Term Paper on Atkins Diets

Atkins diet program was introduced in 1970 by Professor Atkin to reduce weight in a very unique way. This diet might be called a protein lover’s pleasure. Under this weight loss strategy, you can eat the entire meat, eggs, and cheese you wish for, while cutting back on carbohydrates for example pasta, bread, and fruit. “A lifetime dietary philosophy is focusing on the utilization of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation”. (Atkins, Alfaguara, Ediciones, S. A.2001)
 

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The Atkins diet limits processed or refined carbohydrates, for example high-sugar foods, breads, pasta, cereal, and starchy vegetables. Core vita-nutrient supplementation comprises a full-spectrum multi-vitamin and an indispensable oils or fatty acid formula. The hypothesis behind the strategy is that increasing protein ingestion and reducing carbohydrate use will alter your metabolism, permitting you to lose weight. Under treatment people of the diet dispute that high level of carbohydrates cause an overproduction of insulin, causing appetite and weight increase. “Under the Atkins plan, carbohydrates are restricted to just 15 to 60 grams a day”. (Rodnitzky, 2001)

The Atkins diet is billed as mainly effective for those who have tried low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. The Atkins plan can lead to fewer food cravings and faster weight loss. Another advantage—it’s easy to follow. Some researchers suppose that people who are on this diet are able to decrease the number of calories they eat for the reason that the high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet causes the body's fat to be burned in a procedure called "ketosis", which also causes soft nausea and other indications that reduce the wish to eat. Because of this reduced hunger, it's easier to eat fewer calories, and lose weight.
Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta, cereal, and other chiefly 'low-fat' processed foods augment your body's manufacture of insulin. When insulin is at high levels in the body, the food you consume can get readily converted into body fat, in the structure of triglycerides (to top it off, high triglyceride levels in the body are one of the greatest risk features for heart disease).

 
Even worse, high carbohydrate meals have a propensity to leave you less satisfied than those that contain sufficient fat levels; so you eat more and get hungrier quicker. If you find this hard to accept as true, think about how much pasta you can eat at lunch and then how starving you are running to the vending device for another 'carbo-fix' in the mid-afternoon. If the pasta you ate were in reality giving your body what it wanted, you would stay full until dinnertime. So the characteristic low-protein, low-fat meal leaves you eating more and hungry quicker. The Atkins diet fundamentally eradicates quite a few foods and food groups like fruits, cereals, breads, grains, starches, baked goods, dairy products, starchy vegetables, and sweets. This merely translates into a significant daily calorie decrease, the base of any weight loss diet. Any reduce of calories, whether from protein, carbohydrate or fat, will end in weight loss. The basic weight loss method is: calories burned must go beyond calories consumed. It is with no trouble done, when the majority of the foods on a usual day's menu are eliminated.

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The Atkins diet places no limit on the quantity of saturated-fat-laden foodstuffs one can have each day. Large parts of foods like butter, red meat and bacon are advocated and supported. The Atkins strategy contradicts numerous studies, which have demonstrated the significant association between diets high in saturated fat and augmented heart disease risk. According to the National Cancer Institute, five servings of fruits and vegetables each day is the smallest amount one should eat to help significantly decrease the risk of developing cancer. Additionally, studies have shown that around 35% of all cancer deaths in the U.S. may be related to poor dietary habits. High use of whole grain products has also been linked with reduced cancer risk. Abundant amounts of fruits plus vegetables and whole grains would comprise too many carbohydrates, and would not be permitted. If these nutritious staples include factually thousands of compounds showing guarantee in preventing cancer and so many other constant diseases, they have too many crabs of course, those dreaded compounds, which Atkins feels, are exclusively accountable for all our health and weight worries. Bottom line, cancer is America's number killing disease, be wary of low crab strategy if you are interested in decreasing cancer risk through diet.

For years, the Atkins method of sparing carbohydrates and loading up on forbidden fatty foods has been profanity to many in the health organization, who view it as a formula for cardiovascular ruin. But now, some of the same researchers who long mocked at the diet are putting it to the investigation, and they say the results astound them. Somewhat than making cholesterol soar, as they feared, the diet in fact appears to get better it, and volunteers take off more weight. Still, the number of overweight people studied this manner is small, and the research does not examine probable long-term ills or compensation, including how long people keep the pounds off. So for the present moment, the researchers say that much more research is essential before the Atkins diet can be given a wide-ranging endorsement, but as a minimum they believe it is protected enough to take into much larger studies. “Research demonstrated that after six months, the people on the Atkins diet had lost an average of 31 pounds, compared with 20 pounds on the AHA diet, and more people wedged with the Atkins regimen”. (Pescatore, Wiley, John & Sons, 2000)

Total cholesterol fell to some extent in both groups. On the other hand, those on the Atkins diet had an 11% augment in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a 49% drop in triglycerides. On the AHA diet, HDL was unaffected, and triglycerides dropped 22%. High triglycerides may raise the risk of heart disease. While the volunteers' total quantities of LDL, the bad cholesterol, did not alter much on either diet, there was proof that it had shifted to a type that may be less expected to block the arteries. Dr. Sidney Smith, the heart association's study director, said it was a surprise that the Atkins diet did not lift LDL cholesterol.
"One small study likes these files in the face of so much evidence, we can't change dietary recommendations on the spot". (New York Times, 2001)

Works Cited

La Nueva Revolucion Dietetica (Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution) Robert C. Atkins, Alfaguara, Ediciones, S. A. October 2001, PG 53

Ultimate Low-Carb Diet Cookbook: Over 200 Fabulous Recipes to Add Variety and Great Taste to Your Low-Carbohydrate Lifestyle, Donna Pliner Rodnitzky, Crown Publishing Group, September 2001, pg 86

Thin for Good: The One Low-Carb Diet That Will Finally Work for You, Fred Pescatore, Wiley, John & Sons, December 2000, pg 62

 

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