The fattest country in the world is drowning in diet plans, chomping down fatty steaks with greedy, hopeful smiles and tossing bread and grains in the garbage. According to Adventist.org, 55 percemt of the adult American public is overweight. This number jumped some 32 percent in the past ten years, with the advent of new, "revolutionary" diets that recommend seemingly convincing yet fundamentally erroneous eating plans. In this article, we will delve into the inner workings of popular high protein diets in America, touching on the most popular Atkins and the Zone diets, both of which carry the fad diet tradition to a new level of endangerment.
Atkin's New Diet Revolution
The ever-popular Atkins diet, invented in the mid-seventies by Dr. Atkins, who was on his diet for 36+ years, has taken all dieting laws and turned them askew. In Dr. Atkin's world, high amounts of fat and protein are good things, while breads and carbohydrates are evil. Many reputable doctors remain highly skeptical and even speak against the diet, particularly members of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
"You can lose weight in lots of ways that aren't healthy. You can take chemotherapy or get cancer or AIDS or be an alcoholic and lose weight...The problem with high animal protein diets is that even if you lose weight, you're mortgaging your health in the process," health guru and PCRM member Dr. Dean Ornish said. Dr. Atkins had a heart attack, and according to atkinstoxic, an e-group on yahoo.com, The Atkins diet can cause "premature death, heart disease, kidney disease, food poisoning, renal failure, ketosis, bleeding ulcers, and intestinal cancer, proven by the PCRM."
Fellow high protein diet advocates Dr. Stillman and Adelle Davis are already dead from heart disease, a result of their food intake. But Atkin's New Diet Revolution seems to be working; people are losing pounds left and right. Atkins stated it was because "high insulin levels result of complex carbohydrate consumption trigger fat production, and therefore must be omitted from one's diet entirely." Said an unidentified journalist on VegSource.com, "Weight loss from high-protein diets comes at first from losing water... long-term weight control means losing fat, a goal that calls for changing eating habits over time."
The Atkins diet controversially causes the body to go into a state of ketosis, earning it the "make yourself sick diet" name. Ketosis is something that "occurs when people are ill." When the body is deprived of carbohydrates, it burns fat and produces by-products called ketones. According to dictionary.com, ketosis is an "abnormal increase of ketone bodies in the blood," and "can lead to coma and death if untreated," online medical glossary illpi.com said. More common side effects include breath "reminiscent of nail polish remover and constipation," experienced by an estimated 60% of Atkin's dieters.
The Zone
Barry Sears' plan, also formulated around the new anti-carbohydrate diet laws, is essentially a more watered down Atkins diet, even with a vegetarian version, The Soy Zone, available.
Sears feels that because "Americans are told to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, ....people are...getting fatter." However, while there has certainly been a dramatic increase in adult and especially child obesity, it is due to an increased, not decreased, average fat intake. According to the USDA, "since 1989, American's daily fat intake has actually risen from 89 grams to 101 grams for men, and 62 grams to 65 grams for women."
Sears' book, Enter the Zone, emphasizes that on his diet, one will "achieve permanent weight loss, increased energy, and improved health - all without restricting calories." The Zone's "40-30-30" plan (40% of daily calories from carbohydrates, and 30% each from fat and protein). Sears, who claims to consume 100 grams of protein (400 calories) a day, must eat 1330 calories total, which is only 45% of the recommended daily value of calories for someone of his height and weight. Ultimately, it appears Barry Sears' "Zone" is one of starvation.
"The Zone... is another diet craze....Sears' advice will probably help you lose weight, but only because you'll be eating fewer calories, not because his untested theories about protein, carbohydrates, and insulin will put you into what he calls the 'Zone'." [International Journal of Obesity Related Metabolic Disorders)
A dieting nation with the highest rate of obese citizens is one of the greatest ironies on this earth. The legitimacy of these plans are questionable, especially when it has been proven that high protein diets impair mental functioning (Int. Journal of Obesity Related Metabolic Disorders). One must always question the proud and reaffirmed conjectures made by diet trend kings and queens, as they are rarely true.
Nina is a vegan who writes for her school newspaper and is active in working toward vegetarian and vegan food integration into high school and middle school cafeterias.
LINKS:
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