Fri, Nov-21-03, 12:17
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Senior Member
Posts: 112
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Plan: atkins
Stats: 226/209/170
BF:
Progress: 30%
Location: Canada NB
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ATKINS "pseudo-science".
 News
ATKINS ALERT Aug 13 2003
Diet followers at risk, says expert
Keith Mcleod
SLIMMERS following the controversial Atkins diet are gambling with their health, a nutrition expert has warned.
Dr Susan Jebb said it would be "negligent" to recommend the diet, favoured by stars such as Geri Halliwell and Catherine Zeta-Jones, to anyone overweight.
Millions of people around the world have tried the low-carbohydrate, high-protein regime.
But Dr Jebb, of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said its claimed benefits were based on "pseudo-science".
She argued that, despite a number of studies, no one knew what the long- term effects might be.
Dr Robert Atkins, who developed the diet, believed that carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables made the body produce too much insulin.
He claimed that led to hunger and weight gain.
His answer was to avoid such foods and eat unlimited amounts of fat and protein, leading the body to burn fat.
But Dr Jebb said such a dramatic change in eating habits was a leap in the dark.
For most people, protein accounts for a mere 15 per cent of their calorie intake. But much higher levels are eaten on the Atkins diet.
Dr Jebb said: "We simply do not know the long-term health implications.
"I certainly think we should be adopting a precautionary principle in terms of public health."
Her warning comes two months after two teams of American scientists declared the Atkins diet was effective and safe.
They found that over six months, 63 Atkins slimmers lost almost twice as much weight, an average of one and a half stone.
After a year, the gap had closed though, with the Atkins dieters down to an average weight loss of a stone compared with half a stone for others.
But Dr Jebb said the studies were too limited to provide meaningful evidence.
Dr Atkins died in April, aged 72, after slipping on ice outside his New York office and hitting his head.
Last edited by sexee_babe : Fri, Nov-21-03 at 12:19.
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