U.S. Diet Doctors Go Round Over Fat Fight
By Judith Crosson
DENVER (Reuters) - The diet doctors went to war on Thursday.
Dr Robert Atkins recommended his high-protein, meat-rich diet to the American Dietetic Association's annual meeting but Dr. Dean Ornish, a supporter of low-fat diets, told the group that Atkins' method can give a person bad breath and body odor.
A high-level U.S. Department of Agriculture official was also on hand, advising against quick-fix diets.
And the fat, or at least the barbs, flew.
While the American public keeps getting wider around the middle -- the U.S. government estimates that 18 percent of Americans are obese and 55 percent are overweight -- they keep looking for that new diet around the corner that will make them trim and slim and not deprive them of their favorite foods.
Atkins, who has been practicing medicine for 40 years, said the key is finding another way to redirect the body's metabolism so that it burns fat first instead of glucose first.
``When fat is being mobilized it neither accumulates nor is deposited,'' Atkins told the nutritionists.
He doesn't shun carbohydrates completely, including healthy ones like tomatoes, spinach and berries.
``We pick the healthiest carbohydrates, fruits and proteins within the established levels,'' he said. ``A low carbohydrate diet curbs hunger,'' Atkins said.
``Our goal is to help people and we don't do it by telling them to eat pork rinds,'' Atkins said.
Oh, those pork rinds. Ornish, the author of ``Eat More, Weigh Less,'' mentioned pork rinds several times in showing his contempt for the Atkins diet that lets consumers eat good-sized portions of meat and protein.
Ornish recommends beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables and grains and shuns meats, oils, nuts and other high-fat foods.
Ornish cited statistics from a study done for Atkins where people on the diet reported bad breath and bad body odor. But Atkins denied anyone had quit his diet over such issues and said parsley can remedy bad breath.
Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture Eileen Kennedy warned the nation's nutritionists not to fall for fads. The problem, Kennedy said, is that people want it too easy.
She said the only way to lose weight is old-fashioned hard work -- reduce your caloric intake and exercise more.
``There is no scientific evidence to substantiate long-term weight loss on a low-carbohydrate diet,'' Kennedy said.
Everything seemed polite until Atkins in a later news conference complained about the USDA food guidelines known as the ``food pyramid'' that recommend 6-11 servings a day of grains like bread, rice, pasta and cereal. He blamed promulgation of the food pyramid for the increase in obesity.
That was enough for Kennedy. When asked a few minute later what she would tell a friend who wanted to go on the Atkins diet her answer would be: ``What are you? Nuts?''
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/200...diets_dc_1.html
Linear Mode
