Atkins Diet Increases All-Cause Mortality

[onehandle]

A major study was just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine from Harvard. In approximately 85,000 women who were followed for 26 years and 45,000 men who were followed for 20 years, researchers found that all-cause mortality rates were increased in both men and women who were eating a low-carbohydrate Atkins diet based on animal protein.

However, all-cause mortality rates as well as cardiovascular mortality rates were decreased in those eating a plant-based diet low in animal protein and low in refined carbohydrates. Although this plant-based diet was called an "Eco-Atkins" diet, it's essentially the same diet that I have been recommending and studying for more than 30 years.

In many debates with Dr. Atkins before he died, I always made the point that it's important to look at actual measures of disease, including mortality, not just risk factors such as HDL cholesterol. This is the first study that examined mortality rates in those consuming an Atkins diet, and it confirms what I've been saying all along: an Atkins diet is not healthful and may shorten your lifespan. Dr. Atkins and I agreed that the American diet is too high in refined carbohydrates such as sugar, white flour and concentrated sweeteners) which promote a variety of chronic diseases. That's why people often lose weight on an Atkins diet when they restrict their intake of refined carbohydrates.

However, the answer is not to replace refined carbohydrates with animal protein such as beef, pork rinds, bacon and sausage, which Dr. Atkins claimed were good for your heart. I'd like to be able to say that they're good for your heart, but they are not. It's much more healthful to replace refined carbohydrates ("bad carbs") with healthy carbs instead.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/an-atkins-diet-increases-_b_707005.html
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Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality

Conclusion: A low-carbohydrate diet based on animal sources was associated with higher all-cause mortality in both men and women, whereas a vegetable-based low-carbohydrate diet was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality rates.

http://www.annals.org/content/153/5/289.abstract

[grace0418]

1. I can't imagine how people convince themselves that the Atkins diet is healthy.

And I'm an omnivore. But I don't kid myself into believing that the bacon I enjoy on occasion is healthy by any stretch.

Replacing empty carbs is great, as long as you replace them with healthy foods like complex carbs, lean proteins and fruits and vegetables. There is simply no shortcut, there really isn't. Every person I've known that went on the Atkins diet and replaced all their carbs with meat and other fats lost lots of weight, that's for sure. They all also gained it back because they didn't change their eating habits.

[diane in sf]

2. There are people who are fast oxidizers, a high animal protein diet is good for them, slow oxidizers

do better on a lower protein, lower fat diet.

This is why the diet pendulum is always swinging. The diet that makes half the population healthy makes the other half sick.

Fast oxidizers are prone to diabetes--which is not helped by eating a high carb diet--however pure, whole grain and organic. Slow oxidizers tend to be at risk of cancer and heart disease, which they can avoid by eating whole grains, vegetables fruits and not a lot of fat and red meat.

Check out bloodph.com, they found that 70-80% of the people coming into their practice with cancer are slow oxidizers, about 70% with diabetes are fast oxidizers.

[Abq_Sarah]

3. Carbs are carbs

Complex carbs still convert to sugar, albeit at a slower rate.

I eat berries and non starchy veggies but I do not eat grains or any high sugar fruit.

Our bodies require protein and fat for our survival. We literally can't live without them. There is no minimum requirement for carbohydrates because our bodies produce glucose to fuel the minimal functions that require it if it's not in our diet.

[K8-EEE]

5. I know way too many strong healthy vegans to believe Atkins is all that

Including my 78 year old dad who zapped his type 2 diabetes 10 years ago by getting off the steak-and-martini wagon to an all-plant diet. He is completely off all meds including diabetes meds, and his blood pressure and blood sugar normalized for the first time in decades within a year of kicking the "typical American diet."

Atkins has gone through several changes throughout the years -- the current version is thankfully different than the original "eat bacon and eggs and whole cream in your coffee for breakfast, have hamburger for lunch and steak fried in butter for dinner" original but still not healthy especially given the filthy production methods for meat and poultry in the U.S.

[grace0418]

10. The slower rate makes the difference, at least with my husband who is diabetic.

Of course you also have to limit the number of carbs in addition to choosing complex carbs over simple carbs.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Can't imagine living without bread, cereal, rice, pasta...

and of course, pie, cookies, doughnuts... I never even bothered with the low-carb craze.

[K8-EEE]

6. Or oatmeal! Crockpot slow cook oatmeal is my fave.

Yummy, cheap and healthy. Even if I wanted to eat animal stuff all the time (which I don't) who could afford it?

IMO it's too much PROCESSED food, moderate amounts of whole grains are healthy. By the time they make some sugary cereal out of it, it's stripped of fiber and everything good and full of fat and sugar.

btw fellow oatmeal lovers, try this! Get some steel-cut (30 minute cooking time) oatmeal; find a casserole dish that fits inside the crockpot. Put four cups of water and one cup steel cut oats in the dish. Then pour water AROUND the dish to create a double-boiler type effect. Turn it on low and go to bed. In the morning you will have yummy REAL oatmeal...so much better than the instant mush! Great with walnuts, agave syrup and fruit.

Freeze the leftovers in cupcake pans, pop them out and keep in freezer bags, then you have half-cup portions of "instant" oatmeal ready in one minute!

[LostinVA]

8. I eat steel-cut almost every day

And have for years -- way before it became popular. It is one of my favorite foods. Period.

[blondeatlast]

15. I literally feel both mentally and physically deprived if I miss mine.

Even when I go to brunch, I have a bowl at home!

[LostinVA]

16. I've eaten them since I was a little kid

I do NOT like rolled oats!

[TwilightGardener]

9. I will pass your recipe on to my husband, he is an oatmeal NUT--thx!

[K8-EEE]

12. Frozen oatmeal is a great thing for the office

EZ to nuke up in a coffee mug if you get the afternoon munchies. Especially with a spoonful of dark chocolate chips in it for an afternoon snack -- it will keep you away from the vending machine and hold you over til dinner!

Also yummy with dried pineapple and shredded coconut!

[Obamanaut]

Eat less, move more. Some combination of that. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I have come to the conclusion that there is no "one size fits all" diet

But one thing EVERYONE agrees on is "eat your vegetables."

[K8-EEE]

11. I agree! Most Americans are amazed when they travel abroad

Like, where's all the fat people? I went to a wedding in a French village by Dijon -- the most delicious food imaginable, including eggs, meat, fish, butter, SAUCE ON EVERYTHING, bread, desert, WINE WINE WINE and hardly any fat people.

What I didn't see: drive thrus, fast food, big box stores with giant parking lots. The streets were not car friendly (very old town) and no parking anywhere, even very old people walked every day, and the portions were much smaller. In restaurants you eat off plates, not platters!

[JerseygirlCT]

13. Why can't that be "eat your ice cream"? lol nt

[Skittles]

14. any diet restricting total food groups are INSANE

eat everything IN MODERATION and GET OFF YOUR ASS once in a while