Diet Debate

Didi wrote (elsewhere):

Atkins reports in his book, "Dr Atkins Nutrition Breakthrough" that some of his diabetic patients (he doesn't give numbers) "adjust" (quotes his) to his diet and their blood sugars increase. He said it was beneficial for them to have their lower blood sugars even for a while. So he devises a "meat and millet" diet for diabetics whereas in his first book he claims his very low carb diet is the best for diabetics. His meat and millet diet adds grains. So if the king of low carb found his diet less than perfect for diabetics for whom the popular (and I believe incorrect) wisdom says to reduce carbs, and he actually adds carbs then one might question a low carb, higher animal protein diet. Of course when you eat more animal protein you are eating more fat and cholesterol. When we talk of carbs I hope we are on the same page and are referring only to whole food as grown or very very minimally processed. Not highly processed and refined flour products or starchy food cooked in fat.[br>

Didi,
Sorry, but with all due respect, I still believe that this "meat and millet" diet is probably a myth stemming from some misinterpretation of his text.

Atkins did make small mistakes. In my opinion, allowing adding of more carbohydrates beyond 50g/d after just the first 6 months of induction stage, was the main one! But he never advocated eating huge amounts of carbs!


His 50g of carbs during "induction" was much too soon and he did not clearly specify the upper limit after the induction stage. His induction stage limit of 50g was too high for most people, except those of large body size.


Based on my recollection of diabetic people I talked to, worsening of blood glucose control after a certain period of time on his diet, was not due to some "adaptation" but precisely because they added too much carbs too soon!


Even for me, though I was not diabetic (only metabolic syndrome) it took me 2 full years before I was able to add more carbs in form of rice and fruit to my diet, beyond the initial 25g of carbs day (I couldn't tolerate even 50g initially!) . I was able to increase that to about 50gonly after 2 years! Only after about 7 years I was able to consume up to a 100g of carbs, occassionally and infrequently.


Whether he really specified adding millet to a diet they way you describe it, I seriously doubt. If you quote from memory this is may be distorted. Best thing would be to get the relevant fragment scanned and posted (you should perhaps post it on that other forum). The spirit of Atkins diet can be summarized in 2 words: "Carbohydrate Restriction". He has never changed that, as far as I know, till he died.

However, since Atkins didn't specify carb limits, an interpretation by some readers to add cereals at liberty, and then suffer from poor glucose control or worse, may have been an unfortunate outcome.


Anyway Atkins is dead and buried, but new research keeps cropping up supporting the notion of the therapeutic value of the low carb diets for people with metabolic syndrome and diabetes. That is partially Atkins legacy that has not and will not die. And that is really good news!


Best regards,
Stan (Heretic)