by Sherrie Smith

Created on: April 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 03, 2007

Atkins Diet is the most sensible and health efficient way to lose weight, and keep it off permanently!

The Atkins way to good health involves cutting back on those bad carbohydrates, increasing protein intake, drinking plenty of water, and getting some exercise, although this last step is not absolutely necessary.

Dr. Atkins proposed that all new Atkins diet participants should go through "induction" that may not be totally necessary either. What is necessary is reducing the total intake of carbohydrates in the diet low enough that weight loss occurs. Nearly all Americans consume somewhere between 300-600 Grams of carbohydrates a day. That amount is conducive to heart disease, with increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels, diabetes, and all its nasty side pathology, arthritis, infections, and many other health related problems. Dr. Atkins proposed dropping those carbohydrate levels to 20 grams or less a day for several weeks, then slowly upping them to a critical level where weight loss either continues to occur, or weight stability is maintained, according to the patient's desire. Patients can stay on 20 grams of carbohydrates or less on a permanent basis without any health problems at all.

To offset the low carbohydrate levels, one is to increase the use of proteins to eliminate hunger & other cravings. Any protein is acceptable in nearly any amount. Feel free to eat all the meat, fish, eggs, and nearly all the cheese one wants. Dr. Atkins wants a patient to limit cheese intake to four ounces per day, but I, personally, have not heard of anyone not losing weight due to eating too much cheese.

The low fat proponents lodge several complaints against this diet. The first complaint is obvious. How can this diet be good if the use of animal saturated fats is unlimited? The answer to this question is found in the 30-40 years of research that backs the Atkins way of life. It isn't the fat in the American diet that is causing the increased heart disease and diabetes statistics; it is the combination of the increased fat and increased carbohydrates that drives the numbers. Eat low carbohydrate and high fat, cholesterol & triglyceride numbers plummet. Eat high carbohydrate and high fat, those same laboratory results surge. Research proves it! Personal stories back up the numbers! And, if one doesn't take in sufficient cholesterol needed to maintain cell wall integrity through the diet, the body produces its own version of cholesterol which is more artery clogging

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