Why The Atkins Backlash Is Just Too Difficult To Swallow
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=98542004
Why The Atkins Backlash Is Just Too Difficult To Swallow
As an Atkins dieter, or at least as someone who tries to limit my intake of bread, pasta, rice, cakes and biscuits, I’m used to scare stories. Almost every television programme or newspaper article on the subject tells me that the Atkins regime is bad. Last month the BBC reported that "doctors have expressed concern" that the Atkins diet - with its "high fat content" and "low vegetable intake" - could cause health problems. Just before Christmas I watched a documentary telling me that the Atkins diet was "against fruit and vegetables". People often ask me if I’m worried that I might give myself a heart attack.
Actually, I don’t think that avoiding chips, mashed potato, bagels, croissants and chocolate is likely to give me a heart attack. And if you read Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution you won’t see anything about avoiding green vegetables. But it comes as no surprise to see the media on the warpath again; this week, we are told, Atkins Nutritionals, the company behind the Atkins diet, has "changed tack", telling us that diets high in saturated fat can be risky. Can this be true? If you skim through this week’s papers, it seems as if even the Atkins organisation has become anti-Atkins.
However, it’s not true; the Atkins organisation has not changed tack. For a start, its diet is not just about eating bacon, sausages and steak. It’s about avoiding too much carbohydrate. Colette Heimowitz, director of research and education for Atkins Nutritionals, says: "The media and opponents of Atkins often sensationalise and simplify the diet as the all-the-steak-you-can-eat diet. This has never been true."
What is true, though, is that we are in the middle of an anti-Atkins backlash. People assume that, if it works, there must be something wrong with it. Atkins does work, for a very simple reason: carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates, make you hungry. Think of a bread roll, or a helping of chips, as a line of cocaine. Eat some and soon you’ll want some more. Atkins says, "avoid the carbs". He does not say, "avoid the vegetables". Where you would normally eat chicken and chips with salad, on the Atkins diet you would replace the potatoes with a green vegetable such as spinach. And you’ll feel less hungry two hours later.
Why is the Atkins diet suddenly so popular? After all, low-carbohydrate diets have been around for ages. For one thing, Atkins feels contemporary; unlike most diets it’s not about being abstemious or counting calories. Men, who perform badly on most diets don’t mind Atkins. I keep meeting guys who say cutting carbs has changed their lives. My father, who could never eat small portions or count calories, lost three stone on Atkins.
It’s all to do with insulin. Carbohydrates tamper with the insulin in our bodies. They produce a lot of glucose, giving us a blood-sugar rush. But if you eat too many carbs your pancreas produces too much insulin; after a while, your blood-sugar rush will be followed swiftly by a blood-sugar crash. And low blood sugar produces cravings. This is what happens when you eat too many potatoes, or too much pasta or rice. It’s why Chinese meals leave people feeling hungry.
Atkins says, ’avoid the carbs’. He does not say, ’avoid the vegetables’. Where you would normally eat chicken and chips, on the Atkins diet you would replace the potatoes with a green vegetable
When I interviewed Dr Atkins last year, shortly before he died after slipping on a patch of ice outside his New York office, I was fat. I’m still overweight. But you should have seen me then. At slightly over 6ft tall, and 17 stone, I was fatter than I had ever been. My eating habits were getting more compulsive. I was hungry more or less all the time. I wanted to eat about six meals a day. Atkins told me that I was a typical victim of the Western diet. The problem with our culture, he said, was that we thought it was fat that was making us fat. But how could this be true? We’d been cutting our fat intake for 30 years and replacing it in our diet with "healthy" alternatives such as bread, potatoes, pasta and rice. And we’re fatter than we’ve ever been.
So I cut down on the carbs. I stopped being so hungry. Over the next year I lost more than two stone. And then the scare stories began. Too much fat, I kept reading, was going to kill me. But I wasn’t eating too much fat. Too much meat, I was told, would make me constipated. But it didn’t and I was also eating more green vegetables than ever - replacing potatoes and pasta with cabbage and broccoli. I was told that I would get bad breath if I ate no carbohydrates. But, in fact, I did eat small quantities of brown rice and wholegrain bread, which do not produce as much blood glucose as their refined equivalents, and my breath hasn’t suffered in the slightest.
Still, the backlash continues. I can see what’s happening. Food industry groups are worried that the Atkins diet will have an impact on jobs in their sectors. Potato consumption in Britain has reportedly fallen by four per cent since last year. And government bodies, such as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, would rather die than say anything against bread or potatoes. This week, a spokesman from the Food Standards Agency told dieters not to cut any food group from their diet. "It is about maintaining a balance," he said.
And that’s true, too. It is about maintaining a balance. But why are we one of the fattest nations on Earth? I think it’s because our idea of balance was wrong in the first place. We ate too much carbohydrate. Now we’re eating less and people are getting worried. But that doesn’t mean you have to stuff yourself with sausages and bacon every day. In the end, it all comes down to something quite simple. Eat your greens. Drink plenty of water. And don’t worry so much.
\•DR ATKINS believed that carbohydrates over-stimulate insulin production, causing hunger and leading to weight gain. He favoured the consumption of eggs, bacon, meat, seafood and dairy products.
What you can eat
Large amounts of proteins: beef, lamb, pork, bacon, veal, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, eggs, plus fats - oils, butter and mayonnaise.
• Limited amounts of fats and vegetables deemed to have some carbohydrate qualities: dark green, leafy and non-starchy vegetables such as spinach and broccoli, cheese, olives, avocado, cream, lemon and lime juice.
What you can’t eat
All other carbohydrates - bread, pasta, vegetables such as potatoes, pulses, pastry, refined sugars, caffeinated drinks and alcohol.
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