The Atkins Diet is not for Everyone

The Atkin's Diet is the brainchild of Edward Atkins but has its antecedents in the thinking of one Dr. Banting as long ago as 1863. This eating program advocates upping protein intake and decreasing, if not eliminating, carbohydrate consumption. This advice flies in the face of nutritional hinking as advocated by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid. The US Government revised some of its recommendations by updating the "Pyramid" in 2005,but still insists that carbohydrates like bread, pasta and potatoes provide 20% of the calories in the US diet. The Atkins advocacy to the contrary has fuelled a lot of controversy, with some medical experts branding the "Atkins Diet" as downright dangerous.
A recent editorial in prestigious "Nature" Magazine outlines the problem. The carbs break down to form sugars and these can pose a problem for people with high triglyceride levels, which is in itself a marker for insulin resistance. It is people in this category who will benefit and lose weight thanks to the Atkins Diet. That means the weight loss program is not ideally suited for everybody. Insulin resistance is frequently a precursor to late onset diabetes and thanks to poor eating habits, an ever-increasing percentage of the Nation's population enters this category.
A recent study carried out by Manny Noakes and Peter Clifton of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) adds weight to this swelling body of evidence. They took 100 overweight women, half of whom were placed on a high protein-eating regime and the other half followed a high carbohydrate eating management system. The results were surprising. Both groups lost the same amount of weight on average, but once again the study showed it was those who exhibited signs of insulin resistance who benefited the most from eating a diet mainly comprising protein. How do you know you are insulin resistant? You can of course have it checked out by a health care professional but an invariable tell tale sign is the tendency to put weight on in the stomach area. So if you are developing a bulging belly, it might make sense to cut back on your carbs.

All this makes perfect sense to Chicago based Medical practitioner Dr. Joe Mercola; the author of the "No Grains Cook Book". Dr Mercola emphasizes the growing problem of a population that staggers increasingly towards diabetes, an illness that is growing in epidemic proportions. To counter this he suggests ways to eliminate grains and other carbs from the daily diet and strive towards fitness. He has had success by turning diabetes around by merely changing the diet.

Oh, yes there is one more thing about which all these authorities agree and that is the need to take more exercise. That is always a sure fire way to reduce the flab and insulin resistance to boot!

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