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THERESA: I'd like to go on record right now saying I'M COOL WITH CARBS. I am so sick of all the low-carb hype we're seeing now, ads for Atkins-friendly menu items everywhere, low-carb beer, bread, pasta. I'll admit, I went on a low-carb diet a couple years ago to lose weight, and yeah, I lost a few pounds short term, but I also felt dizzy, thirsty, weak and completely unhealthy. Nothing helped me lose weight long-term like adopting a balanced, healthy diet, watching my calorie intake and stepping up my exercise routine.
And did you notice this week that evens the Atkins folks are back-pedaling some on the wisdom of eating unlimited amounts of saturated fats?
Certain high-carbohydrate foods are essential to a healthy diet, and they're delicious and give us the balanced variety that we crave so we enjoy healthy eating habits. Last week, I talked to Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, author of a new book, "Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs," and I was so impressed by what she had to say.
Are you with me on this, Girlfriends?
YVONNE: Yes, of course. Everything in the right portions. There is a reason that carbohydrates are so pervasive. They provide the building blocks for our bodies. We'd have no cartilage and so forth without them.
JENICE: I hear you. All you have to do is look at entire nations of people whose basic diet centers around rice or bread to see that carb consumption doesn't necessarily equate with fat.
ELLEN: I cannot live without carbs so I have just relented. Today I had a nice fiber-loaded salad for lunch and I just felt I needed something more so I got some of those healthy looking pretzels from the vending machine. I am in a moment when I could eat the entire state of Michigan if it were encased in chocolate or pie crust. So Greenwood-Robinson's tip about eating "good carbs" to curb your appetite is very helpful.
YVONNE W: I've been thinking about making changes in my diet. I want to eliminate the bad foods that I constantly consume and replacement them with a better balanced nutritional diet. So I think this particular book is right on target for me. Especially since I've recently had inflammation in my left shoulder.
Replacing refined sugar with something more nutritional and beneficial would probably help me. One of the problems I've faced is refined sugar products are very satisfying to me. It's like spending time with an old friend.
JILL: I am with you completely, Theresa. All the diet advice anyone needs can be summed up in four words: eat less, exercise more. But that wouldn't fuel a multi-billion-dollar industry, would it? I think the high-fat diet is a disaster no matter what anyone says, scientists included. There are "good carbs" and "bad carbs", as Newsweek magazine pointed out recently, but frankly, I say eat what you want in modest amounts and work it all off and you'll be fine. I felt like a total idiot a couple of weeks ago when I bought, at my Atkins-obsessed husband's request, a box of low-carb spaghetti. It was a fortune and it tasted like wet newspaper. We dumped it out and I felt like a stupid, stupid, stupid consumer for having bought it. I look forward to a bowl of pasta on Saturday night, and I see no reason to give it up altogether. I have had to limit my consumption of bread because. . .well, now you're talking serious weakness.
LAURIE: Though reducing carbs does seem to help me a lot, I think that the most important part of that is the reducing part - eating less. There is a wheat and gluten sensitivity that some people have, though, which can range from annoying to serious. Here's a Web site.
ELLEN: Does the wheat and gluten sensitivity make you want to eat more?
THERESA: As I understand it, wheat and gluten insensitivity is similar to other food allergies in that you can suffer various symptoms and discomfort if you happen to be afflicted this way. I doubt it affects your appetite, unless you compensate for the lack of bread and other wheat products by eating too much sugar in other forms.
Adding protein to your diet definitely helps curb your appetite. And it is important to get enough protein. Just make that lean protein, with lots of healthy, natural fruits, veggies and grains, and get plenty of exercise.
By the way, Greenwood-Robinson's book ($7.99 paperback) also contains a lot of good healthy-carb recipes. Here's one for sweet potato salad, which she got from the American Institute of Cancer Research.
I agree. Those low carb-no carb items that are popping up in the supermarkets are getting on my nerves too. Low fat, counting calories, and excercise is the only way to go. And even if all that saturated fat worked short term, it can't be good for your cholesterol level.
Posted by: R.C. on January 21, 2004 06:33 AMI recently lost 25 lbs in two weeks on the Atkins food plan (not diet). You folks must be a different kind of loser if you can't succeed on this food plan.
RW
Posted by: RW on January 21, 2004 10:06 AMI lost 100 LBS in 8 months on Atkins woe (way of eating)
My cholesterol went from from 298 to 197!
How's that for an effect on my cholesterol level
Great work to the posters who succeeded thus far on Atkins! I have known more than a few folks who praise the Atkins way, but I know no one who praise it longer than about a year. The science of it is very tricky, what with finding your body's state of lipolysis, etc. My husband quit after one week. He felt dizzy, nauseaous, cranky, sad. Who needs that? It is really really difficult, but plain and simple eating right and exercising seems to have worked since the beginning of time...way before there was a stock market to appease.
Posted by: Jeanine on January 21, 2004 12:49 PMThe years I spent running daily, avoiding high fat and red meat resulted in my gaining a few pounds. I convinced myself I was trading muscle for fat.
I started doing Atkins in May and have lost 20 pounds and don't exercise a bit. I don't have any bad side effects. My cholesterol while a little on the high side has dropped about 6 points while maintaining a really good ratio of HDL/LDL.
My lifestyle doesn't feel extremely healthy but the results seem to indicate otherwise.
Posted by: Denise McQuade on January 21, 2004 12:53 PMRW, great to get your 2-week perspective on "the Atkins food plan (not diet)." Hmmm. Go to amazon.com and type in "Atkins Diet." What are the titles of these books?
Didn't someone tell Atkins that his "food plan" was being marketed as a "Diet?" Or is this another aspect of the program that's being retroactively revised?
Posted by: chuck on January 21, 2004 01:29 PMI don't agree or disagree with the Atkins plan, it really depends on each person's needs.
Personally, I agree with the high protein intake but not necessarily the low carb portion. I am a competitive athlete and need the carb just to keep myself moving everyday... and I also need the protein for recovery (I weight train 5 hours a week, cardio 3-4 hours, practices and compete on average 6-10 hours total a week).
So, there're really no wrong way of looking at it. It's what works for you and if not, tailor it to work for you... simple.
Posted by: Stef on January 21, 2004 03:36 PMHey "chuck" wake up and smell the coffee. Ooops,
I meant protein shake since I don't drink coffee anymore. Call it a Diet or smiet or anything else you want, the thing works. If it makes you feel any better, change "food plan" to what Paul above describes as a "woe" (way of eating). Thanks Paul!
I feel that over time I can modify this "woe" as
I see fit to include more carbs: good or bad. But right now, thanks to this "woe", I can walk away from the doughnuts, pizzas, and cookies that used to hold me hostage. Bottom line there is no universal "woe". As Stef indicates, each of us has to find a "woe" that works for them. This "woe"/ "food plan" works for me.
RW--it is impossible to loose 25 pounds of fat in two weeks. My guess is that it was water weight and some fat--maybe a pound or two. Thermodynamics wouldn't allow for it since you need to burn or be in a caloric intake deficit of 3500 kilocalories.
Denise, I would think that any plan you take on where you don't exercise is not helpful. For cardiovascular and bone health, people need to have some exercise in their lives.
When people turn to a low carb diet, they are eliminated all kinds of refined foods, and empty calories in the forms of chips and other items like that and reducing caloric intake.
Take the French and the Italians, they eat twice and three times (respectively) more bread than we do in the US, and you don't see them with these obesity problems.
Posted by: Chloe on January 22, 2004 02:14 PMYou know what? I've been doing low carb for about 1 year now. Prior to this I was doing low fat, working out 5 days per week, keeping my calories between 1800-2000 per day and guess what-I lost nothing!! Not 1 pound-not only that, I ended up in the hospital where I found out I was prediabetic. For some of us, Low carb is not a fad but a corrective diet. My skin has cleared up, my allergies are well controlled-I used to suffer from April-Oct every yr- my periods are now regular without medication!
Everyone does not need to low carb to lose weight but for some of us, like me, its what works for our bodies-please don't bash it!
I forgot to mention, I still don't eat any more meat than I did before and I doubt that the 20lbs I've lost so far is all water.
People need to find what will work for them and many folks need to just increase their physical activity- i wish MY body worked that way but I am sensitive to carbs and prone to diabetes- it runs in my family.
thanks
a diet can be a diet or a change of lifestyle. people tend to be black or white about many issues but as we all know there is usually a lot of grey areas. everything is circumstancial. Some find it easy to cut down on fat, or count calories, or workout till they drop, and some cut carbs. the point is to keep in touch with your dr whatever your choice. and the rest of us should respect one anothers choices. how come no one is comlplaining about the weightwatchers frozen food or any other company ( there are a few ). Many wich have preservatives that will preserve your bodies well after you have departed this earth
Posted by: nita on January 24, 2004 08:06 PMI don't mean any disrespect to anyone who's found that cutting back on carbs has helped them lose weight. Adding protein to one's diet while cutting out refined sugar, white bread, pasta, sodas -- that's all good. I just think we're being buried in ads for low-carb everything as if that's the one and only way to achieve a healthy weight. We should be cautious about buying into that hype.
Posted by: Theresa on January 26, 2004 10:08 AMThis is somewhat related...
Study Links High-Carbs and Weight Loss
You Can Lose Weight by Eating Lots of Carbohydrates and Little Fat
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20040126_2087.html
Kudos to Chloe. I spent 2 weeks in Italy and was amazed at how much bread and pasta they ate and they are slim. They do something called exercise, be it walking or bike riding. A lot of americans want a quick fix for losing weight, but don't want to work for it. I know if I don't exercise and eat healthy I will become fat. I guess if the program works for you in the long run, good for you, but I think I'll eat the carbs and exercise.
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