Pro Review of Atkins Diet Nutritional Approach

 

 

Pro Review: the following information was submitted by a former visitor to chasefreedom.com

What is the Atkins Nutritional Approach?

A lifetime nutritional philosophy, focusing on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation. the Atkins Nutritional Approach restricts processed/refined carbohydrates (which make up over 50% of many people's diets), such as high-sugar foods, breads, pasta, cereal, and starchy vegetables. Core vita-nutrient supplementation includes a full-spectrum multi-vitamin and an essential oils/fatty acid formula.

A lifetime nutritional philosophy that has been embraced by an estimated 20 million people worldwide since the release of Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in the 1970s. The cornerstone of the treatment protocols for over 60,000 patients of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York City.

Four Steps to a Healthy New Lifestyle

The Atkins Nutritional Approach is often confused with its initial phase, called Induction, when carbohydrate intake is most strictly curtailed. In reality, four increasingly liberal dietary plans follow each other in a series of seamless stages that eventually become a new way of eating you can adopt permanently.

1. Induction
This two-week maximum fat-burning program jump-starts your body into the metabolic state known as ketosis, making it consume its own excess body fat faster than you ever thought possible. This phase is very strict in its limitation of carbohydrates. (Because of its rigor, the Induction phase is not suitable for children under the age of 12, pregnant women or people with severe kidney disease.) You eat no more than 20 grams of carbs a day. Most people lose at least 5 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks during Induction. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, you may safely stay on the Induction phase longer.

The Rules of Induction
You may eat pure protein (meat, fish and shellfish, poultry, eggs) and pure fats (butter, olive oil, mayonnaise).
Eat no more than 20 grams of carbohydrates a day in the form of salad and other vegetables, such as asparagus, broccoli and kale.
Eat absolutely no fruit, bread, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter.
Eat out as often as you wish. Just be alert to hidden carbs in gravies, sauces and dressings.
Eat no food not specifically allowed.
Aspartame may stimulate insulin production; avoid it and foods containing it.
Check the carb content of all foods you are unsure about with a carbohydrate gram counter.
Caffeine stimulates the production of insulin, so avoid regular coffee, tea and cola drinks.
Eat the amount of food that makes you feel satisfied, but not stuffed. If you’re not hungry, eat nothing or have a small protein snack to accompany your supplements.

2. Ongoing Weight Loss
You can liberalize your carbohydrate consumption slightly on Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), which you will follow for as many weeks or months as it takes you to get close to your goal weight. It’s important to understand that this liberalization on the carb front is not a license to return to your old eating habits. Instead, increase your daily intake of carbohydrates by 5 grams each week, i.e., 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week. By doing this very gradually you won’t fall out of ketosis. This is how you find your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing (CCLL). Typical 5-gram increments include 10 Brazil nuts, half an avocado, 1/4 cup of blueberries or 1/2 cup of green beans. You can even add carbs in the form of 4 ounces of dry wine, 6 ounces of light beer or 1 ounce of gin or whiskey daily. Naturally, you will see a gradual decrease in the pace of your weight loss as you add carbohydrates back into your diet. And that’s fine. The purpose of the whole program is not to lose weight fast, but to get it off and keep it off—forever.

3. Pre-Maintenance
When you get close to your ultimate weight goal, understandably you will want to take off those last five or six pounds in a hurry. But it’s important to carve them off over the course of two or three months. That’s because the biggest problem with weight control is not losing but maintaining. You may have gone on a crash diet in the past, only to gain it all back faster than you lost it. What you should do is just the opposite. By losing those final pounds with excruciating slowness, you’ll actually be easing yourself into a permanently changed way of eating.

For the Pre-Maintenance phase, each week simply add another 10 grams of carbs to what you have been eating each day on OWL. Or give yourself a 20-gram carbohydrate treat two or three times a week. You can now even touch some of those formerly forbidden starches such as a baked potato or a slice of pizza. Or add some favorite fruits: apples, bananas, peaches, grapefruit. As long as you don’t start gaining weight and continue to lose at an almost imperceptible rate, you’re doing fine. However, if eating any foods creates food cravings or provokes symptoms that disappeared while you’ve been on the program, stop them immediately.

4. Lifetime Maintenance
Once you arrive at your goal weight, offer yourself some well-deserved congratulations and prepare for a lifetime of slimness. When you have totally stopped your weight loss, your appetite will increase toward its normal level. For this reason, your Lifetime Maintenance program will still be fairly restrictive of carbohydrate foods. You’ll need to find your own Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCLM), meaning the level at which you neither gain nor lose weight. At this level, you will still restrict carbohydrates enough to curb some of your appetite. For most people, this ranges between 40 and 100 grams of carbs a day—still considerably less than the 300 grams the typical American consumes in a single day!

Answering The Critics
While mainstream medicine and nutrition have, on the whole, criticized the Atkins Nutritional Approach, the facts speak for themselves.

While mainstream medicine and nutrition have, on the whole, criticized the Atkins Nutritional Approach, the facts speak for themselves:

Dr. Atkins and his colleagues at The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York have treated over 60,000 patients using the Atkins approach as a primary protocol. These patients experience all the beneficial effects detailed above, as well as improved blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and a lower or completely eradicated dependence on prescription drugs.

While the mainstream critics continue to lament the consumption of fat as the root of America's weight problem, only carbohydrate consumption (mostly refined) has increased in the past few decades, while fat consumption has declined (as the "low-fat/high carb" diet has been promoted as the best nutritional option for every living person). During this time:

Obesity, which in the past had consistently applied to about 25% of the population, increased to 33%. Heart disease now accounts for 50% of all deaths, up from 40% in the 1970s. Cases of diabetes are growing in near epidemic proportions (in fact, children are now contracting adult-onset diabetes). Hypertension, chronic fatigue and attention-deficit-disorder are now well recognized conditions.

All of these conditions are linked not by the amount of fat in one's diet, but by blood sugar disturbances and insulin disorders caused by excessive refined carbohydrate consumption (FYI: The average person now consumes over 150 pounds of sugar a year, up from less then 10 pounds in the 19th century).

While medical and nutritional journals are filled with studies documenting the body's requirement of essential fatty acids and essential amino acids (derived from protein), there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Why then does the FDA recommend an average of 16 servings a day?

The Atkins Nutritional Approach is not a no-carbohydrate diet. The diet focuses on very limited consumption of the types of carbohydrates that tend to spike blood sugar levels the most, including non-whole grain bread, pastas, refined sugar products, juices, and high sugar/starchy fruits and vegetables. Atkins followers learn to determine their personal sensitivity to carbohydrates, as a way to manage their weight and health for life.