Balance is usually a great show. I watch it every day at lunch but I was upset today when I saw their segment "Beware Fad Diets". They only showed the Induction level of Atkins menu. Maybe he's just jealous because his book is not selling as well as DANDR.

Beware Fad Diets

Beware Fad Diets

Wednesday, October 1
By Balancetv.ca

Fad diets. Can't live with them? So why not just live without them?

Dr. David Katz, preventative medicine expert, world-reknowned diet doctor from the Yale School of Medicine and author of The Way to Eat, joined Balance Television host Dr. Marla Shapiro to weigh in on the facts about diet fads.

The Zone Diet

Including breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Zone Diet is delivered to you so you just go ahead and eat it without thinking. Katz's question is: can you do this on your own?

Katz noted the positive aspects of the meals, which included fruits and vegetables and fish for dinner. He said there was little in the way of fibre and that the Zone Diet was high-protein, with cheese for breakfast and meat in the lunch. The grains are limited and there's unnecessary fat in the breakfast.

"You're really missing out on certain foods that are very health promoting," Katz said. "We have great evidence that whole grains reduce cancer risk, reduce heart disease risk and they're really largely absent from this meal plan."

The Atkins Diet

typical daily meal on the Atkins plan cosists of: cheese and avocado omelette for breakfast; caesar salad with lots of cheese and lots of dressing for lunch; and a huge steak and mixed greens for dinner.

"The Atkins diet in particular is problematic because it's very high in saturated fat and very restricted in health-promoting grains," Katz said.

He noted that the typical Atkins day had no grains, limited variety of vegetables. "There's cheese, there's meat. There's cheese, there's eggs. There's beef. Very high in saturated fat."

People know that trials studying the Atkins diet have shown weight loss and a declining cholesterol over the short term. "So what?" Katz said. "If you're trying to treat anxiety in the short term you could use cigarettes and if you studied that it would show that it works. But we know that over a lifetime, it's terrible for you."

Animal fat, Katz said, is linked to prostate cancer and colon cancer. And the lack of fruits and vegetables with phytochemicals in this diet could be risky.

The following are some of Katz's food suggestions for a more balanced diet:

• Whole grain cereal with fruit for breakfast -- it's good for intestinal health and it lowers insulin and blood-glucose levels.

• Lots of fruits and lots of vegetables

• Polyunsaturated omega 3 fats from fish

• Nuts and seeds -- healthy sources of health-promoting oils

So why aren't people eating this way? Katz said that what people need are the skills for shopping and stocking their pantries and refrigerators. That way they can access health-promoting foods every day.

"If you do that," he said, "suddenly a world of healthful eating opens up to you and you can eat well and control your weight."