Dieters keep Lent and Atkins

Popular meat-filled diet meets meatless Fridays

By Matthew Sturdevant, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

February 26, 2004

http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_ne...2684598,00.html

Arnold Gonzales is on the Atkins diet and is also a devout Catholic, so when he woke up on Ash Wednesday the big question loomed.

"Man, what am I going to eat?" he asked.

Atkins is a protein-based diet that eschews carbohydrates, caffeine, as well as some fruits and vegetables. And Lent is a 40-day period before Easter, starting Ash Wednesday, in which many Christians fast on certain days and abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays until Easter.

Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 abstain from eating more than one full meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Catholics may eat some food - but not a full meal - during the day. In addition, Catholics 14 and older abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent.

Combine those rules with the rules of Atkins and it becomes a confusing situation, Gonzales said.

After consulting with his son, who is also on Atkins, Gonzales had grapefruit and fully leaded coffee for breakfast.

"Forget it, the meat I can do without, but not my coffee," Gonzales said. "My wife will probably cook fish tonight."

There's been so much interest in the Atkins diet locally that a Del Mar College seminar titled "Clinical Research and the Atkins Diet" was moved from a classroom to a larger lecture area in the Harvin Student Center.

Velma Gutierrez, owner of Guti's Lunch Box in Wilson Plaza, said she had a number of customers come in on Wednesday asking how they could observe both Lent and their Atkins diet.

"We served up grilled fish with roasted peppers and broccoli," she said. "They can have egg salad, too."

The Rev. Ken Parks of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church has a rule about fasting during Lent.

"Don't do anything that would harm your health," he said. "God wouldn't want us fasting until we faint."

What's more important, Parks said, is the symbolic nature of Lenten traditions, which are similar to Christ's fasting and prayer when he was in the desert.

Contact Matthew Sturdevant at _886-3778 or sturdevantm~caller.com