The Never-Ending Diet Wars

I'm sure someone has pointed out that 200x365=73000, not 10000....and well, if you have more muscle then you burn more calories. Low fat diets tend to consume muscle mass reducing your overall metabolic rate. Just my 2 cents.

As someone who is ON the atkins diet, and has been for 6 months, I can assure you all that "red meat/butter/fat" is not all that I eat like this guy says. I eat a lot of salad and vegetables like Frankie3233 says. I've lost about 50 pounds and have been eating lots of vegetables, eggs, bacon, cheese, salads; all that stuff. I do not eat steak and eggs for breakfast, steak for lunch, and steak for dinner. Between myself and my dad we've found that vegetables make up a large portion of the diet, not red meat.

I am an Atkins believer, I lost 6 dress sizes and 60 pounds on Atkins, and still follow the Atkins diet (5 years!), my cholesterol is great, my blood pressure is great. And best of all I have a wonderful doctor that encourages me to follow Atkins. I was never able to achieve this on a low fat diet. And I am a woman.

I agree Frankie, the author shows how little people know about Atkins having done no research at all. I have been on the diet for the past 5-6 months, and can report that I do not eat bacon for every meal. Most of the time I have salad with chicken or steak on it. For breakfast I generally eat an omellete with vegetables in it, and sometimes have bacon on the side. When I go to McDonalds, I get the chicken salad and NOT 100 hamburgers without the buns. Lately I've even felt like I was a vegetarian with all the salad i eat...

Once again, an author shows his ignorance by stating " A vegetarian Atkins diet? Most people associate an Atkins diet with bacon, butter and brie, not a plant-based diet like the one I recommend." Atkins is all about dark leafy green vegtables, and others that are low on the glycemic index. Meats, fish, cheese, whole grains and legumes are also plentiful. The only thing that the atkins approach drastically limits is sugar and refined flour. If one would look back at the way humans ate before such refined and processed, high sugar empty calorie foods were introduced, people were healthier. Is it any coincidence that since the low-fat craze hit about 25 years ago that this country has seen a rise in the number of obese and severly obese people? Study after study has shown that the Atkins approach to eating works. I have lost forty pounds and kept the weight off for ten years. My chololesterol is well within norms and all the other blood work is excellent. So doctors and nutrishinests have finally recognized the science and are helping people...too bad the auther of this article is not one of them.

i was so glad to hear about the outcome of the recent studys because it proved to me that my blood tests after being on the atkins diet(I ate lots of red meat,fat and all,butter etc. No trans fats ,no suger and my cholestral is perfect! I'm 55 years old and my cholestral was never even close to perfect. Why doe's dean Ornish not admit that he's just wrong? Even if his diet did work, it's the worst tasting crap you could eat. I'd rather die from heart disease than eat the recipes that are in his books. Doctors will never admit when there wrong Jim Bostelle

i was so glad to hear about the outcome of the recent studys because it proved to me that my blood tests after being on the atkins diet(I ate lots of red meat,fat and all,butter etc. No trans fats ,no suger and my cholestral is perfect! I'm 55 years old and my cholestral was never even close to perfect. Why doe's dean Ornish not admit that he's just wrong? Even if his diet did work, it's the worst tasting crap you could eat. I'd rather die from heart disease than eat the recipes that are in his books. Doctors will never admit when there wrong Jim Bostelle

You low-fat guys just can't stant the truth!! Atkins is the best diet going. How many studies will it take to convince you?

I believe one seriously overlooked consideration in the "calories = calories" position that most "learned" researchers embrace is the fact that not all theoretical calories present in food are "burned" or in other words, utilized by the body. Caloric measurements in a lab are based on combustion of the food samples completely, or, are extrapolated from pre-existing data that was originally based upon complete combustion. Also, from an engineering perspective, all fuels burn at different rates. If you place paper into a fire, it flashes, and is consumed completely. A piece of wood may take much longer. Also, if you put the wood in there only for a short period of time, you may only get a very small percent of the theoretical energy. I strongly believe our bodies are like that. Food doesn't remain in the furnace forever, and is moved through pretty quickly to a waste state. The fact that certain foods are more completely converted than others (carbs will logically burn quicker than proteins or fats) in the period of time the food remains in the stomach / intestine should indicate that the "calorie = calorie" statement is factually inaccurate.

What is needed is a complete re-analysis of how the body processes foods; how fast different macronutrients and other food categories are converted; and what those impacts are on human health. I believe the conventional wisdom (only low fat is healthy) will be show to be incomplete, and therefore, can only lead to further bad choices.

I am constantly astonished at the rabidity of Dr. Ornish's defensive posture for HIS diet plan. It's as if anyone who finds anything that doesn't validate exactly what he has said is "seriously flawed". It's fine for him for him to disagree but when he has to utilize deceptive rhetoric to make his points, he's over the line. He KNOWS that it is NOT "physiologically impossible" for someone to consume more calories and lose more weight - all people differ in their ability to absorb and metabolize foods of all kinds (different levels of L-Carnitine, etc.) For all of his discussion about the level of HDL, he KNOWS it's all about the ratio of garbage to garbage trucks that is important and that is what the study talks about. C'mon Dr. Ornish, truth is where you find it, not where it is wished to be.

Your comment:
"that those on the "low-fat" diet consumed 200 fewer calories per day???or 10,000 fewer calories per year???than those on the Mediterranean diet, yet people lost more weight on the Mediterranean diet. That's physiologically impossible." is goes to core of your opinions - a calorie is a calorie "is not how it works" - it never has. You cite "physiologically impossible" but you clearly do not understand fat metabolism as its effected by different "calories." Your comment is disturbing.

Dear Dr Ornish:

Your comment:
"that those on the "low-fat" diet consumed 200 fewer calories per day???or 10,000 fewer calories per year???than those on the Mediterranean diet, yet people lost more weight on the Mediterranean diet. That's physiologically impossible." is nothing short of amazing. While you cite "physiological impossible" you clearly do not understand fat metabolism. A calorie is a calorie continues to dominate your approach - and its wrong.

200 calories a day fewer is 73,000 (200x365), not 10,000. This throws your credibility into considerable question.

Re: Robert Atkins

According to various sources, he weighed 196 lbs. (not 187) at the time of his final hospital admission, and 255 at death (due to fluid accumulation from organ failure, not fluid he "received intravenously"). Sources say that he was 6 feet tall or a little less.

Some people here claim to have seen the autopsy report, but according to various sources, an autopsy wasn't performed, apparently due to family objections.

It's interesting to read comments such as "people who saw him could tell you he was in prime shape," as if that means he didn't have coronary artery disease.

Are you fed up with modern diet miracles? Do you want do try something permanent? Send me an email and I???ll send you my free diet book.

robert@dietuniversal.com

Are you fed up with modern diet miracles? Do you want do try something permanent? Send me an email and I???ll send you my free diet book.

robert@dietuniversal.com