Fighting the Food Fight

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 14, 2000 | by Karen Goldberg Goff

High-protein, low-carbohydrate diets are all the rage, but many nutritionists caution against them, arguing that such diets are unbalanced and ignore mainstream medical thinking.

Have a hamburger, but no bun. Order eggs and bacon, but no toast. Feast on prime rib, oysters, butter, cream cheese and beef jerky, but bypass the baked potato, the pasta and bagel. Do this in a precise manner, and you will lose weight. You may even lower your cholesterol, clear up your skin and have more energy.

This is the basis of low-carbohydrate, high-protein dieting, the current -- but often criticized -- weight-loss craze used by everyone from skinny starlets in Hollywood to the obese accountant next door. Outlined in diet books such as Enter the Zone by Barry Sears, The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet by Richard and Rachael Heller and the popular Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, these programs have the same basic principle in common: Eat more protein and fewer carbohydrates and sugar.

When a person reduces carbohydrate consumption, the body's blood-sugar levels decrease and cause the pancreas to produce less insulin. With less insulin to draw on, the body is forced to burn fat reserves for energy, resulting in rapid weight loss, according to gurus such as Atkins. Eating more fat -- a food category that formerly was taboo for many dieters -- makes the body feel full, leading to fewer carbohydrate cravings.

"On diets high in carbohydrates, carbohydrates become the body's primary fuel," says Atkins, a New York cardiologist. His book, an update of the original diet plan he formulated in the early 1970s, has been on the New York Times' best-seller list for 192 weeks. "When fat is used as fuel, as it is on a low-carbohydrate diet, it gets mobilized. It does not accumulate, so weight and cholesterol drop."

This method is in direct opposition to everything sacred to a generation of low-fat dieters. It also is in opposition to most mainstream medical thinking.

"People are always looking for a quick way to lose weight" says Wahida Karmally, a nutrition research scientist at Columbia University and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "You will lose weight in the first week on these diets but, past that, they lack essential nutrients, and it is an unbalanced way of eating. It lacks fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Eating high-fat and high-cholesterol [foods] increases the risk of heart disease and tests the kidneys."

Says Denise Bruner, president of the American Society of Bariatric (controlled weight loss) Physicians: "Over the long term, these diets are nutritionally deficient. In the short term, any diet will help you lose weight. The typical Atkins plan is about 1,400 calories per day. If you go to that after eating 2,500, you are going to lose weight. It is easy to say one thing is bad for you, such as sugar or fat, but that is not true."

In addition, Bruner is bothered by what she calls flimsy research behind the top low-carbohydrate plans. "The people who have written these books have never done the research," she says. "There might be some real science there, but where is the data? Dr. Atkins doesn't show why he is successful. He is presenting anecdotal evidence."

More research is in the works. Earlier this year, doctors at Duke University studied 41 obese patients on a diet that included less than 20 grams of carbohydrates a day. In four months, participants lost an average of 21.3 pounds and showed a 6 percent drop in cholesterol and an almost 40 percent drop in triglycerides. So far the study, which is ongoing, has not found any potentially dangerous effects on liver and kidney function. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to conduct its own tests of a low-carbohydrate diet vs. a low-fat diet.

Yet, if low-carbohydrate dieting gets a thumbs-down from many doctors and nutritionists and goes against conventional wisdom, why is it so popular? Because it seems to work.

Beth Brooks, 35, had tried many diets, including low-fat, low-calorie, vegetarian and liquid only. The St. Louis woman embarked on the Atkins program last year. She has lost 64 pounds and plans to lose 30 more -- in short, she is a true believer.

"Once I got the carbs out of my system, it was physically easy," she says. "Once the weight began coming off and all my health problems began to disappear, I had to accept the fact that carbohydrates had been my problem all along. I had to manage it like most addicts manage their addictions."

On a typical day, Brooks eats three or four eggs, 8 to 10 ounces of meat or chicken, a salad or dark green vegetable such as broccoli, and cheese and macadamia nuts for snacks. She claims to have "tons more energy," sleeps better, has fewer skin problems, infrequent colds and no longer suffers from swings in blood sugar.

"All the eggs, meat and cheese and butter I consume have not detrimentally impacted my blood-cholesterol levels," she says. "In fact, my diet has actually improved that -- my total cholesterol dropped from 280 to 198." (Anything over 200 is considered high.)