Sunday, May 23, 2004

Dieters cut carbs, boost crankiness

The Daily Grind, John Eckberg

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/20...ilygrind23.html

If she's heard it once in the last six months, she's heard it 20 times:

A boss, manager or co-worker decides it's time to lose a few pounds. America is obese. Extra weight is a killer.

So the would-be dieter turns to the Atkins low-carbohydrate regime for a couple of weeks to shed the pounds.

They nibble on lunchmeat for breakfast, an egg with a leafy salad for lunch and maybe a nice piece of grilled fish for dinner.

No bread. No cereal. No oatmeal - what a drag. No fresh fruits like apples and oranges, both high in carbs. Only a few vegetables.

At lunch no crackers, no rice and no potatoes. For sure no sweets - what, no powered sugar donettes, no Lil Debbies? Inconceivable.

But here's the good news: all the bacon and cheese you can stomach.

People on this strict diet will surely lose pounds, says Lauren Niemes, executive director of the Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit agency that promotes the health of Tristate residents through better nutrition and physical activity.

And the weight does go away at a rapid pace for the first two weeks.

But it comes with a price, she says, particularly for everybody else in the workplace.

It may bring lost weight for the person on the Atkins diet, but it also means cranky mornings and crabby afternoons on the factory floor or in the office for everybody else.

"We do this Lunch and Learn program," Niemes says. "It's called 'Clearing up the Carb Confusion' and I'm telling you it's the hottest topic we've ever done.

"I was up at International Paper last week and two women came up to me afterward. They said they had to ask their boss to go off the Atkins diet because he was so difficult to work with. We hear that anecdotally all the time."

To understand why people get cranky, one must first take a look at how the body creates fuel.

The problem, Niemes says, is that people don't understand how the body metabolizes carbohydrates - how the brain needs glucose derived from carbs to function properly

The brain will burn through a minimum of 130 grams of carbohydrates every day but the Atkins diet in the early induction phase limits carbohydrates to just 20 grams per day.

Without the carbs, glucose production hits the skids and so does fuel for the brain.

As a result, the body will manufacture glucose from protein or, instead, burn ketone bodies, which are created when the body burns fat without the presence of carbohydrates.

In the meantime, blood sugar dips, the same way it dips in the morning after a night of sleep and fasting, and so the body must use glucose stores in the liver.

"We know when people have low blood sugar, the first symptom is irritability," Niemes says. "Lots of studies show that when people don't eat breakfast, they don't perform as well on mental tests."

And while it's tough to create a study on crankiness - after all, isn't being cranky part of the job description for a boss - the Atkins diet has not helped with workplace relations.

"People need to know that carbs are not the root of all evil," Niemes says.

E-mail jeckberg~enquirer.com

Ok, so let's all start posting our testimonials to how non-cranky we are since we started low-carbing.

And if we didn't have a way for our brains to get whatever it is they really need, we'd all be dying on low-carb, so give me a break Ms. Niemes. I've never been happier, healthier or more emtionally stable than I am today on low-carb.

actually I used to have hypoglycemia when I would eat foods high in carbs and then crash. Talk about mood swings. Now my blood sugar is stable all the time at around 80 or so.

This is the weirdest myth of low carb eating. Sure, maybe during the first couple of weeks you don't feel good and might be cranky, but other than that, I'm about the same as I ever was.

It is cranks like the interview subjects of that article that make me the crankiest.

Quitting smoking is well known for making you extremely cranky. So according to this logic, smokers should continue and even increase their smoking in order to keep their moods even ?

Of course, rather than tolerate cranky workers, stuff 'em up with carbs at lunch and they'll doze all afternoon.

I did that for years.

Sheesh.

I used to start dozing off about 2:30 - 3:00 PM every day at work. That sleepiness could have easily gotten me fired.

Also, I had to wear a jacket (even in summer) because I was freezing all the time.

But in the 1 1/2 years on Atkins, never, not even once, have I been sleepy in the PM - nor cold.

Ha ha, good one Angeline. Personally, the only thing that makes me cranky is when people who don't have a clue insist on badmouthing low carb diets.

It's not unusual to be a little crabby and out of sorts for up to the first week (for the majority of people it passes within 4-5 days) while they are going through carb and possibly caffeine withdrawal. But...that period of time is not the entire diet! I know from personal experience, I was far harder to live with when my blood sugars were all over the place than I am now.
When an addict is detoxing, they are invariably crabby and those around them will definitely have to suffer through it with them. But...I don't hear too many people using that as a rationale for addicts to stay addicted.

This is my experience too. The thing that always brings me back to LC after a lapse, is the prospect of staying awake all day. Even if I can manage to stay awake after eating carby food, I'm unable to pay attention to what's going on around me.

I don't remember any other time in my life when I've been so alert. I wonder what I would have accomplished in school and in life if I'd found this earlier.

As for crankiness, I don't think this describes me. I do know, though, that all my relationships have improved from my new attention span and ability to listen to what people are telling me.

For me, low carbing led to an increase in my already abundant good mood.

And getting to a smaller pant size makes me grin all the time.

I admit to being terribly cranky the 1st 2-3 days of induction, but since then I have found that not dealing with blood sugar swings also prevents mood swings.

To suggest that a low carb diet causes drops in blood sugar that cause crankiness and diminished mental capacity is assinine.

My 2 cents,

Granted, I am not on the Atkins plan, but from what I understand induction for SBD is very similar to Atkins. I think it's very important to understand that all bodies are different and those different bodies respond differently to the foods they eat.

I could only do SBD induction for 6 days. In that time I lost 12 pounds (totally unhealthy), became weak, dizzy, light-headed, and faint. I experienced extreme fatique and lethargy. I was losing my ability to concentrate on anything going on at work or at home - I just wanted to sleep! No one told me I was cranky, but it might be because I was so totally spaced out most of the time!

After 6 days I knew I had to change things, and went off of induction and went into phase 2 where I could start incorporating carbs back into my diet. It took about 24 hours, but with just the addition of a few carbs (oatmeal and fruite), I felt stronger, less tired, and felt alert. Within 48 hours I was back to normal - and I've lost a total of 17 pounds in 3 weeks, so it's working for me.

I know some people can stay in these induction periods or phases for weeks and sometimes months and not feel any adverse effects. That's great, and if it works for them then I'm happy for them. But I think it's important to realize that induction might not be something that some people can tolerate for long periods of time. (And a long period of time is subjective, for me it was less than a week)

Interesting article, but I do think it unfair to state the diet as a whole makes one cranky. In the beginning, maybe. But people can be cranky over many changes in their lives. To blame low carb is truly unfair.