Posted 12:35 AM by Blah blah

Dr. Scott replied to my excited post below about the Atkins diet:

"Dr. Atkins is a disgrace and a crook.

I have known several NURSES who have been admitted to the ER because of his diet. Ketosis is no way to diet.

That is my official opinion on him. You always have to be suspicious of any doctor who writes a book with a "new plan" who refuses to allow his research to be examined by the medical community at large. Atkins should be in jail, not Kevorkian.

As for diet, high carbs is bad. High fat is bad for cholesterol and weight as well.

The key as always is moderation. Eat more protein, since it won't make you tired (unless its fatty or turkey) and it can curb your appetite. But eat smaller portions of carbs than the typical Westerner eats. And some fat, but not a lot.

Really, protein is 'brain food.' It will curb your appetite (but not like the carb rush you get), and can keep your mind sharp (unlike a carb rush, again). When I was in college, at night I would eat tuna fish when I got tired. It helped me stay up and lose weight. (Carbs will make you tired and gain weight.) Of course, it has to be lean protein, not a steak or burger which has lots of fat. (Clean as in low-fat like fish or egg whites.)"

Richard, who's in med school, gave his view:

"In any case, I probably side with Scott in that I think that eating everything in moderation is the key. I'm definitely not convinced that eating a tub of lard is more healthy than wheat bread Anything in excess will mess the body up. I think the deal with carbs is to try to avoid eating empty carbs - ie: white bread which contains practically no dietary fiber, dinner rolls which has no dietary fiber, white rice (my mom does a 1/2 brown 1/2 white rice mix.. brown rice supposedly carries fiber)

And I don't particularly agree with that caveman argument. We're not cavemen, and we have better nutrition than they do. We are living longer and taller than our cavemen counterparts. And like Scott says, throwing the body into extended periods of starvation is definitely not a good thing no matter how you look at it.

'None of these studies have been financed by the N.I.H., and none have yet been published.' <-- that always makes me cast a suspcious eye. That is the same deal with that Zone Diet that was discussed in another thread. If the evidence is so compelling and done in a double blind randomized controlled trial with minimal biases, then why not release it? It just makes it sound a bit gimicky to me - like many of the quick fix schemes out there."

Thank you, Scott and Richard! Appreciate it.