by Pam Brink

Created on: June 09, 2010   Last Updated: May 01, 2012

If you have decided to go on a diet and if you think the low carbohydrate diet is the one for you, how do you decide which of all the low-carbohydrate diets out there are the ones to try?  One way to help you make your decision is to read Johnny Bowden’s book:  “Living Low Carb: Controlled-Carbohydrate Eating for Long-Term Weight Loss.”   Bowden’s book is a review of all the diet books that claim to be Low-Carbohydrate diets.  He gives a synopsis of each book, critically reviews the logic and rationale for the diet, then gives them a grade according to how well they agree with the principles of human physiology and which ones don’t make sense or appear to be just hype.  There are several books he recommends, citing his reasons for the recommendation.  Having read the books myself, I tend to agree with him.

The Atkins Diet

Probably the best known among all the low-carbohydrate diets are the books by Dr Robert Atkins, a cardiologist, who read the publication by William Banting on his weight loss experience, tried it, found that it worked for him, and became a low-carbohydrate diet convert with all the enthusiasm of converts.  His books, “Dr Atkins Diet Revolution” and “Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution” created a storm of controversy in the medical community.  The books were read and followed by people desperate to lose weight who had tried and failed at other dieting programs but were successful at taking their weight off and keeping it off using the Atkins approach. 

In 2007, a Stanford physician and his research team conducted a clinical experiment on weight loss with moderately obese women over the age of 40.  The women were given the Atkins diet books, books by Dr Barry Sears on “The Zone,” the “LEARN program” (which is based upon the USDA dietary recommendations) and the low fat diet by Dean Ornish (which is the currently recommended medical weight loss diet for patients with heart disease).  At the end of one year, the women on the Atkins diet managed to stay on the diet the longest (the women on the low fat diet quit dieting the soonest), lost the most weight, had the best blood values (blood sugar, cholesterol, and so on).  The findings stunned the researchers who did not “believe in” the low carbohydrate diet. 

A distinguishing feature of the Atkins diet plan is the extremely low initial carbohydrate

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