradient is upset. Your irritability can be related to the low potential difference surrounding the cell membrane. The cells 'fire' very easily, with little stimulus. Also, your lack of energy is related to the fact that you are burning a lot more calories than you are taking in, but by not producing the 'normal' amount of ATP from these calories, you are feeling fatigued, constantly. Hope some of this helps. Good luck. Jeff
seifert@hammer.UUCP (Snoopy) (11/20/85)
In article <508@cylixd.UUCP> dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) writes: >Some of you may be familiar with the book "Dr. Atkins' Diet >Revolution." A few years ago I went on this diet for about 4 weeks; >I lost weight rapidly and felt great. But I left the diet because >it severely limited my choice of foods, and because I was experiencing >side-effects of irritability. >Is Dr. Atkins full of B. S.? Is his diet downright dangerous? Or is >it a safe and effective method of weight control? I haven't read _D.A.D.R._ , but I've read a couple of his other books, including _Dr. Atkins' Super Energy Diet_ and _Dr. Atkins' Nutrition Breakthrough_. These have a lot of useful information, and I recommend reading them. (available in paperback at most bookstores and nutrition stores) Yes I know the titles sound like something out of the _National Enquirer_, but like they say, you can't judge a book by it's cover. Anyway, he lists a couple of rare conditions under which the diet could be harmful, and strongly recommends being checked for these beforehand, just in case. (I'm not listing them because I don't remember what they were.) I didn't need to lose weight, so I didn't try the absolute zero carbohydrate diet, I just eliminated all sugar (which knocked out 99% of the stuff I was eating, read those labels, you'll be shocked at the things they put sugar in!), cut down on white flour, and started taking vitamin/mineral suppliments. This alone helped tremendiously. Strangely, I lost about two inches around the waist, without losing weight. (no cracks about getting denser :-) ) But I still didn't feel as good as I thought I should, so I thought that something else might be wrong, in addition to hypoglycemia. I went in and saw a conventional MD (happy Craig?), who ordered a battery of tests, some of which were, shall we say, not exactly fun, and which turned up absolutely nothing. Upon my insistance, these included a GTT, except they refused to do it properly and take samples for 5-6 hours like is supposed to be done, but only took them for three. Naturally, the numbers they got fell within 'normal', never mind my head feeling like it was in a vice, and being too tired to do anything except lie down. (too much pain to go to sleep) Joe MD pronounces me to be as healthy as a horse (?) and sends me on my way. The next thing I need to try is a diet with lots of raw or lightly cooked veggies (e.g. Chinese stir-fry), no white flour at all, and check for food allergies. Problem is (1) finding a source of decent produce, and (2) learning how to prepare it. -sigh- Also need to get more exercise. -sigh- Snoopy (ECS Ronin #901) tektronix!tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy
seb@mtgzz.UUCP (s.e.badian) (11/21/85)
I'm no expert but I see a few things wrong with this type of diet. First I'll say that I've been on this diet and it does work. I'm not on it now. I have found better, more healthly ways to lose weight. (And if you want to know them, send $10 to me :-)) 1. Being in ketosis puts an awful strain on your kidneys. And con- sidering how important your kidneys are, you might not want to stress them any more than you have to. 2. Low carbohydrate diets tend to be high protien diets since there isn't that much left to eat. That means that they are usually high fat diets unless you avoid beef, pork, lamb, and the skin on poultry also. And high fat diets are definitely not good for you since fats provide no nutrition beyond calories. (Your need for fatty acids is pretty low and you don't have to eat very much fat to meet it.) 3. Since you are cutting out most of a whole food group you are cutting out a lot of very important nutrients. Unless you are talking vitamen supplements, you may not be getting all the vitamen A and C you need. 4. Fruits, vegetables and grains provide dietary fiber. Sure you can get it by eating raw bran, but I've read that it's much more effective when still in it's original container, ie an apple or whole grain bread. I can personally vouch for this fact, for what it's worth. 5. Diets, in general, cause the loss of muscle and fat. Losing fat is great. Losing muscle is not so good since it's your muscles that burn your food. Everything I've read seems to show that exercise is the only way to assure losing fat and not muscle. Like I said, I'm no expert, but this is what I've read over the years. Sharon Badian ihnp4!mtgzz!seb