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Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet

Signs, symptoms and indicators | Conditions that suggest it | Contributing risk factors | It can lead to... | Treatment recommendations

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No matter what Atkins or other diet books tell you, the balance of evidence clearly shows that saturated animal fat is bad for you and is associated with increased risk of cancer [Journal of the National Cancer Institute 95 (2003): p.1079], diabetes, and heart disease. [WHO Technical Report Series 916, 2003] Even independent of the effects on obesity, meat consumption itself has been related to increased risk of coronary heart disease [Preventive Medicine 13 (1984): p.490] and for over 40 years medical reviews have also shown the detrimental impact of dietary cholesterol consumption. [Geriatrics (1961): p.407]


Please note that it is extremely important to obtain an accurate diagnosis before trying to find a cure. Many diseases and conditions share common symptoms: if you treat yourself for the wrong illness or a specific symptom of a complex disease, you may delay legitimate treatment of a serious underlying problem. In other words, the greatest danger in self-treatment may be self-diagnosis. If you do not know what you really have, you can not treat it!

Knowing how difficult it is to weed out misinformation and piece together countless facts in order to see the "big picture", we now provide simple online access to The Analyst™. Used by doctors and patients alike, The Analyst™ is a computerized diagnostic tool that sits on a vast accumulation of knowledge and research. By combining thousands of connections between signs, symptoms, risk factors, conditions and treatments, The Analyst™ will help to build an accurate picture of your current health status, the risks you are running and courses of action (including appropriate lab testing) that should be considered. Full information is available here.

The Chair of the American Medical Association’s Council on Food and Nutrition explained in testimony before Congress why the AMA felt they had to formally publish an official condemnation of the Atkins Diet: "It became apparent that the (Atkins) diet as recommended poses a serious threat to health." "People need to wake up to the reality," Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop writes, that the Atkins Diet is "unhealthy and can be dangerous." [Shape Up America! news release, 29 December 2003]

The largest organization of food and nutrition professionals in the world calls the Atkins Diet "a nightmare of a diet." [Journal of the American Dietetic Association 102 (2002): p.260] The official spokesperson elaborated: "The Atkins Diet and its ilk - any eating regimen that encourages gorging on bacon, cream and butter while shunning apples, all in the name of weight loss - are a dietitian's nightmare." The ADA has been warning Americans about the potential hazards of the Atkins Diet for almost 30 years now. [Journal of the American Dietetic Association 66 (1975): p.277]

The National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious scientific body in the United States, agrees with the AMA and the ADA in opposing the Atkins Diet. So does the American Cancer Society. [American Cancer Society. Weighing In on low carb Diets, 2004] And the American Heart Association. [Circulation 104 (2001): p.1869] And the Cleveland Clinic [The Cleveland Clinic. High Protein, Low Carbohydrate Diets, August 2003], and Johns Hopkins [Diabetes 2004. Johns Hopkins University White Paper, 2004], and the American Kidney Fund [American Kidney Fund news release, 25 April 2002], and the American College of Sports Medicine [Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 33 (2001): p.2145], and the National Institutes of Health [NIH Publ. No. 94-3700, 1993].

In fact there does not seem to be a single major governmental or nonprofit medical, nutrition or science-based organization in the world that supports the Atkins Diet. [Circulation 104 (2001): p.1869] As a 2004 medical journal review concluded, the Atkins Diet "runs counter to all the current evidence-based dietary recommendations." [Journal of the American College of Cardiology 43 (2004): p.725]

A 2003 review of the safety of low carbohydrate diets reeled off an alarming list of potential problems: "Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid [cholesterol] abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet." [Asia Pacific Journal Clinical Nutrition, 12: pp. 396-404 (2003)]

Weight Loss
This being the main objective of any diet, it is interesting to note that even if people can handle the side-effects of the diet, there are no data to show that the initial rapid weight loss on diets such as the Atkins Diet can be maintained long term. Many of the studies on the Atkins Diet have lasted only a few days [Journal of the American Medical Association 289 (2003): p.1837]; the longest the Atkins Diet has ever been studied is one year.

There have been 3 such year-long studies and not a single one showed significantly more weight lost at the end of the year on the Atkins Diet than on the control diets. In the year-long comparison of the Atkins Diet to Dean Ornish’s vegetarian diet, Weight Watchers, and The Zone Diet, the Atkins Diet came last in terms of weight lost at the end of the year. Ornish’s near-vegan diet seemed to show the most weight loss. [Dansinger, M.L., Gleason, J. L., Griffith, J.L., et al., "One Year Effectiveness of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets in Decreasing Body Weight and Heart Disease Risk", Presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions November 12, 2003 in Orlando, Florida.]

The most formal study of lasting weight loss is the highly respected National Weight Control Registry, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For over 10 years, the Registry has tracked the habits of thousands of successful dieters. They now have 5,000 Americans confirmed to have lost an average of 70 pounds and able to prove they have kept it off for at least 6 years. After a decade of rigorously tracking those who most successfully lost weight - and kept it off - one of the chief investigators told everyone in an interview what they found: "Almost nobody's on a low carbohydrate diet." [Reason, March 2003]

These researchers, led by a team at Brown and the University of Colorado, found that the people most successful in losing and maintaining their weight were eating high carbohydrate diets - five times as many carbs as Atkins proscribes in the "weight loss" phase of his diet [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 66 (1997): p.239]. Out of the thousands of people in the National Weight Control Registry, fewer than 1% follow a diet similar to the Atkins program. "We can't find more than a handful of people who follow the Atkins program in the registry," said one chief investigator, "and, believe me, we've tried." [The Washington Post, 27 August 2002]

Ketosis
We burn fat all the time; it's only when one is carbohydrate deficient and has to burn fat ineffectively that one goes into a state of ketosis - when you have so much acetone in your blood that it noticeably spills out into your lungs, or so many other ketones that they spill out into your urine.

In biochemistry class, doctors learn that fat "burns in the flame of carbohydrate." When you're eating enough carbohydrates, fat can be completely broken down as well. But when your body runs out of carb fuel to burn, your body's only choice is to burn fat inefficiently using a pathway that produces toxic byproducts like acetone and other ketones.

Symptoms of ketosis include general tiredness, abrupt or gradually increasing weakness, dizziness, headaches, confusion, abdominal pain, irritability, nausea and vomiting, sleep problems and bad breath. [Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine 68(2001): p.761]

In World War II, the Canadian Army had an illuminating experience with ketogenic diets. For emergency rations, infantry troops had pemmican, which is basically a carbohydrate-free mixture of beef jerky and suet (animal fat). The performance of the infantrymen forced to live off pemmican deteriorated so rapidly, they incapacitate them in a matter of days. As reported in the journal War Medicine in 1945, "On the morning of the fourth day of the diet, physical examination revealed a group of listless, dehydrated men with drawn faces and sunken eyeballs, whose breath smelled strongly of acetone." [War Medicine 7 (1945): p.345]

A ketogenic diet, concluded one medical review, "can be associated with significant toxicity." [Epilepsia 39 (1998): p.744]

In Contrast...
Every single long-term prospective cohort study ever performed on the foods that diets such as Atkins' restrict - fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains - show that they protect people from the nations’ biggest killer: heart disease. [Journal of the American Medical Association 288(2002):2569]

Harvard studied 75,000 women for a decade and the results suggest that the more whole grains people eat - like brown rice and whole wheat bread - the lower their risk of having a heart attack. [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 70 (1999): p.412] Harvard studied 40,000 men for a decade and suggested that eating whole grains may cut one’s risk of developing diabetes by more than half. [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 76 (2002): p.535]

>> For more information, including the latest news on this subject, click here.


Signs, symptoms & indicators of Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet:


Symptoms - Abdominal Pain (Severe) abdominal discomfort

Symptoms - Bowel Movements
Bowel movement changes
In a study funded by Dr. Atkins himself, 70% of the people that could stick with the diet lost the ability to have a normal bowel movement. The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters had significantly more diarrhea, general weakness, rashes and muscle cramps.

Symptoms - Cardiovascular
Arrhythmia

Symptoms - Gas-Int - General
Frequent/regular unexplained nausea
(Regular/frequent) unexplained vomiting

Symptoms - General
Constant fatigue
One study found that all those subjected to carb-free diet complained of fatigue after just two days. "This complaint was characterized by a feeling of physical lack of energy... The subjects all felt that they did not have sufficient energy to continue normal activity after the third day. This fatigue promptly disappeared after the addition of carbohydrate to the diet." [Arch Internal med 112(1963): p.333]

General dizziness

Symptoms - Hair
Recent body hair loss
In a study funded by Dr. Atkins himself, 10% of the people that could stick with the diet suffered hair loss.

Symptoms - Mind - Emotional
Irritability
Not only may diets such as the Atkins Diet impair mental functioning, they may impair emotional functioning as well. Researchers at MIT are afraid the Atkins Diet is likely to make many people - especially women - irritable and depressed. [MIT News, 20 February 2004]

Symptoms - Mind - General
A 'foggy' mind
Experts have voiced a longstanding concern that ketosis might fog up people’s thinking, but it took until 1995 to be formally tested. As reported in the International Journal of Obesity article "Cognitive Effects of Ketogenic Weight-Reducing Diets," researchers randomized people to either a ketogenic or a nonketogenic weight loss diet. Although both groups lost the same amount of weight, those on the ketogenic diet suffered a significant drop in cognitive performance. After one week in ketosis, higher order mental processing and mental flexibility significantly worsened into what the researcher called a "modest neuropsychological impairment." [International Journal of Obesity 19 (1995): p.811]

Periods of confusion/disorientation

Symptoms - Skin - Conditions
Regular/occasional/frequent rashes or unusual current rash
The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters had significantly more rashes than the general population.

Symptoms - Sleep
Being a light sleeper


Conditions that suggest Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet:


Digestion Constipation
Authorities recommend that Americans get "at least 30-35 grams" [Gastroenterology 118 (2000): p.1233] of fiber each day "from foods, not from supplements." [Circulation. 102 (2000): p.2284] The initial phase of Atkins’ diet, which dieters may have to repeatedly return to, has about 2gm of fiber per day. [Atkins, RC. Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. Avon Books, 1999]

The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed once again that most of the Atkins Dieters are constipated and headachy.

Bad Breath (Halitosis)
The acetone resulting from a state of ketosis escapes through the lungs - giving Atkins Diet followers, for example, what one weight-loss expert calls "rotten-apple breath." [Health 19 (1996): p.102] The other ketones have to be excreted by the kidneys. In a study funded by Dr. Atkins himself, most of the people that could stick with the diet reported headaches and halitosis (bad breath).

Mental
Depression
The director of MIT's distinguished Clinical Research Center measured the serotonin levels in the brains of 100 volunteers eating different diets. Serotonin is a chemical messenger in the human brain that regulates mood. In fact, the way antidepressants like Prozac are purported to work is by increasing brain levels of serotonin.

What the MIT researchers found is that the brain only made serotonin after a person ate carbohydrates. Carbohydrates seemed to naturally stimulate serotonin. By starving of the brain of this essential mood elevator, the researchers fear that diets such as the Atkins Diet may make people restless, irritable or depressed. Women, people under stress, and those taking anti-depressants may be most at risk. [MIT News 20 February 2004]

Metabolic
Migraine/Tension Headaches

Musculo-Skeletal
Gout / Hyperuricemia
In March 2004, an article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine documenting the effect of meat intake on gout risk. Harvard researchers followed almost 50,000 men for 12 years and found that "each additional daily serving of meat was associated with a 21% increase in the risk of gout." In fact, the Atkins Diet has been blamed directly for the rising incidence of this painful disease. [The Observer, 18 January 2004]

Muscle Cramps / Twitching
The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters had significantly more muscle cramps than the general population. Along with the toxins created by low-carbohydrate diets, one’s kidneys also flush out critical electrolytes such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, which may result in muscle cramps or worse. [Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 12 (2002): p.396]

General Weakness
Gradually increasing weakness is a sign of ketosis. The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters suffered significantly more general weakness.


Risk factors for Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet:


Symptoms - Food - General Long-term/short-term low-carb dieting

Counter-indicators:
Not being on a low-carbohydrate diet


Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet can lead to:


Digestion Constipation
Authorities recommend that Americans get "at least 30-35 grams" [Gastroenterology 118 (2000): p.1233] of fiber each day "from foods, not from supplements." [Circulation. 102 (2000): p.2284] The initial phase of Atkins’ diet, which dieters may have to repeatedly return to, has about 2gm of fiber per day. [Atkins, RC. Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. Avon Books, 1999]

The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed once again that most of the Atkins Dieters are constipated and headachy.

Bad Breath (Halitosis)
The acetone resulting from a state of ketosis escapes through the lungs - giving Atkins Diet followers, for example, what one weight-loss expert calls "rotten-apple breath." [Health 19 (1996): p.102] The other ketones have to be excreted by the kidneys. In a study funded by Dr. Atkins himself, most of the people that could stick with the diet reported headaches and halitosis (bad breath).

Mental
Depression
The director of MIT's distinguished Clinical Research Center measured the serotonin levels in the brains of 100 volunteers eating different diets. Serotonin is a chemical messenger in the human brain that regulates mood. In fact, the way antidepressants like Prozac are purported to work is by increasing brain levels of serotonin.

What the MIT researchers found is that the brain only made serotonin after a person ate carbohydrates. Carbohydrates seemed to naturally stimulate serotonin. By starving of the brain of this essential mood elevator, the researchers fear that diets such as the Atkins Diet may make people restless, irritable or depressed. Women, people under stress, and those taking anti-depressants may be most at risk. [MIT News 20 February 2004]

Metabolic
Migraine/Tension Headaches

Musculo-Skeletal
General Weakness
Gradually increasing weakness is a sign of ketosis. The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters suffered significantly more general weakness.

Gout / Hyperuricemia
In March 2004, an article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine documenting the effect of meat intake on gout risk. Harvard researchers followed almost 50,000 men for 12 years and found that "each additional daily serving of meat was associated with a 21% increase in the risk of gout." In fact, the Atkins Diet has been blamed directly for the rising incidence of this painful disease. [The Observer, 18 January 2004]

Muscle Cramps / Twitching
The May 2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study showed that most of the Atkins Dieters had significantly more muscle cramps than the general population. Along with the toxins created by low-carbohydrate diets, one’s kidneys also flush out critical electrolytes such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, which may result in muscle cramps or worse. [Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 12 (2002): p.396]


Recommendations and treatments for Effects of a Low Carbohydrate Diet:


Diet Increased Fruit/Vegetable Consumption
Fruit consumption alone has been linked to lower rates of numerous cancers [Cancer Causes and Control 7 (1996): p.178] and may reduce heart disease mortality, cancer and even total mortality. [British Medical Journal 313 (1996): p.775] The World Health Organization blames low fruit and vegetable consumption on literally millions of deaths worldwide. [World Health Organization. Fruit, vegetables and NCD prevention] Everyone should eat more fruits and vegetables as if their lives depended on it.

Animal/Saturated Fats Avoidance
The best dietary strategy to reduce one’s risk of dying from the number 1 killer in the U.S. is to reduce one's consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol. The evidence backing this, according to the American Heart Association, is "overwhelming." [Circulation 98 (1998): p.935]

High/Increased Carbohydrate Diet


KEY
Weak or unproven link
Strong or generally accepted link
Proven definite or direct link
Strongly counter-indicative
Highly recommended



GLOSSARY


Abdomen (Abdominal)
That part of the body between the chest and the hips that contains the stomach, intestines, liver, bladder, pancreas and other organs.

Arrhythmia (Arrhythmias)
A condition caused by variation in the regular rhythm of the heartbeat. Arrhythmias may cause serious conditions such as shock and congestive heart failure, or even death.

Calcium
The body's most abundant mineral. Its primary function is to help build and maintain bones and teeth. Calcium is also important to heart health, nerves, muscles and skin. Calcium helps control blood acid-alkaline balance, plays a role in cell division, muscle growth and iron utilization, activates certain enzymes, and helps transport nutrients through cell membranes. Calcium also forms a cellular cement called ground substance that helps hold cells and tissues together.

Cancer
Refers to the various types of malignant neoplasms that contain cells growing out of control and invading adjacent tissues, which may metastasize to distant tissues.

Carbohydrates (Carbohydrate)
The sugars and starches in food. Sugars are called simple carbohydrates and found in such foods as fruit and table sugar. Complex carbohydrates are composed of large numbers of sugar molecules joined together, and are found in grains, legumes, and vegetables like potatoes, squash, and corn.

Cardiac
Pertaining to the heart, also, pertaining to the stomach area adjacent to the esophagus.

Cholesterol
A waxy, fat-like substance manufactured in the liver and found in all tissues, it facilitates the transport and absorption of fatty acids. In foods, only animal products contain cholesterol. An excess of cholesterol in the bloodstream can contribute to the development of atherosclerosis.

Constipation (Constipated)
Difficult, incomplete, or infrequent evacuation of dry, hardened feces from the bowels.

Cramp (Cramping, Cramps)
A sudden, involuntary, painful muscular contraction.

Diabetes Mellitus (Diabetes, Diabetic, Diabetics)
A disease with increased blood glucose levels due to lack or ineffectiveness of insulin. Diabetes is found in two forms; insulin-dependent diabetes (juvenile-onset) and non-insulin-dependent (adult-onset). Symptoms include increased thirst; increased urination; weight loss in spite of increased appetite; fatigue; nausea; vomiting; frequent infections including bladder, vaginal, and skin; blurred vision; impotence in men; bad breath; cessation of menses; diminished skin fullness. Other symptoms include bleeding gums; ear noise/buzzing; diarrhea; depression; confusion.

Diarrhea
Excessive discharge of contents of bowel.

Electrolyte (Electrolytes)
An element or compound that, when melted or dissolved in water or other solvent, breaks up into ions and is able to carry an electric current.

Gout
A disease characterized by an increased blood uric acid level and sudden onset of episodes of acute arthritis.

Gram (gm, gms, Grams)
A metric unit of weight, there being approximately 28 grams in one ounce.

Lipid (Lipids)
Fat-soluble substances derived from animal or vegetable cells by nonpolar solvents (e.g. ether); the term can include the following types of materials: fatty acids, glycerides, phospholipids, alcohols and waxes.

Magnesium
An essential mineral. The chief function of magnesium is to activate certain enzymes, especially those related to carbohydrate metabolism. Another role is to maintain the electrical potential across nerve and muscle membranes. It is essential for proper heartbeat and nerve transmission. Magnesium controls many cellular functions. It is involved in protein formation, DNA production and function and in the storage and release of energy in ATP. Magnesium is closely related to calcium and phosphorus in body function. The average adult body contains approximately one ounce of magnesium. It is the fifth mineral in abundance within the body--behind calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. Although about 70 percent of the body's magnesium is contained in the teeth and bones, its most important functions are carried out by the remainder which is present in the cells of the soft tissues and in the fluid surrounding those cells.

Nausea
Symptoms resulting from an inclination to vomit.

NIH
National Institutes of Health

Osteoporosis
A disease in which bone tissue becomes porous and brittle. The disease primarily affects postmenopausal women.

Potassium
A mineral that serves as an electrolyte and is involved in the balance of fluid within the body. Our bodies contain more than twice as much potassium as sodium (typically 9oz versus 4oz). About 98% of total body potassium is inside our cells. Potassium is the principal cation (positive ion) of the fluid within cells and is important in controlling the activity of the heart, muscles, nervous system and just about every cell in the body. Potassium regulates the water balance and acid-base balance in the blood and tissues. Evidence is showing that potassium is also involved in bone calcification. Potassium is a cofactor in many reactions, especially those involving energy production and muscle building.

Protein (Proteins)
Compounds composed of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen present in the body and in foods that form complex combinations of amino acids. Protein is essential for life and is used for growth and repair. Foods that supply the body with protein include animal products, grains, legumes, and vegetables. Proteins from animal sources contain the essential amino acids. Proteins are changed to amino acids in the body.

Serotonin
A phenolic amine neurotransmitter (C10H12N2O) that is a powerful vasoconstrictor and is found especially in the brain, blood serum and gastric membranes of mammals. Considered essential for relaxation, sleep, and concentration.

Vegetarian (Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian, Vegetarianism, Vegetarians)
A person who consumes no meat, fish or fowl (chicken, turkey, etc.), but who may consume animal products such as dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, etc.), eggs or honey.

3.) How effective are the Dr Atkins and other Low Carbohydrate Diets and what are their long term effects?


Program Transcript

Now, from problems with your liver, let’s touch on problems with your waistline.

The culprits partially responsible for jiggling thighs, multiple tummy rolls, and my favourite, the flabby chicken wings under your arms, have finally caught on.

Burger joints, at least those in the United States, are now offering an Atkins Diet friendly version of the greasy burger. It’s called the bun-free burger, so you can still eat fast food and not break your low-carb diet.

Now that diet could be Dr Atkins’ Diet Revolution, the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, the Protein Power Diet, the Sugar Busters’ Diet – the list goes on.

And the reason there are so many is that low carbohydrate diets seem to be working for a lot of people. And several studies have shown that these diets have been successful in decreasing some of the risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

With us to discuss what you can’t eat, besides burger buns, is Dr Tim Crowe, lecturer in nutrition at Deakin University in Melbourne.

Tim Crowe: Well it’s one of those things that low carb may mean different things to different people, and normally we talk about carbohydrates, it’s the main foods are bread, pasta, rice, fruits, cereals and even sugar, they’re all carbohydrates. And really a low carbohydrate diet is just reducing these, maybe cutting them in half, or to extremes, cutting them out of the diet almost completely.

Maryke Steffens: You said before that a normal person gets about 50% of their energy from carbohydrates; what’s this energy percentage in a low carbohydrate diet?

Tim Crowe: On an Atkins diet, or a very low carbohydrate diet, you might be looking at only 5% to 10% of your calories coming from carbohydrates. So it’s much, much lower.

Maryke Steffens: What sort of premise are these diets actually working on? Why would that make you lose weight more than any other diet?

Tim Crowe: Well if you believe what you read in a lot of the diet guru books, carbohydrates are the root of all evil. They’re blamed for the weight gain, because when we eat carbohydrates, it starts putting our blood sugar up, and that’s perfectly normal, but as our blood sugar starts to rise, the body releases insulin. And insulin’s job is to get the glucose out of the blood into the cells, into the muscles where it’s needed. At that particular time, when insulin levels are a bit higher, it does stop us burning a little bit of fat at that time. Hence the reason they think that if insulin’s up, you can’t burn fat, you store carbohydrates and you put on weight. So if you eat less carbohydrates, your insulin levels aren’t as high, and when your insulin isn’t as high, your body can burn fat a bit easier.

Maryke Steffens: This is what they’re claiming; do you believe that this is true?

Tim Crowe: The premise sounds like it’s a plausible reason, but the weight loss is completely explained by people just eating less food, that’s the only reason you lose weight on these diets, just like any diet.

Maryke Steffens: There’s lots of discussions you can have about the efficacy of these diets, but what we’re interested in today I guess are the health implications of this type of diet. So first of all, have there been any studies to show either short or long term health effects of low carbohydrate diets?

Tim Crowe: When you talk about short-term problems, almost anybody will actually tell you that when they go on the low carb diets, the Atkins Diet, they start feeling a bit run down, low on energy, constipated, dehydrated and bad breath. That’s almost a given that that’s what happens when you follow a low carb diet. And that’s part of the changes that occur in the body. You lose a lot more water, your breath starts to smell a bit because your body goes into this thing called ketosis, where you have a lot of acetone present in your blood, and it eventually comes out from the lungs, and you can breathe that out. It’s very low in fibre and low in water, so constipation is quite common, and if you think about the carbohydrates or glucose, that’s what fuels our brain and that’s what fuels our muscles. So if the body doesn’t have as much of that to use, people feel a bit weak, and a bit lethargic. So short term, that’s almost a given, that’s what most people, the problems they find with it.

Maryke Steffens: But what about if you go on a low carbohydrate diet for a long time, just say over six months? What happens to you then?

There are no long term studies of these diets, but there is evidence from one group of people: epileptic children. They sometimes go on low carb diets to control their brain seizures, and Tim has used their experience as an indicator of what the long term effects might be in the rest of us.

Tim Crowe: In these kids that follow these low carb or Atkins-type diets for greater than a year, there’s a whole range of problems that arise: beginnings of osteoporosis, eye problems, and even changes in the way the heart beats, which can be seen in ECGs of the kids’ hearts. And these are all very real effects, in addition to elevated cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. That’s really indicating that something’s not right, and increasing risk of heart disease, even at a young age. And what explains this? The fact that they’re actually on these low carb diets.

Maryke Steffens: Would these effects also be seen in an adult who’s on an Atkins-style diet?

Tim Crowe: Certainly as far as adults go we are extrapolating what happens from kids to them, but we do know that the Atkins Diet, and a lot of low carb diets, are higher in saturated fat and higher levels of LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol, is either increased or it doesn’t decrease as much with weight loss, as somebody who follows a normal low calorie, low fat diet. With osteoporosis, that certainly is a real concern with low carb diets, and one of the reasons is that low carb diets really recommend not having any milk at all, and milk is probably one of the best sources of calcium in our diet. But also some of the changes these low carb diets cause in the body do make the blood a fair bit more acidic, which can cause more calcium to be leached out of the bones and lost from the diet. So with people on low carb diets, it’s possible to measure more calcium that you’ve been excreting from the urine, suggesting that there’s more calcium loss from the bones. So you combine that with less calcium being taken in with the diet, then osteoporosis which can happen when people are quite young, does pose a real risk, and that’s one of the questions we’re raising in actually calling for some more research, and looking into this as a serious health problem with the diets.

Maryke Steffens: You’ve already spoken about the fact that you’re eating a lot of saturated fats and cholesterol in this diet, but are there any other complications that come along with this diet, in terms of your heart?

Tim Crowe: There are some real serious concerns that the way the heart beats, its rhythm is altered on low carb diets. And in America at least, 60 cases of sudden death from heart attacks have been documented in people who are on very low carb, low calorie diets for drastic weight loss, and these heart problems causing death have been attributed to the inability of the heart to beat properly, and also to beat to its full potential, its full strength. And the reason why it’s thought that these low carb diets first of all don’t give the heart the number one fuel it prefers to use, which is glucose, and it affects the electrical impulses affecting how the heart beats.

Maryke Steffens: What about the fact that you’re really cutting out a lot of the things that you’d normally eat, is there a problem with that?

Tim Crowe: Short term, it’s probably not a big problem, but when it’s followed for a couple of weeks and even longer, the foods its recommending to cut out are really probably the best foods to be having as far as protecting us against a whole lot of diseases. So really, even without doing the studies, if somebody is really cutting way back on fruits and vegetables and high fibre cereals, they will increase their risk of a range of cancers, particularly colon cancer and breast cancer.

Maryke Steffens: Aside from the lack of fibre, is there any effect that increased meat consumption would have on your bowel as well?

Tim Crowe: Well certainly the whole area of meat and bowel cancer is a fairly contentious one, and at the moment it seems that meat by itself isn’t so much of a problem if it’s less than 100 grams a day people are eating. So it may not be the meat as such, it’s really lots of meat means not as many of these good foods that do protect us against colon cancer.

Maryke Steffens: OK, well we know that this low carb diet does affect the way insulin is working in your body short term. Does it have any long term effects on the way insulin works in your body, particularly detrimental effects?

Tim Crowe: Some health professionals have raised the potential that for people that are at a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, that even though it’s lower carbohydrate, the protein that people eat on these diets can stimulate insulin to be produced just as well as carbohydrate in some cases. So only in one study done so far, they have been able to show that there’s been an acceleration in the deterioration of people heading towards Type 2 diabetes on low carb diets. But it certainly is an area of great interest, and further research to see if there may be a link between low carb high protein diets and accelerating the risk of developing diabetes.

Maryke Steffens: Is it possible that the benefits from this diet may outweigh the risks that we’ve just talked about for some people? What I’m referring to here is there were a couple of studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine that showed that low carb diets are better at decreasing some of the risk factors for coronary heart disease, like decreasing harmful blood fats and also that insulin sensitivity improved more among people on low carb diets, and therefore it actually reduces their risk of diabetes. So could it possibly be that these benefits outweigh some of the other risks?

Tim Crowe: With the studies done looking at people that for six months and a year on low carb diets, there was one of the small benefits, an improvement in risk factors for heart disease, such as blood fats, and also insulin responses. The thing is that with the low carb diets, after a year, all this went away because like most diets, they’re hard to stick on and follow longer term. So people start putting some of the weight back on and some of the initial benefits that are seen over and above your traditional low fat, low calorie diets, don’t stick with the person longer term. So I guess what we’re saying is that there may be some short term benefit, but there’s a whole range of other risks that are really there, and some of these benefits don’t seem to stick around, because the diets are hard to follow.

Maryke Steffens: Dr Tim Crowe, lecturer in nutrition at Deakin University.

References:
Bilsborough S.A. and Crowe T.C. Low-carbohydrate diets: what are the potential short- and long-term health implications? Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003;12(4): 396-404

Foster G.D. et al. A Randomized Trial of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Obesity. The New England Journal of Medicine May 22,2003;348:2082-2090

You’ve been listening to The Health Report. I’m Maryke Steffens.

Guests on this program:

Dr Tim Crowe
Lecturer in Nutrition
School of Health Sciences
Deakin University
Melbourne


Further information:

Low Carb Diets
http://atkins.com

Low Carb Diets
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org

4.) The following article is copied and pasted from http://www.dietician.com page in the "Ask the Dietician", "Home", "Fad Diets" section and put it here so as to avoid trying to give directions on how to find it. If you prefer to go to the source, here it is: http://www.dietitian.com/faddiet.html and it is down the list of questions quite a bit.

It is at least, very interesting to me, a 'budding low-carber'. I am old enough to know there are always critics and always at least two ways to view a subject, but the article(s) sure bring out things to discuss....

My mother is 60 years old and is on a quick weight loss diet. She has a heart blockage and is being treated for it. Is that diet safe? She said it would be safe because it was written by a doctor.



Most quick weight loss diets allow all the lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs and cheese you want, but no breads or starches, fruits, starchy vegetables or milk. It is a high protein, very low carbohydrate diet that results in ketosis and dehydration. This diet would not be recommended for a 60-year-old woman with a heart blockage. In fact, I would not recommend any quick weight loss diet for anyone.

Successful weight loss means losing weight and keeping it off. A weight reduction diet that is slow and incorporates changes in eating habits has been proven to be the most successful.

The arguments of people that favor quick weight loss diets (Scarsdale, Stillman, Atkins, Ski Team, Air Force, Drinking Man's, Calories Don't Count, Mayo or grapefruit diets) is that if you eat enough protein, you will spare your own body protein from being broken down and instead will break down your body's stored fat. This is incorrect and not how your body uses protein or fat.

Your body prefers to run on your blood glucose for fuel. Every time you eat carbohydrates (starches, fruit, milk and vegetables), that break down into glucose, you refuel your body's glucose. When carbohydrates are not eaten, your body has to turn to another source of fuel, either stored protein in muscles and organs or body fat. However, your brain and nerve cells can only run on glucose.

In diets that contain fewer than 900 calories, all food eaten including protein and fat is broken down into glucose to provide fuel for the body. Protein and fat are very expensive fuels for your body. You can only convert 70 percent of the protein and 30 percent of the fat you eat to glucose. The nitrogen from the protein is excreted in the urine. This leaves no protein for repair or maintenance of muscles and organs. Also, in diets containing fewer than 130 grams of carbohydrates, ketosis occurs and your body starts breaking down muscle and lean tissue to provide glucose for brain and nerve fuel. Your body's first need is for fuel. Your body's use of dietary fuels cannot be changed drastically by altering your diet.

Your body can and does take stored fat (as triglycerides) and incompletely breaks it down into ketones, which can be used as a fuel source for muscles and organs. To completely breakdown body fat, you need glucose and oxygen. If glucose is not available for fuel by your limiting dietary carbohydrates, your body learns to run on ketones, but your brain doesn't. Your brain gets sluggish because it only runs on glucose. Your body starts breaking down muscle and organ tissue to provide the needed brain glucose. Protein contains glucose in its structure and it can be scavenged for use by the brain and nerves. Quick weight loss diets claim they spare muscle protein, but they don't. A diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates does not spare muscle protein from being broken down, unless you eat enough carbohydrate. As you continue on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet, the amount of ketones increases and ketosis occurs. Ketones are very irritating to your kidneys and the kidneys try to get rid of the ketones through the urine.

Your body draws water from your tissues to have water to float these ketones out. This results in dehydration and the resulting weight loss you experience is actually from water. Most of these diets caution followers to drink eight glasses of water a day to prevent serious dehydration. A simple test for dehydration is, take a pinch of skin on the back of your hand and pull it up. Let the fold of skin go and it should snap back. If it doesn't, you may be dehydrated. Other tests for dehydration are to look at the color of your urine, it should be almost clear and without smell (except the first urine in the morning). Also, the mucous membranes inside your mouth should be moist, not dry and cracked. If ever, there is any question about dehydration, go see your doctor.

Your mother is increasing the levels of triglycerides and probably cholesterol in her blood because these fats provide fuel when glucose is in limited supply. Also, your liver releases increased amounts of cholesterol during periods of stress and a quick weight loss diet is definitely stressing your body.

Show your mother this column and encourage her to see a Dietitian for an appropriate diet. She should also consult her doctor regarding the appropriateness of a weight reduction diet considering her current health. One last thought, a person called doctor might have their Ph.D. and not a MD. Check a person's credentials before trusting them with your nutritional health.

5.)

HASTINGS JOURNAL

Florida Town Pins Hopes on a Lower-Carb Potato

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Published: August 8, 2004

ASTINGS, Fla., Aug. 3 - Wayne Smith wants the world to fall in love with a spud, and in this hard-luck town whose welcome sign reads "Florida's Potato Capital," his pitch is sounding smooth as a bowlful of mashed.

"The sunshine is bursting out of this beautiful potato," Mr. Smith, a fourth-generation potato farmer, said of the new variety he hopes will rejuvenate his farm, his region, perhaps even his industry. "It is a creamy, moist, delicious potato that looks like the butter's already in it."

Here, though, is the clincher: Mr. Smith says the potato he is pushing has 30 percent fewer carbohydrates than the average Russet Burbank, the beloved variety that flourishes in Idaho, a state Mr. Smith glowers at the mention of. He and five other Florida farmers have formed a cooperative to grow and market the lower-carb potato, which they christened Florida SunLite.

(They liked Spud Lite better, Mr. Smith said, but feared Budweiser would complain.)

Fate has not smiled on Florida's potato industry in decades, thanks mostly to competition from cold-climate states whose sturdier potatoes can be stored for months. It is a far cry from the turn of the century, when farmers first began planting potatoes in northeast Florida to supply the luxury hotels that were sprouting up and down the coast.

Florida now ranks 11th among states in potato production, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service, providing just 2 percent of the national market.

"The stores stopped differentiating between our product and what was dug out of a Northern state and kept in a storage bin for months," Mr. Smith said. "So now we either go out of business or find a way of setting ourselves apart."

Lately, potato farmers everywhere are hurting: Potato consumption was down 4.7 percent last year from 2002, according to the National Potato Board, which is spending $4.5 million on a "Healthy Potato" campaign.

The number of potato growers in St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler Counties, whose sandy-soiled farming region starts about 30 miles south of Jacksonville, went from 370 in 1971 to 92 in 1990, Mr. Smith said. Now, a few years into the low-carb craze, only about 40 remain. "For Sale" signs dot the flat green fields, packing plants sit abandoned, and potato farmers long ago started seeking additional forms of income.

Mr. Smith, 55, opened a gun shop next to one of his potato fields in the 70's and also grows perennial peanut for hay, raises minnows for bait, and sprays other farmers' fields.

But he is a potato man at heart, and determined, he said, to win Florida's potatoes the same kind of respect its citrus gets (though oranges, too, are suffering from carbohydrate backlash). He and other Hastings farmers started consulting five years ago with Chad Hutchinson, a University of Florida professor specializing in potato research, to find a sexy new potato.

They settled on the lower-carb variety, developed by a Dutch seed company called HZPC, because it was disease resistant, tasty and pretty for a potato. They are paying HZPC for exclusive rights to grow the potato. Only late in the process did they realize their choice had fewer carbohydrates than most tubers, Dr. Hutchinson said, though they are not sure why.

"We're working right now to figure out what is going on in that potato," he said. "For now, I'll just say it's fairly unique."

The cooperative hopes to market the pale, smooth-skinned SunLite as a potato to eat fresh, said Jim McDowell, the director of sales and marketing for the cooperative, SunFresh of Florida, in contrast to typical supermarket potatoes that have been stored for up to a year.

"We want to get folks used to eating fresh quality potatoes from Florida," he said.

And they want to do it fast. Farmers here usually plant potatoes in January and harvest in April, but to capitalize on the buzz around the SunLite -media inquiries have come from as far away as Australia - they will plant in early September this year. The first crop should be ready in January, Mr. Smith said. "It's way riskier to raise them this time of year because of hurricanes and other rain issues," he said. "But we want to get people the chance to try it as quick as possible."

The cooperative also wants to market the SunLite as shrewdly as possible, which explains why Mr. Smith would not allow visitors to photograph a few tired specimens at the University of Florida's research station here.

As much as Mr. Smith disdains the Idaho potato industry, which produced $542 million worth of potatoes in 2003 compared with Florida's $130 million, according to the agricultural statistics service, he said he admired its marketing savvy.

"They market themselves phenomenally, even with that cardboard-box skin," he said. Patrick Kole, a vice president of the Idaho Potato Commission, said growers would follow the SunLite with interest but that it might not be in demand for long because the low-carb craze may have peaked..

If low-carb diets go the way of the Macarena and the SunLite proves only a brief fix for Hastings, at least it will let the town hold onto its original raison d'etre a little longer. The number of residents who subscribe to Spudman magazine, name their sons Tater (there is at least one) and remember watching the potato-grading operation in a nearby town called Spuds is dwindling fast.

Mr. Smith said he does not want to get rich from this venture, but to see his 8-year-old grandson and 82-year-old father keep working together on his farm for as long as possible. He is a religious man, and considers the SunLite more a product of divine intervention than laboratory science.

"I don't want to sound flip about it, but there is a divine hand moving every part of this," Mr. Smith said. "It's just a God-given miracle if you want to get right down to it."

6). Click here to find out about Flaxseed Oil.

7). Reuters News Item August 15 2004:

Weight Watchers Targets the Atkins-Weary

Sun Aug 15,12:26 PM ET

By Michael Kahn and Nichola Groom

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Weight Watchers International Inc. (NYSE:WTW - news) is hoping to reel in U.S. dieters disillusioned with low-carb plans like Atkins, though it remains to be seen if its new program will help revitalize battered profits and membership rolls.


Missouri resident Camille McClean, who said she lost 20 pounds in three months on the Atkins diet but believes the plan put her in the hospital with a kidney infection, is precisely the kind of person Weight Watchers is looking for.

McClean deserted Atkins for Weight Watchers and said in an interview she lost 95 pounds on the company's reduced-calorie "points" system, which does not forbid certain foods.

Atkins Nutritionals said there was no evidence to suggest following the Atkins diet might cause a kidney infection.

Weight Watchers is looking to capture the attention of what it hopes is a large number of consumers with experiences similar to McClean's and will roll out a new weight loss program later this month.

"We are seeing all sorts of people, and more and more of them are people who have tried one low-carb diet or another," Eliot Glazer, Weight Watchers vice president of marketing, said in an interview. "People are prone to trying new things when it comes to weight loss."

Yet whether more of these so-called low-carb refugees find a home at Weight Watchers is another question.

The Woodbury, New York, company on Thursday said profit fell in the second quarter while acknowledging the low-carb craze may not be ebbing as quickly as it had forecast.

Chief Executive Linda Huett told investors during a conference call on May 11 that she expected to see a growing number of low-carb refugees. Two days later Weight Watchers stock hit a two-year low of $31.83.

MEETING ATTENDANCE STILL DOWN

High-protein, low-carbohydrate regimens like the Atkins and South Beach diets have generated a massive following among weight-conscious U.S. consumers, though the craze has leveled off after peaking in January, said Harry Balzer, vice president at market research firm The NPD Group.

About 7 percent of adult Americans now follow some kind of low-carb diet, down from a high of 9 percent, Balzer said.

Yet attendance at Weight Watchers meetings in North America declined in the past quarter, spurring the company to narrow its profit forecast for the year.

In the face of such membership declines, Weight Watchers hopes its new initiative will boost attendance by attracting dieters who are weary of shunning foods like bread and pasta.

Atkins Chief Marketing Officer Matt Wiant said because of its meetings format, Weight Watchers will always be a haven for dieters who need social reinforcement to lose weight. He added that Atkins' own research showed that Weight Watchers' plan was not seen by consumers as being as effective as low-carb.

"They are not turning to Weight Watchers for their nutritional brilliance," Wiant said.

With Weight Watchers stock down nearly 30 percent since hitting an all-time high of $50.39 in 2002, Wall Street is eager to see results. One analyst expressed frustration that the company did not give specifics on the new plan during Thursday's quarterly conference call.



"We were disappointed with the minimal level of detail provided on the conference call with respect to the new program," J.P. Morgan analyst Dina D'Amore said in a note to clients. "We would have liked to have heard more about the program to assess the potential opportunity."

NPD Group's Balzer said he expects the low-carb craze to ease just as other weight loss plans have in a country where an estimated 60 percent of the population is overweight, according to government data.

But even if the trend has peaked, Weight Watchers has said the popularity of low- and no-carb packaged food products have led to an increase in self-styled weight loss regimens that threaten the company's own line of branded food products.

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