Atkins Diet is dangerous pseudo-science

[ciphergoth]

The Atkins Diet is a pile of dangerous pseudo-science. Not that this comes as a surprise, but here's the word from Dr Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre.

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Update: Post made friends-only. Thanks to babysimon for pointing out that vampwillow had invited people in atkins_uk to join the thread, resulting in some incredibly lunatic contributions. Update: Public again.

Comments

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

The government (in the UK) also pays out a small fortune in medical care costs to people who abuse their bodies. Obesity leads to serious long-term illness such as diabetes. The government has a vested interest in making sure it doesn't have to pay for 40 years of insulin, not to mention bypass operations, treatment for varicose veins, and so on.

Smoking is something of a special case, in that it's a win-win situation--not only do smokers bring in valuable tax revenue, they also die much earlier, cutting down on lifetime healthcare costs. (Well, I suppose I should say that it's win-win for everyone except the smoker...)

If anything, the government has a vested financial interest in promoting the Atkins diet. Pricey special foods = more tax revenue, people killing themselves off with a nice, sudden heart attack = less NHS cost.

[vampwillow]

Pricey special foods = more tax revenue

Actually, the really interesting thing about 'doing' lo-carb is that I'm not buying ANY special pricey foods. In fact I'm buying no processed foods whatsoever.

What I *am* buying is plenty of fresh salad and above-ground vegetables, plenty of fresh meat and fish and cheese plus 100g packets of brazil and macadamia nuts (my replacements for sweets).

Fresh quality stuff instead of processed sugar-laden stuff.

Good for me, probably good for the farmers, really bad for the food processors!

[babysimon]

Fresh quality stuff instead of processed sugar-laden stuff.

How can I say this any more plainly?

Do you think that might be the real issue here? Rather than your avoidance of pasta?

I mean, congratulations on vastly improving your diet (really!), but why do you have to believe in magic to do so?

Maybe I should write a best selling book: "The Food Pyramid Diet". All I have to do is find a way to obfuscate generally accepted practice, and I'll become rich.

Hmmm... weight gain is caused by evil wavelengths. Eat plenty of food reflecting light at 510nm. Wavelengths over 600nm should be avoided.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Many diabetics are not obese and many obese people are not diabetics. Weight is implicated in diabetes, but there are no diseases only fat people get. Heredity is a very strong factor in diabetes.

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

You seem to be disagreeing with something I didn't say or imply.

I said "Obesity leads to serious long-term illness such as diabetes". It was an example. I mentioned some other examples too.