The Atkins diet , officially called the Atkins Nutritional Approach , is a low-carbohydrate diet created by Dr Robert Atkins from a diet he read in the Journal of the American Medical Association and used to resolve his own overweight condition. He later popularized the Atkins diet in a series of books, starting with Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in 1972. In his revised book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution , he modified or changed some of but remained faithful to the original concepts.
Atkins franchise, a business formed to provide products to those individuals on the diet, was highly successful due to the popularity of the diet, and is considered the driving entity of the larger "low-carb craze" during the early millennium. However its success dwindled and Atkins Nutritionals of Ronkonkoma, New York, the company founded by Dr. Atkins in 1989, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2005, two years after his death. The company re-emerged in January 2006, and the Atkins logo is still highly visible through licensed-proprietary branding for food products and related merchandise.
Nature of the diet
The Atkins Diet is a departure from the previously prevailing metabolic theories. Atkins said that there are important unrecognized factors in Western eating habits leading to obesity. Primarily, he believed that the main cause of obesity is eating refined carbohydrates, particularly sugar, flour, and high-fructose corn syrups.
The Atkins Diet involves restriction of carbohydrates to more frequently switch the body's metabolism from burning glucose as fuel to burning stored body fat. This process (called ketosis ) begins when insulin levels are low; in normal humans, insulin is lowest when blood glucose levels are low (mostly before eating). Caloric carbohydrates (e.g., glucose or starch (itself made of chains of glucose)) produce most of the blood sugar after meals and can be calculated to even determine the insulin needs of diabetics. Because of its low digestibility, fiber provides little or no food energy and does not significantly impact glucose and insulin levels. Ketosis involves lipolysis in which some of the lipid stores in fat cells are transferred to the blood.
In his book Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution , Dr. Atkins made the controversial argument that the low-carbohydrate diet produces a metabolic advantage in which the body burns more calories, overall, than on normal diets, and also expels some unused calories. He cited one study where he estimated this advantage to be 950 calories (4.0 MJ) a day. However, a review study published in the Lancet concluded that there was no such metabolic advantage and dieters were simply eating fewer calories due to boredom. Professor Astrup stated, "The monotony and simplicity of the diet could inhibit appetite and food intake" The Atkins Diet restricts "net carbs" (digestible carbohydrates that impact blood sugar). One effect is a tendency to decrease the onset of hunger, perhaps due to longer duration of digestion (fats and proteins take longer to digest than carbohydrates). Dr. Atkins says in Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution (2002) that hunger is the number one reason why low-fat diets fail. Although studies show the efficacy of the Atkins approach after one year is the same as some low-fat diets, it was easier, according to Atkins, to stay on the diet because dieters did not feel as hungry or "deprived".
Net carbohydrates can be calculated from a food source by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (which are shown to have a smaller effect on blood sugar levels) from total carbohydrates. Sugar alcohols contain about two calories per gram, and the American Diabetes Association recommends that diabetics count each gram as half a gram of carbohydrate. Fructose (e.g., as found in many industrial sweeteners) has four calories per gram, although it has a very low glycemic index and does not cause insulin production, probably because ß cells have low levels of GLUT5.
Preferred foods in all categories are whole, unprocessed foods with a low glycemic index, although restrictions for low glycemic carbohydrates (blackrice, vegetables, etc.) are the same as those for high glycemic carbohydrates (sugar, white bread). Atkins Nutritionals, the company formed to market foods which work with the Atkins Diet, recommends that no more than 20% of calories eaten while on the diet come from saturated fat.
According to the book Atkins Diabetes Revolution , for people whose blood sugar is abnormally high or who have Type 2 diabetes mellitus, this diet decreases or eliminates the need for drugs to treat these conditions. The Atkins Blood Sugar Control Program (ABSCP) is an individualized approach to weight control and permanent management of the risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, the causes of Type 2 diabetes remain obscure, and the Atkins Diet is not accepted in conventional therapy for diabetes.
The Four Phases
There are four phases of the Atkins diet: induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance.
Induction
The Induction phase is the first, and most restrictive, phase of the Atkins Nutritional Approach. Two weeks are recommended for this phase. It is intended to cause the body to quickly enter a state of ketosis. Carbohydrate intake is limited to no more or less than 20 net grams per day (grams of carbohydrates minus grams of fiber, sugar alcohols, or glycerin), 12 to 15 net grams of which must come in the form of salad greens and other vegetables (broccoli, spinach, pumpkin, cauliflower, turnips, tomatoes, and asparagus, to name a few of the 54 allowable vegetables ). The allowed foods include a liberal amount of all meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, fowl, and eggs; up to 4 ounces (113 g) of soft or semi-soft cheese such as cheddar cheese; salad vegetables; other low carbohydrate vegetables; and butter, olive oil and vegetable oils. Drinking eight glasses of water per day is a requirement during this phase. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed during this phase. Caffeine is allowed in moderation so long as it does not cause cravings or low blood sugar. If a caffeine addiction is evident, it is best to not allow it until later phases of the diet. A daily multivitamin with minerals, except iron, is also recommended.
The Induction Phase is usually when many see the most significant weight loss — reports of losses of 5 to 10 pounds per week are not uncommon when Induction is combined with daily exercise. Many Atkins followers make use of Ketostix, small chemically reactive strips used by diabetics. These let the dieter monitor when they enter the ketosis, or fat burning, phase, but are not always accurate for non-diabetic users. Other indicators of ketosis include a metallic taste in the mouth, or bad breath.
Ongoing weight loss
The Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) phase of Atkins consists of an increase in carbohydrate intake, but remaining at levels where weight loss occurs. The target daily carbohydrate intake increases each week by 5 net grams. A goal in OWL is to find the "Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing" and to learn in a controlled manner how food groups in increasing glycemic levels and foods within that group affect your craving control. The OWL phase lasts until weight is within 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of the target weight. During the first week, one should add more of the induction acceptable vegetables to one's daily products. For example, 6-8 stalks of asparagus, salad, one cup of cauliflower or one half of avocado. The next week, one should follow the carbohydrate ladder that Dr Atkins created for this phase and add fresh dairy. The ladder has 9 rungs and should be added in order given. One can skip a rung if one does not intend to include that food group in one's permanent way of eating, such as the alcohol rung. The rungs are as follows:
- Induction acceptable vegetables in larger quantities
- Fresh cheese
- Nuts and seeds
- Berries
- Alcohol
- Legumes
- Other fruits
- Starchy vegetables
- Whole grains
Pre-maintenance
Carbohydrates intake is increased again this time by 10 net carbs a week from the ladder groupings, and the key goal in this phase is to find the "Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance", this is the maximum number of carbohydrates you can eat each day without gaining weight. This may well be above the level of carbohydrates inducing ketosis on a testing stick. As a result, it is not necessary to maintain a positive ketosis test long term.
Lifetime maintenance
This phase is intended to carry on the habits acquired in the previous phases, and avoid the common end-of-diet mindset that can return people to their previous habits and previous weight. Whole, unprocessed food choices are emphasized, with the option to drop back to an earlier phase if you begin to gain weight.
Popularity
The Atkins Nutritional Approach gained widespread popularity in 2003 and 2004. At the height of its popularity one in eleven North-American adults were on the diet. This large following was blamed for large declines in the sales of carbohydrate-heavy foods like pasta and rice (sales were down 8.2 and 4.6 percent, respectively, in 2003). The diet's success was even blamed for a decline in Krispy Kreme sales . Trying to capitalize on the "low-carb craze," many companies released special product line
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