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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2008 - 21:15:22 |
(NUI) - At a time when beer, chips and candies are going low-carb, predicting the beginning of the end of the Atkins craze might seem more than a little premature. After all, even Wal-Mart is making obeisance to the Atkins altar, and fast food menus now sport the trademark scarlet "A."
So why am I an Atkins "bear" in the middle of a low-carb bull market? Just as during the heyday of some of the more implausible Internet initial public offerings, sooner or later we'll wake up to find there is no magical formula for losing pounds any more than there was for making money. In the end, it comes down to counting calories, or dollars, and keeping an eye on the bottom line.
Sanity was once defined as "the ability to keep one's head when everyone around you is losing theirs." The people who lacked this ability during the height of the Internet stock
bubble lost money. The people who lack this ability during the current Atkins bubble may or may not lose weight.
Unfortunately, former Atkins dieters most likely will find themselves gaining it all back in the end. By indiscriminately overloading the body with fats and proteins but frowning on many fruits and vegetables, the diet promises to cheat metabolism but ultimately only cheats health. The report that Dr. Robert C. Atkins himself was obese and had a history of heart failure and hypertension at the time of his death provides the most explicit proof yet of the health risks of such a diet.
There are many reasons why so many Atkins veterans are starting to sober up, with osteoporosis, diminished athletic ability, bad breath, kidney stones and even depression among them. Most alarming is that a diet that neglects the important cancer-fighting antioxidant compounds that only fruits and vegetables can provide will weaken the foundations of your long-term health.
After an unpleasant session with your bathroom scale or full-length mirror, your long-term health may not be first and foremost in your mind. You want to lose weight and you want to lose weight now. Well, how about going on a dirt diet? You'd certainly drop the pounds. But you would also make yourself very sick in the process.
My point is not to suggest that eating a diet of eggs, butter, bacon and beef is akin to eating dirt. But no diet should fail to recognize the negative health risks of overconsuming certain foods while neglecting others.
You don't have to compromise your health to lose weight. Instead of jeopardizing one to serve the other, why not lose weight and improve your nutritional health at the same time?
As a teenager, I began eating plenty of fruits and vegetables because they made me full and helped me stay slim. As I get older, it's nice to know that the same foods that are keeping me in my junior high jeans are also helping me ward off disease, maintain healthy eyesight and strengthen my bones and internal organs, making my life a long one.
Jennifer Grossman is the director of the Dole Nutrition Institute.
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