CHICAGO, March 6, 2007
Atkins Wins Diet Plan Faceoff
Low-Carb, High-Fat Regimen Beats Zone, Ornish And U.S. Diet Advice In Study, But Results Still Disappointing
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Study participant Viola Manges, who lost roughly 23 pounds during a yearlong study of four diets, poses in Stanford, Calif., on March 2, 2007. (AP)
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At the end, Atkins women had slightly higher levels of HDL cholesterol, the good kind, and slightly lower blood pressure than those on the other three diets. Gardner said differences in weight loss likely contributed to those results.
Ornish and other naysayers argued that the study doesn't answer a big question about the Atkins diet — whether consistently eating all that fatty food long-term leads to health problems.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The authors said it's uncertain whether the results would apply to men or older women since none were studied.
The study "shows that nothing works very well," said Yale University food policy researcher Kelly Brownell. His book promoting diet and lifestyle changes similar to national guidelines was used in the study.
"To me, it just screams out for the need to prevent obesity," Brownell said.
The results echo a Harvard study published last year involving thousands of women, which also suggested that a low-carb, high-fat diet might be more heart-healthy than previously thought, although it relied on women's memories of what they had eaten over two decades.
Also, those who ate fat and carbs from vegetables rather than animal sources had lower heart disease risks in the Harvard study.
Dr. David Katz of the Yale Prevention Research Center and author of several weight control books, said the new study presents little new information and called it "much ado about nothing."
Nurse Jackie Eberstein, whose consulting firm promotes the Atkins diet, said the results are not surprising. Protein makes people feel less hungry and fat helps them feel more full, which makes weight loss easier on Atkins, she said.
Study participant Viola Manges, who does administrative work at Stanford, was assigned to the Atkins group.
Manges, 41, said the diet taught her to make healthier food choices, like eating steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes, even if she didn't always follow it strictly.
"I realized I had a bunch of willpower I didn't even know I had," Manges said.
Manges lost roughly 23 pounds, slimming down to a size 6 by the study's end about a year ago. She has regained about 10 to 15 pounds, but said she still tries to follow some of the Atkins recommendations.
The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan.
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Atkins critics need to at least read the book before they spout their preconceived ideas about the diet. It fixed my diabetes and helped me lose the weight. Only problem, you have to make this a way of living from now on. You cannot just lose a little weight and then go back to eating all the garbage that is put out as food in this country. By the way, low carbers get to eat all the healthy foods that God gave us. Green, orange, red veggies, eggs, real cheeses, meats, whole dairy products, berries, melons, nuts, apples. No processed stuff. Oops, my brain and nervous system still work perfectly alright.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Sounds like the low fat, high carb that hasn't worked since McGovern used a Senate committee to say that fixes everything.
Thanks, Connie Weems, Kingfisher, OK
One's weight isn't the sole measure of being healthy or healthier. One can also lose weight by cutting off their arm. That probably wouldn't make them healthier, even though the resulting weight loss would likely be long lasting :)
No one knows the long term rsults of any of these fad diets. A high fat - low carb diet is contrary to generally accepted nutritional advice as extensively detailed in the supportive literature of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.