All about the Atkins Diet

All about the Atkins Diet

(01-07-09) by Jennifer W.

The Atkins diet was developed by Dr. Robert Atkins in the mid 1070's. A graduate of Cornell University, Dr.Atkins wrote several diet and health books during his life and appeared on many radio and television shows until his death in 2003.

The Atkins plan is based on a high fat, high protien, low carbohydrate diet. It promotes eggs, cheese, and meat, while discouraging breads, pasta, and sugar. The Atkins diet was introduced in 1972 with Dr, Atkin's best selling book, Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution.

Dr.Atkins believed that too many carbs caused the body to over produce insulin causing the body to retain weight by slowing down the metabolism and changing sugar levels in the blood. He felt that it was not the fat and calories that made many people have trouble losing weight but the high amounts of refined sugar and certain carbohydrates.

The low-carb Atkins approach allows the dieter to eat more protein and fat on theory that the body will naturally burn fat more naturally if carb intake are lowerd drastically. This sends the body into a state of "ketosis", meaning that the body will begin to use it's own fat as fuel. The body uses stored fat for energy instead of carbs and the weight is then lost.

The Atkins diet remains popular after many years but has had it's critics. Some nutritionists believe that the spike in cholesteral is not healthy for the heart and that the diet does not promote excersise.

Since the Atkins diet discourages most fruits, vegetables, milk, and nuts it is important to take vitamins while on this regimen. It allows you to enjoy richer foods such as eggs, cheese, and meat but discourages white flours, white rice, milk and absolutely no refined sugar. `

When the Atkins diet first came out exercise was not a priorty. Now however, it is recommended that it be part of the overall plan. Reducing cholesterol is more of a priority than it was 30 years ago. With eggs,meat and cheese being the main components of the Atkins diet cholesterol becomes an issue that exercise can counter.

The Atkins diet remains popular after all these years and will no doubt continue to be as it has been successful for many people. It should not be used as a lifelong eating rulebook but more of a fat and weight loss train to get on and off of as needed.