"Spuds fight back"
 

Spuds fight back

By Victoria Fletcher, Evening Standard

9 July 2003

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It is the Hollywood diet that has kept Renée Zellweger and Geri Halliwell super-thin.

But now the Atkins regime, which bans carbohydrates in favour of a protein-rich menu of eggs, meat, fish and cheese, has run into trouble.

Potato farmers are furious that their vegetable has been branded a bad food for slimmers and are launching a £1 million campaign to defend it.

From tomorrow, bags of potatoes in Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Safeway will display a "fab not fad" logo, educating consumers to their health benefits. A bus is also being sent around the country to spread the message that potatoes are a low-fat, health nut's dream.

Kathryn Race, marketing manager of the British Potato Council, said: "Diets such as Atkins and Food Combining have left a void of confused consumers across the UK and we want to reassure consumers that potatoes are an integral part of a balanced diet, they are low-fat, low in salt and cholesterol-free. What better food is there when managing your family's weight?

"Our research shows 88 per cent of consumers would like to see more done to show just how healthy potatoes are."

The campaign has won the support of nutritionists who have become increasingly concerned about the fashion for eating high fat, protein-only diets.

Fiona Hunter, an expert in functional foods and women's health, believes the potato has been ostracised.

"People are less happy about eating carbohydrates as more and more celebrities endorse diets like Atkins. Our parents' generation thought carbohydrates were fattening and nutritionists had just got around to getting people to realise they are healthy when the Atkins diet fad appeared.

"The problem with Atkins is that people want a quick-fix cure and do not want to believe they eat too much.

"In the short term, the diet works pretty well and people lose weight but
the problem is that to keep the weight off you have to continue to eat very low levels of carbohydrates forever. Not many people can do that."

More than 10 million copies of the Atkins diet book have sold worldwide since its first publication in 1972. Endorsement by celebrities and the promise of losing weight while gorging on cream, cheese, butter and meat have made it a huge hit.

The diet is based on the premise that carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables overstimulate the production of insulin, leading to hunger and weight gain.

It received a boost in May when scientistsin America declared that Atkins dieters lost more weight than those on conventional low-fat diets and suffered no serious side-effects.

But in a survey of nutritionists about 97 per cent said they would not recommend a patient to go on a protein-rich, low-carb diet in order to lose weight. Most would instead recommend low-fat diets.

Research has also suggested that for the one in three people who may suffer from mild kidney problems, eating large amounts of protein can cause additional health problems and a decline in kidney function.

Health experts point to the fact that potatoes in their natural state are fatfree and contain high levels of vitamin C, vitamin B1 and B6, as well as folic acid, potassium and fibre.

The star slimmers

9 July 2003

• Geri Halliwell managed to shed a stone on the Atkins diet, but gave it up. Halliwell, 30, said: "My menstrual cycle disappeared. The thought of not being able to have children was a wake-up call."

• Catherine Zeta-Jones, 33, turned to the Atkins diet after the birth of her son Dylan in August 2000 to lower her 11 stone 7lb weight. She lost just over two stone.

•Renèe Zellweger, 34, used it to slim down after piling on the pounds for her starring role in Bridget Jones's Diary. She was spotted eating the turkey from a sandwich but throwing away the bread and lettuce.

A follow-up article on Geri Halliwell - gotbeer.

YO-YO HALLIWELL

Jul 10 2003

How fame, food and fortune have shaped former Spice Girl Geri

Lindsay Clydesdale
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AS these pictures clearly show, chart star Geri Halliwell's weight is a bit like her career - up and down.

When the Spice Girls ruled the world, she flaunted her greatest hits with pride, but leaving Girl Power behind, her peaks were few and far between.

And now, with her acting career about to take off with a role in Sex And The City, she's looking swell once more.

Her current curvy figure has gained her the kind of tabloid attention she hasn't seen since her last celebrity boyfriend dumped her.

Filming alongside Kim Cattrall on the New York set this week, Geri let it all hang out. It seems troubled Geri's faddy diets, obsessive exercising and eating disorders have finally been given the heave-ho - thanks, it seems, to the singer's ticking biological clock.

With her big sister pregnant, it seems Geri's feeling more broody than normal.

She's given up her punishing regime, which often verged on starvation, and seen her dress size go up from a tiny size six to the more healthy size 12.

She admits: "My body has gained a little weight, but actually it feels really healthy. I feel sexier with a little bit more flesh to my bones."

Given her habit of fluctuating weight, it's anyone's guess how long this look will last. But if she's smart, Geri will keep the curves.

A few months ago, her US TV show, All American Girl, was axed mid-series as viewers failed to warm to the skinny blonde presenter. But her new buxom look has already turned around her image in Hollywood.

As well as the plum role in Sex And The City, plucked from under the nose of rival and old bandmate Victoria Beckham, Geri's also landed a job with Fox TV, presenting the US version of Stars In Their Eyes.

Like many screwed-up starlets, Geri's figure and diet were fairly healthy before she set her sights on a showbiz career.

Photos of the teenaged Geri show a confident, curvy and toned young woman, happy to show off her lithe body.

Then came the tough auditions as she sought her big break. Brain-washed into believing she had to be thin, she began to suffer from anorexia and bulimia - until she won a place in the Spice Girls and regained her lost muscles, shape and weight.

Indeed, hard as it is to believe now, she even wore big, tummy-controlling pants under the tight, red-sequinned dress she wore to the Brits in 1997.

Earlier, she'd wowed the crowd with her infamous Union Jack dress, spilling out of the top and flashing firm thighs.

When she left the Spice Girls, Geri shed the red hair and weight, and re- emerged with a shapely, toned figure.

The video for her second solo single Mi Chico Latino, showed her honey- skinned and healthy, and at her sexiest yet.

But it wasn't to last. Escaping to LA to record her second solo album, she was tempted to try several new fads including the notorious Atkins Diet.

Her Fame-inspired video for It's Raining Men revealed a gaunt and bony star, who had taken to sneaking puffs on a cigarette or playing with a plate of lettuce leaves instead of eating properly.

Insisting her tiny figure was all down to yoga, Geri looked terrible - and her public image took a nosedive.

Last year, the front cover of her second autobiography, For The Record, showed her standing naked with a tape measure wrapped round her breasts.

But the message - that she was in great shape through healthy eating and exercise - sounded hollow when the book revealed her binge-eating, bulimia and love- hate relationship with her image and food.

Hopefully, she has now learned her lesson. For Geri, bigger is better - and a healthy figure is her surest way to a healthy bank balance.

l.clydesdale~dailyrecord.co.uk

Let's see: Spianch, Lettuce, Kale, Broccoli...Need I say more.



How can it be both high-fat and protein-only ??? That is about the dumbest shit I've hear so far.



And our parents' generation was right. My great-grandmother lived into her 90s...cooking in lard and avoiding the carb-laden refined crap we eat nowadays. My Uncle died of heart disease/diabetes at 51, eating a diet high in carbs. On a side note...my grandmother mentioned some years back that when she was a kid that if you needed to gain weight you ate bananas and bread. I didn't think much about it at the time...But, I now believe she and her generation was on to something.



On a LF/HC diet, I had to cut my calories below 1000/day to lose weight. You need just shy of that amount just to live. On Atkins, I eat 1500-3000 kcal/day (average just over 2000), which is close to what they (AHA/USDA) suggest for weight maintnance. But, if I'd eaten that amount of calories on a LF/HC diet, I'd have gained weight.



HELLO !!! That is the point. If you go back to your old way of eating, you will regain the weight. It does not matter what diet you are on. If you go back to eating lotsa fat and sugar after a LF diet, you will regain the weight also...and I speak from experience on that one.



BULLSHIT !!! It took me 6 months to lose my extra pounds 7 years ago on a LF/HC diet. I was so hungry all the time that after I reach my "ideal" weight, I went back to my old way of eating...and gained back all the weight I'd lost (22 pounds) plus an extra 130+ pounds. I've already been on Atkins a month longer than I was abel to stay on a LF Diet...and you know what ??? I'm not hungry.



Gorging ??? Atkins clearly says to eat until SATISFIED. That is not gorging.



Of course...They are taught in school that carbs are good and fat is bad. What would you expect them to do ??? What suprises me is that there are 3% who WOULD suggest Atkins.



Vitamin C (per cup) --

Watermelon: 24%
Potatoes: 27%
Daikon: 40%
Cauliflower: 77%
Broccoli: 137%

Vitamin B1 --

Potatoes: 7%/cup
Whitefish: 14%/filet
Top Sirloin: 13%/8 oz.

Vitamin B6 --

Potatoes: 19%/cup
Whitefish: 30%/filet
Top Sirloin: 46%/8 oz.

Folic Acid (per cup) --

Potatoes: 3%
Cauliflower: 14%
Spinach: 15%
Broccoli: 16%

Potassium --

Potatoes: 494mg/cup
Whitefish: 628mg/filet
Top Sirloin: 836mg/8 oz.

Fiber (per cup) --

Potatoes: 8%
Cauliflower: 10%
Daikon: 10%
Broccoli: 11%

That is percentage of RDA. If you compared potatoes based on percentage of carbs from fiber...It would lose to ALL green veggies. Fiber accounts for 77% of the carbs in Spinach, 57% of the carbs in Broccoli, but only 7% of the carbs in Potatoes. Potatoes are not good sources of any of the listed Vitamins and Minerals. They only thing they are a good source of is STARCH and HEART BURN.