I've been on the diet for about 3 days and i dont exactly feel top notch. I feel sickly after most meals and have a constant nagging doubt about this diet and the fact im eating so few vegetables and missing out on essential nutrients.

Can any of you answer me this? How long have we been plagued by cancer? Isn't it a modern thing rather than somthing that started when agriculture first began? How do we know exactly what pre agricultural humans ate? They may have eaten mostly vegetables and fruit for all we know, doesn't it also depend on your enviroment and therefore which part of the world your most genetically adpated to? Has anyone got conclusive evidence that they lived off a lc diet? How do we know they didn't suffer from cancer like we do? Maybe that's why they all died relatively young. If this is the healthiest diet then why do people live for so long and live healthy lives eating as they like?

The first week or so your body is going through many changes. Don't expect to feel better after 3 days! Give it some time. Although I can't answer your questions about cancer, I could almost guarantee that early humans did not subsist on mostly fruit. Other than berries (which are relatively low carb and tend to ripen in spring time), most other fruits ripen after the Summer Solstice. So there is a window of time in which fruit would have been available. Is it a coincidence that the fruit (and most starchy vegetables) ripen at a time that early humans would have needed to add fat to their bodies to survive the winter? I give Nature more credit than that - nothing is a mere coincidence.
Try to suspend your disbelief and low carb for at least a month. Get your bloodwork checked before and after. I know my triglycerides dropped over 100 points in that amount of time.By the time you are up to 25 or 30 carbs a day, as long as you are choosing fiberous veggies as your carb source, you shouldn't have any problem with getting more than enough phytonutrients.

Sorry I can't help you on this one. I have not read "Life without Bread". I do know however that on the Atkin's diet veggies and fruit are all part of the mainstay.

If "Life without Bread" doesn't suit you, take a look at one of the other diet plans. Not all low carb diets are created equal and judging one diet off another is not being fair or open minded.

Nat gave you some suggestions the other day on some reading materials. Have you read Protein Power yet? If not, it may answer some of your questions.

As far as what pre agricultural humans ate, archeologists have found animal bones in their camps with scratch marks on bones, as well as the bone marrow being scraped out showing that man has been eating animals for quite some time.

And as far as how you feel. It takes more than 3 days to nudge your system into changing fuel sources. You have pretty much spent your whole life eating sugar laden products and now you have removed that simple source of fuel and making the body work in converting fat and proteins. Look at it as a learning curve for your body. After all, I am sure if you changed careers and jobs it would take you more than 3 days to figure out a companies mode of operation.

Good luck.

Answer most of your questions, it will (why do I feel like Yoda here?) As for convincing you that LC is the healthy way to eat, none of us can do that for you.

Nat

Not sure what "Life without Bread" diet comprises so difficult to comment but the other diets , Atkins and protein power do tell you to eat your veggies but do suggest those vegetables that are lower in carbs.

One easy way to remember what is a low carb vegetable and what is higher is to go for the vegetables where you eat the bit that grows above the ground or is not in a pod. Thus leave out potatoes, carrots and other "root" vegetables. You eat the "above ground vegetables, the leafy,flowery or fungal things. Lettuce, salad greens, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms etc.

In the first phase or induction of most low carb diets you are very sparing on most fruits especially bananas but strawberries and rasberries are relatively low carb. But any of the fruits can be added back in as part of a carb controlled way of eating.

In the earlier phase the plans are light on vitamins. So it is recommended that you supplement. I have taken multivitamins as a supplement (Centrum, sanatagen etc.)daily and have found some pills in Boots with Chromium and L Carnitine which are both good to assist the fat metabolism.

Having said this there is nothing in any medical reports that I have read that suggest anything unhealthy about eating a low carb diet causes. The effect seems to be slimness, lower blood pressure, and lower cholesterol

I am no doctor but I doubt that many would claim any diet to be a primary cause or prophylactic for cancer.

Have you tried using the Fitday site to enter in exactly what you are eating and drinking to see if you are getting enough calories and nutrients, eating enough protein and controlling the carbs?

I hope the eating change works for you.. It ( eating fresh meat and vegetables) certainly cannot do you any harm

you've read through ALL those links I suggested in another post and you're still not convinced?!?!?!? Wow. Many of them had significant lists of scientific references...follow them until you run out of information.

A good general book on how fossilized bones tell us what they do is What the Bones Tell Us Also explains why some bones weather and some remain to be turned into fossils--very interesting info.

After people give you good advice about stuff to read, it seems rather odd that you keep singing the same old "I don't believe this" song without reading the stuff first. So I assume your question/complaint is really not about wanting information, but is about something else. The information is out there and easy to find.

The lc diet lacks modern long term conclusive evidence. It is therefore risky.

Hello my friend.

I started LC 5 days ago (on day 6 now). For the first few days I felt pretty awful too. Today I feel FANTASTIC. The headaches and fatigue and nausea were, I believe, withdrawal from the caffiene, the artifical sweeteners, the artificial colours, preservatives.. all those things I've been putting into my "Low Fat" diet (which by the way at 291 pounds obviously wasn't working). On top of that the sugar, blah blah blah. My skin looks better, my eyes clearer, my hair shinier. I think my body would be not looking so much better if I were doing something to it that it really didn't like.

I think you should take a look at Atkins, it might suit you better.
To be honest, I think i have eaten better this past week than before. Last night I had Steak, mushrooms, some pumpkin and spinich and pinenut salad. Hardly unhealthy. I also had a salad at lunch. 20 carbs a day (on induction) can provide a lot of veges if you choose carefully.

The good thing about Atkins is you can build up your carb levels over 20 grams a day until you reach a point just before your body stops losing weight. Choosing your carbs well can mean a very healthy existence.

Hope you are doing better now?

Take care
K-Louise

Hrm. This could apply to almost anything in the modern world. Not just low carb.

Andy, the only thing I have to say is, if you feel this strongly about it, then don't do it. Not a single one of us has tried to convince you to do otherwise. We have provided you with wealth of research, and with our own successes.

Good luck in whatever path your choose.

Dr A speaks on the topic of how we are totally off balance when we are low-fat overweight dieters. To get ourselves back in balance is NOT to eat a balanced diet, but to actually eat a non-balanced diet. (See page 92 DANDR)

That's what induction is all about, getting ourselves back in balance. Don't judge low carb eating with what's on the menu for the first 14 days.

I've been on maintainence for a while, pre-maintenance for several months. And I can say with some confidence - This is NOT life without bread. I had 2 slices of flax toast this morning as a matter of fact, ... a clementine and some carrot sticks were on today's menu too, along with all kinds of other healthy food.

Low carbing isn't about WHAT YOU EAT. It's about WHAT YOU DON'T EAT.

Here's a sample of what I don't eat: Twinkies, candy apples, Oh Henry bars, caramel popcorn, margarine, processed frozen foods, pop, chips, breaded anything, bottled salad dressings, Sara Lee chocolate cake, foil-wrapped junk made in a laboratory, just-add-water-foods, Baskin Robbins Pralines and Cream, marischino cherries, .... Do you really think I'm killing myself?

Hay Andy,

Do you happen to know of any any specific diet that has a long term conclusive evidence?

I'm sincerely curious on what you found out. Clearly, LC is not for everyone, but I'm convinced it has the most supportive biochemical reasearch. Check our studies section from the menu above.

Please don't hesitate to share you findings with us, all views are welcome here.

Wa'il

check out the china study 2. The rural chinese diet hasn't changed in a long time and they have been studied. Ok, i am convinced enough to do the diet (feeling better too), i only replied for the arguement which i cant be bothered with now anyway. You still don't know what the doctors in these studies and books have told you is true but i admit its persuasive. Good luck with your diets everyone.

I know what the evidence and case studies show from Protein Power, Protein Power Lifeplan and Fats that Kill, Fats that heal. I know from my own experience over the past few months how I feel; I sleep better, I'm eating more than I ever have, my hair is growing faster and healthier than ever before, my always normal lipid profile is better where it should be (LDL and triglycerides) and I have lost 60 lbs. I know what life on a low fat, calorie restricted diet was like; I was always hungry, I was working out twice a day, I was tired and I couldnt sleep - and I was gaining weight. I can also look to members of this board who have been LCing for years and are all the better for it.

I trust science and I trust hard facts; but most of all I now trust myself and I have learned how to listen to what my body is telling me. I also know that the low fat diet is a theory that has never actually passed a true emperical test - it remains a theory. After 20 years of low fat, restricted calorie diets people in North America are actually more obese than they were 30 years ago and incidents of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure are also higher.

Nat

I've been on the Atkins diet since July 7th, 2001. This is my first time dieting and I read just about every kind of diets out there. I chose Atkins because it seem like I can do this diet forever. I was always a big meat eater.... but at the same time I was a big Coke drinker and chip eater too.

Now that I lost pretty much all the weight I wanted to, I have time to reflect back on this diet. I think this diet is great for losing lots of weight fast. For me I had energy but I always did have that. The first two weeks was no big deal. The problems I have is low blood pressure and dizzy spells. I do think I am thinking a bit slower too. Don't ask me how I know this... I just do.. I use to be very quick in my thoughts. Simple math, typing, etc. Now I am slower..

Recently, I have started eating more carbs. Up to 200 grams a day. I still exercise everyday and still see a weight lost. Mine you it's a lot slower now. On the Ketosik I still register a light pink. What I'm going to do in the future is not clear to me yet, as I do not like the dizzy spells and need to do something about them.

Would I recommend this diet to my friends? I already have... Everyone is different and what happens to me may not happen to you. What everything boils down to is do whatever works for you.

Dave

P.S. Nat, that's your best pic yet.

I totally agree with you Nat. At first I was skeptical about the weight loss. I only lost 7 lbs the first 2 weeks and then seems to plateau. I found that by cutting out cheese products I was able to drop another 6lbs in 1 1/2 weeks.

Andy, just give it time. When you feel that energy burst that you will get around day 4-6 it will make all the difference in that world. I'm loving life right now.

Brian