Atkins is a Sickly Old Man

- Roger Mason

     

You have surely seen that Robert Atkins is the best selling diet author in history. No one has sold anywhere near the amount of diet books that he has over the past two decades. This is real world proof that to make money you just have to tell people what they want to hear. He has been joined by the Likes of Sears, Eades, Heller and Steward who tell you to eat all the meat and fat you want. Just lap it up folks! Stuff it in your face. Eat all the beef, pork, butter, lard, cheese, dairy products, milk, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, eggs and any other fatty foods you want for good health and long life. How can anyone with an I.Q. over 70 even pick up a book like that?

Psychology, that's why. Emotional needs. Remember psychologist Maslows "Hierarchy of Needs"? People do whatever they can to fill their most pressing needs regardless of the consequences. Eating rich, fat laden, and calorie dense foods is comforting, it makes you feel good, it actually sedates you ("food coma"). To be fair these authors make three good points and these three points are very important. 1) Don't eat refined carbohydrates like white flour, white bread, white pasta, white rice, degermed corn meal and other grains with the nutrients removed. 2) Don't eat simple sugars and sweets. This includes honey, white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, fructose, corn syrup, date sugar, raw sugar, fruit juice, dried fruit, and fruit syrups. Eat a piece of whole fresh fruit once a day if you like fruit. A glass of fruit juice literally has as much sugar content as a Coke or Pepsi. 3) Don't eat hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. These are the worst fats on the face of the earth and do not exist in nature. Read your labels and you'll be shocked to see how ubiquitous these are. This means no more eating in fast food restaurants as most everything they serve is full of hydrogenated fats.

I found a website that shows what a farce this ketogenic diet is that advocates eating all the meat and fat you want, but God forbid you eat any brown rice, whole grain bread, polenta, barley soup, whole wheat pasta, buckwheat, or corn on the cob! Dr. James Kenney brings up the Pima Indians. The same Pima Indians live both in Mexico and Arizona but now live very different lives being in two different countries. The Pimas in Mexico still live on a traditional diet of corn tortillas and beans and vegetables with very little meat and fat. They are thin, active, have, little heart or artery disease and certainly no diabetes to speak of. They have low cholesterol and triglyceride levels and live a long time. This ironically enough is due to a lower standard of living in Mexico where they simply can't afford to eat at McDonalds. The Pimas in Arizona have been very influenced by the American lifestyle. They eat much more meat, dairy and fat, are about 60 pounds heavier than their Mexican cousins, many are sedentary due to obesity, they have epidemic heart and artery disease and lots of diabetes which starts at about the age of 40, high (over 225) cholesterol levels and die of various diseases prematurely.

If Atkins, Eades, Heller, Sears, Steward et al were correct that complex carbohydrates causes diabetes none of this would be true. If the "Glycemic Index" was scientifically factual none of this would be true. Do you really believe carrots cause high blood sugar compared to white sugar? I mean isn't that asinine on the surface? But you also know people on the Atkins Diet who have lost weight and you wonder how they can stuff themselves with fat and lose weight. I mean you're actually tempted to try it and see if you can lose weight too.

The "trick" is that when you take all simple and complex carbohydrates out of your diet and eat meat and fat you body goes into a disease state called "ketosis" from which the name "ketogenic" diet is derived. Here is a dictionary definition of the word "ketosis" - "Pathological condition of having too much of a ketone in the body, as in diabetes, acidosis, etc. (f. ketone + osjs)". This is a disease state plain and simple. One of the side effects of this is chronic bad breath since the body cannot metabolize normally.

I've talked to weightlifters who have been using this trick for over 50 years. They eat nothing with carbohydrates and paradoxically cut their body fat down to as little as 5% instead of a normal level of 15 to 20%. The problem is that you will get very sick very quickly and not live very long on such a diet. On the surface they look great and this is very misleading obviously to look at someone who looks great on the outside and whose entire metabolism is upset inside.

The healthiest foods in the world are whole grains. Beans are another wonderful food. Both are the richest source of complex carbohydrates and fiber we have. Switch from white rice to brown rice. Switch from white bread to whole grain 100%. Switch from white pasta to whole wheat pasta. Buy 100% whole grain cold cereals for breakfast. Discover what polenta is. Buy a bag of barley and make soup. Go to a Latin grocery and try some beans you've never heard of before. Rediscover beans as a part of your diet. Complex carbohydrates are literally the staff of life.