Dan Abel wrote:
> Katra wrote:
>
> > Thing is, new evidence shows how a low fat, high carb diet is killing
> > people.

That's an extreme view.

> > I've known several myself that went on that type of diet at the
> > recommendation of their personal physicians that ended up having to go
> > on statins (which are very hard on the liver) because the diet changes
> > DID NOT WORK!!!

Saying a diet didn't work is hugely different from saying is kills.

> In my opinion, any time you see the word "high" in front of a food type
> that has lots of calories, you are talking about a diet for those who need
> to gain weight.

If and only if "high" means what you think.

Let's say I'm a standard issue At-kid eating 1800 calories fixes (when
averaged across a week but wide variation day to day). Before starting
Atkins I maybe at 80 grams of fat (border betwen low and not-low), 100ish
grams of protein (neither low nor high) and a lot of carbs fill make up
the rest of the calories. Then at teh same total 1800 calories and the
same 100ish grams of protein I start Atkins and switch to 20 grams of
carb (low) and the rest fat grams to fill out the 1800 calorie total,
around 140ish. Is 140ish grams of fat "high"? When within a reasonable
1800 calorie daily total? It is by the standard Atkins definition.

But how many people read "high" and think it is added on top of the
calorie total not worked within a fixed calorie total? Yet their
thinking isn't what Atkins is about.

> For my second opinion, I think that whether a diet works well for a person
> depends more on psychology than anything else.

Depends on the person. One lesson of Atkins is that swings of blood
sugar from insulin levels from dietary carbs is physiological not
psychological for a fair percentage of people. High carb food does
trigger cravings for them, low carb food solves the cravings.
Another lesson of Atkins is that some people have addictions to
certain foods as a result of intolerance reactions. Once these
people find out the trigger food and avoid it, they no longer have
cravings. Neither lesson works for everyone, but one or both work
for a lot of people.

In my case my problem with low fat was wheat. I'm intolerant of
anything with wheat and I have an addictive pattern of behavior to
anything with wheat in it. Any diet that pushes me to eat pasta,
will trigger binges where I eat all of the pasta on the table and
then move on to everything else. Others react to corn, others have
lesser reactions to assorted stuff. And many people are free of this
issie and for them it is indeed psychological.

> If Atkins or some
> variation works well for you, that's great. That doesn't mean it will
> work well for someone else.

Right. Try stuff until you find what does work for you, don't knock
what works for others.

> Personally, I lose weight by consciously eating more food. At first I
> thought that a little self-control in eating less would work. I found
> that I *had* no self-control. Attempting to eat less just meant that I
> ate more of the high calorie stuff. So, I switched to eating more. I
> would fill my plate with plain vegies and have extra servings of salad.
> By filling my stomach like this, I could more easily resist the temptation
> to take another serving of the high calorie main dish.

That's a strategy that wouldn't work for me. If the high calorie dish
had wheat in it, it wouldn't matter if I had room. Addictive behavior
pattern with a physical trigger.