| Diet fads fade for at least one reason. Like pet rocks, | | | | Finally, few journalists revealed that the Atkins |
| low carb products and diets will die out because they | | | | Foundation funded one of these studies. |
| just don't do anything worthwhile. The dropout rate is | | | | Will anybody benefit from low carb diets? |
| high - about 50 percent - because the diets are | | | | Those who can successfully navigate the |
| ordinary, boring and are unpalatable to most people. | | | | inconvenience and side effects of the low-carb diet |
| More than 90 percent of people dieting on low carb | | | | and then maintain a considerable loss of fat will gain |
| diets, return to their previous weight within 5 years, | | | | much benefit. The early weight loss, however, is mostly |
| most of them even sooner. Smaller side effects such | | | | loss of water. Much of the later weight loss consists |
| as headache, fuzzy thinking, irritability, halitosis and | | | | of the lean part of the body mass, mostly muscle. |
| constipation are almost universal among Atkins | | | | Long-term success depends not simply on careful |
| adherents. Hard side effects are fortunately rare. | | | | attention to diet, but also to regular workout. Those |
| Does low carb diets have any negative side effects? | | | | who do not incorporate a workout routine into their life |
| Physicians are concerned that long-term use to a | | | | are destined to gain all the weight back, and then |
| high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets may lead | | | | some. |
| to kidney stones, osteoporosis and heart abnormalities. | | | | In what direction is the low carbohydrate craze going? |
| Kidney stones and disturbances of heart rhythm are | | | | First, proponents are already backing away from |
| well-documented complications of the decades-old low | | | | saturated fat. The South Beach diet recognizes that |
| carbohydrat ketogenic diet (high fat, low protein, low | | | | polyunsaturated (from fish) and monounsaturated |
| carbohydrate) that pediatricians have used to lower | | | | (from olive oil) fats are not only acceptable, they are |
| the seizure frequency in children with neurological | | | | even essential to good health. |
| disorders. | | | | Second, the distinction between refined or bad |
| Does Low carb food increase cholesterol levels? | | | | carbohydrates (white flour, sugar) and whole grains is |
| A reputable medical journal reported in May 2004 that | | | | one that needs to be widely disseminated. More and |
| low-carb diets helped people lose weight without | | | | more weight lodd diets are taking the consequenses |
| causing adverse effects on cholesterol levels. There | | | | of this. |
| was comfort among food manufacturers, who had | | | | Third, the low-fat establishment cannot - and must not |
| already rushed to market low-carb products that | | | | - ignore the incontestable benefits of fruits and |
| covered the spectrum from beer to bonbons. Lost in | | | | vegetables in the prevention of cancer and heart |
| all this was the cool scientific observation that | | | | disease. This food could easily be incorporated into an |
| overweight persons experienced only a moderate | | | | Atkins induction diet or an ordinary Atkins diet. |
| weight loss, and that severely overweight individuals | | | | The low-carb hysteria has probably reached its peak, |
| lost, on average, only one pound per month during the | | | | but remnants will persist for a generation or more, and |
| whole study year. The cholesterol profiles did, | | | | permutations of it will rise episodically like phoenixes |
| abundantly favor the low-carb dieters, but those levels | | | | among those who are looking for effortless weight |
| remained high - because that's where they started out. | | | | loss. Like the phoenix, that is nothing but a myth. |