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Proof that the Atkins Diet Works Like Chemotherapy By Sickness-Induced Starvation
www.drmcdougall.com
(I would like
to stop writing about this subject, but the number of people
trapped in this deadly dietary foolishness increases by thousands
everyday. See below a summary of my articles on Atkins and high
protein diets.)
�I have a
friend who went on the Atkins Diet � a very high fat, high
cholesterol diet � and his cholesterol dropped 50 points. So,
this is solid evidence that Dr. McDougall and other medical
experts have things all backwards. Obviously this low-carbohydrate
diet is a healthy diet.� So, I hear all too often.
My answer:
Risk factors, like cholesterol, improve because these dieters eat
so much less food � because they are sick from the Atkins diet. A
recent study of children proves when dieters are forced to eat
enough of all those high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate foods
(meat, poultry, fish, eggs, etc.) to fulfill their daily calorie
needs, their risk factors for, and their actual risks of,
premature death worsens.
Atkins-type Diet Raises Cholesterol and More
The August 20,
2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association
published an article �The effect of a high-fat ketogenic* diet
on plasma levels of lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins in
childen.�1 In this 6-month study, 141 children
(average age 5.2 years � 70 boys, 71 girls) were placed on an
Atkins-type diet for seizure disorders.** Researchers found an
average increase in total cholesterol of 58 mg/dl, �bad�
LDL-cholesterol of 50 mg/dl, triglycerides of 58 mg/dl, and a
decrease of �good� HDL-cholesterol of 7 mg/dl. Follow-up of these
children at 12 and 24 months showed continued adverse changes in
these risk factors for heart disease. All of these deteriorations
are serious indicators of poorer health from a high-fat, ketogenic
diet.
The most
obvious conclusions from the results of this study mean ketogenic
diets promote serious artery damage. The earliest signs of artery
damage seen in children are fatty streaks and the later lesions
seen in adolescents and young adults are fibrous plaques.
Cholesterol levels reflect the chance of finding artery disease
upon examination of the arteries (for example, by autopsy) or by
clinical events later in life, such as heart attacks.
Here is an
example of what increases in cholesterol will mean for your future
health: Healthy young men age 20 to 25 years with cholesterol
levels of more than 210 mg/dl were found to have 5 times the rate
of heart disease 30 to 40 years later compared to those who had
cholesterol of less than 170 mg/dl.2 In other words, a
difference of 40 mg/dl means 5 times the risk of future heart
disease. Now consider that the changes produced by the ketogenic
diet in this study of children in 6 months were even worse � 58
mg/dl � an average increase in total cholesterol of 174 mg/dl to
232 mg/dl.
The Reason Atkins Lowers Risk Factors
Almost all of
the children showed these adverse changes in blood values
indicating they were at higher risks of artery disease in the
future. But, followers of the Atkins diet claim the opposite � so
why the drastic difference? The difference between the children
treated for seizure control and people on the Atkins diet is the
amount of food consumed. The authors of this study know this
difference and state, � �the ketogenic diet was designed to have
sufficient calories to promote healthy growth and development.
Measurement of lipids and lipoprotein in healthy adults receiving
a ketogenic diet has usually been obtained while patients are
actively losing weight.�1
Unless
force-fed like the children, loss of appetite caused by a
ketogenic diet causes a person to eat less food � which means
eating fewer calories, and less cholesterol, fat, sugar, refined
and processed foods, animal protein, and salt. As a direct result
of less food, signs of improved health seem to appear
because risk factors, like serum cholesterol, triglycerides, uric
acid, glucose, and blood pressure, may decrease � and the patient
is declared healthier. Not necessarily so. Similar benefits, for
similar reasons, are seen when patients are placed on cancer
chemotherapy3 � and doctors don�t brag about these
results.
I hope you can
understand how eating smaller amounts of unhealthy foods (red
meat, fried chicken, pork rinds, and fried cheese) will lower risk
factors, yet cannot possibly transform these same foods into cures
for heart disease.
 So
when your friends boast about their results with the Atkins diet,
assure them that those results are not real indicators of better
health and will be temporary at best � because no one can stay
that sick for very long. Even the founder, Dr. Robert Atkins,
could not follow his own diet � look at his pictures before he had
his massive cardiac arrest and almost died in April of 2002 � my
guess is he was at least 60 pounds overweight with jowls hanging
to his chest. Comfort your misguided friends by telling them that
when they�re ready you will teach them a diet that will reverse
much (but not all) of the damage they have done to themselves with
the Atkins diet.
* Ketogenic
refers to the creation of a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a
natural condition the body resorts to under harsh circumstances,
such as illness or starvation. When people are ill they need to
be recuperating, not gathering and preparing foods. Loss of
appetite facilitates recovery. A kindness of Nature for starving
people is to quiet the pain of hunger. After 3 days with no food
the body enters a state of ketosis and the pain of dying is
relieved.
** The Seizure Treatment
Almost 80 years
ago doctors began using a diet sufficiently restricted in
carbohydrate to cause the body to change its metabolism to burn
fat, and produce a byproduct � ketones � for seizure control .
This diet works as well as, or better than, medications, yet the
mechanism which decreases seizures remains unknown. The greater
the level of ketosis, the better the seizure control. The
anti-seizure benefits may last long after the diet is
discontinued. To be effective, the fat content of the child�s
diet must be about 90% of the calories � carbohydrates are
restricted to less than 10g/day � similar to the Atkins diet.
However, the
major difference between the two ketogenic diets (Atkins for
weight loss vs. the one for seizure control) is the goal for the
intake of calories. The diet for the children is calorie
sufficient so that they will grow. It is often a chore for
parents to get their children to eat enough of these fatty foods
to meet calorie needs. This is reflected in the fact that 15% (25
of the 165) eligible subjects quit the diet because it was �too
restrictive.�1
Short-term
complications of this seizure-control diet included hypoglycemia,
vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and refusal to eat. Long-term
complications included irritability, lethargy, kidney stones,
acidosis, hyperuricemia (uric acid), hypocalcemia (low calcium),
decreased amino acids, decreased growth, and elevated
cholesterol. Most patients stop the ketogenic diet after 2 years
� hopefully, temporary use in childhood will not result in a
long-term increased risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis,
and kidney damage.
References:
1) Kwiterovich
PO. Effect of a high-fat ketogenic diet on plasma levels of
lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins in children. JAMA.
2003 Aug 20;290(7):912-20.
2) Klag MJ,
Ford DE, Mead LA, et al. Serum cholesterol in young men and
subsequent cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med.
1993;328:313-318.
3) Subramaniam
S. Studies on the changes in plasma lipids and lipoproteins in
CMF treated breast cancer patients. Biochem Int. 1991
Aug;24(6):1015-24. |
