Weight Loss, Diet and Fitness Program

Low-carbohydrate diets are good for losing weight, but we don’t know the long-term effects on health and longevity. Low-carb diets help people lose weight quickly, but do they form the basis of lifelong nutritional program?
About 50 percent of subjects in Atkins studies drop out because it’s too difficult to stay on the diet. More than 3,500 studies involving more than 15,000 scientists reported a link between eating large amounts of meats, poultry, eggs and dairy products and heart disease, cancer, kidney failure, constipation, gallstones, diverticulosis (intestinal irritation) and hemorrhoids. In a recent study from Duke University comparing people on low- and high-carbohydrate diets, the Atkins subjects suffered a higher incidence of constipation (68% vs. 35%), headache (60% vs. 40%), bad breath (38% vs. 8%), muscle cramps (35% vs. 7%), diarrhea (23% vs. 7%), general weakness (25% vs. 8%) and skin rash (13% vs. 0%).

Constipation: Nearly 70 percent of subjects suffer from constipation due to low intake of fiber found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Taking a fiber supplement, such as Metamucil (sugar free), three times a day helps.
Heart disease: More women die from heart disease than any other health problem. High-protein/low-carbohydrate diets promote intake of unhealthy amounts of cholesterol, trans fats, saturated fats and protein that increase the risk of heart disease.

Dr. Richard Fleming, a nuclear cardiologist and founder of Fleming Heart and Health Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, does not agree that carbohydrates make people fatter than other foods. He maintains that obesity is caused by over-consumption of calories and it doesn’t matter whether those calories are carbohydrates, fats, or proteins.
His research shows that high fat content of the Atkins diet promotes hearth disease by raising blood fats and triggering inflammation in the inner lining of the arteries. Blood flow to the hearth decreased by an average of 40 percent after one year on the Atkins diet and there were increases in inflammatory markers in the blood, called C-reactive protein, that’s predictive of hearth attacks. Many hearth disease researchers think inflammation of the wall of the arteries supplying the hearth is the leading cause of coronary artery disease and hearth attacks. A low-saturated fat diet given to the control group improved blood flow to the hearth by more than 40 percent. Dr. Fleming concluded that high-protein/low carbohydrate diets are too dangerous even for a short time.

Research from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Hospital (2003), led by Dr. Frederick Samaha, helped promote the Atkins diet craze in America. A one-year follow-up of the original Atkins subjects showed that their weight loss was the same as those on mixed diet, but hearth disease risk factors remained lower. This the first study showing that staying on the diet for more than a year had positive health effect, but that the difference in weight loss was temporary. The most recent Atkins study from Duke University gave subjects extensive food supplements that may have prevented side effects.

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