Published Thursday, January 15, 2004

Low-Carb Diets Giving Fruits a Bad Reputation

By Gary White, The Ledger
gary.white~theledger.com

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Dr. David Katz could be called the Anti-Atkins.

Katz, a professor at the Yale University School of Medicine and the nutritional columnist for O: The Oprah Magazine, makes no secret of his disregard for the Atkins method and other low-carbohydrate diets. Katz's mission, as director of Yale's Prevention Research Center, is to encourage Americans to eat healthier diets in general and to consume more fruits and vegetables in particular.

Among his other criticisms of "low-carb" diets, Katz says the regimens have negatively affected the way many people regard fruits, which tend to provide most of their nutrients in the form of carbohydrates. He also laments the lately popular notion that all grain products are bad -- with no distinction made between highly processed bread and whole-grain items.

"The intake of fruits and vegetables has been too low for a long time," Katz says. "It was too low before (Atkins). Those diets are causing a problem even if they're not reducing the intake of vegetables very much, and that is distracting people from the absolutely critical importance of increasing both fruit and vegetable intake. They actually have some people convinced that eating fruit is bad for them, and that's wrong." Katz says a diet tilted toward protein at the expense of fruits, vegetables and whole grains invites all kinds of health problems. He says studies have shown a connection between the eating of plant-based foods and improved weight control and alowered risk of diabetes and some cancers. He says the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables are crucial to the proper working of the body's immune system. And he says some evidence suggests that not eating enough fresh produce increases the likelihood of osteoporosis and depression.

The underlying problem, Katz says, is that Americans tend to focus on appearance rather than health and on the short term rather than a lifetime. He says any diet that banishes a particular food group will cause people to take in fewer calories and as a result lose weight.

"I don't think we should be eating in a pattern just to achieve rapid weight loss," Katz says. "If that's all you cared about, you could eat marbles. You'd lose a lot of weight; the only problem is you wouldn't be getting any nutrients."

Katz particularly worries about the message children are receiving from parents who gobble pork rinds and eschew oranges. He notes that he consumes 15 to 20 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and wears the same pants size he did 20 years ago. (He also emphasizes the importance of regular exercise for health and weight control.)

Katz, who often appears on national television programs, has drawn the ire of Atkins acolytes with his references to low-carb regimens as "fad diets."

"I get a lot of e-mails from people calling me names," Katz says. "I say, `Get back to me in 10 years.' I've got five children ages 4 to 15, and we all eat the same healthy diet and none of us need to lose weight . . . . Until the folks doing Atkins or South Beach can give me 10 years of experience, I'm not impressed."