Summary
Opponents of the Atkins diet are hard at work trying to discredit it.
Dr. John McDougall and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
(PCRM) have unleashed their latest attack on the low-carb diet by
claiming that because it causes ketosis, it therefore must be dangerous
to a person's health. I don't disagree with this assessment, but the
more important question is whether this state of ketosis is more
dangerous than a person remaining overweight. Frankly, the health risks
associated with temporary ketosis seem to outweigh the enormous risk of
disease and death associated with obesity. Because, after all, a
low-carb diet does help many people lose weight.
The PCRM takes some
unjustifiable cheap shots at the low-carb diet in this latest
announcement. For example, they state that people in Asia live on
high-carbohydrate rice diets and seem to do just fine. That's not an
honest comparison for two reasons. First, the Asians who are "doing
fine" on rice diets are physically active, and most Americans are not.
Secondly, Asians are born with metabolic systems better able to handle
grains and carbohydrates when compared to people of European or American
Indian descent. I know this because I've spent considerable time
studying the dietary response to carbohydrates in the Chinese (I lived
in Asia for two years, I speak Chinese, and I'm married to a full-blood
Chinese). What I know is that Chinese people can consume a large bowl of
noodles and a side dish of white rice without suffering the radical
blood sugar swings normally experienced by "white" people (like me). In
other words, Chinese have evolved a superior metabolic response to
dietary carbohydrates. Yet even that can be overcome by Western diets:
when Asians start consuming fast food, processed food, soft drinks and
other staples of the western diet, they also succumb to the ravages of
diet-related diseases like cancer and diabetes. So, for the PCRM to
state that "Asians eat carbohydrates and are just fine" is either
disturbingly uninformed or outright deceptive. Asians have a unique
metabolism well suited to the consumption of grains -- other people do
not.
For many years, I have supported the PCRM's basic stance on
health and especially on their effort to increase awareness of what
really goes on behind closed doors in the beef industry, but I think
that recently the organization has sadly turned to publicity tactics
that are rather unethical -- like getting their hands on Dr. Atkins'
medical records and leaking them to the press. That's an invasion of
Atkins' privacy, for one thing, and a violation of basic ethics. Sure,
they were trying to make a point (they proposed Dr. Atkins died of heart
disease), but if they are really physicians, they have a special duty to
uphold the privacy of medical records. The ends don't always justify the
means.
Original source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/552768.cms
Details
Thanks to new research which reveals that low-carb dieters manage to
lose weight and show perceptible change in their levels of cholesterol,
blood sugars, and blood pressures, because they are absolutely sickened
by it.
In the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, John McDougall, an
advisory board member of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
(PCRM), explains that low-carb diets can throw people into a metabolic
state called ketosis, that also occurs during severe illness.
People living mostly on high-carbohydrate rice and vegetable dishes in
Asia are trim throughout their lives with almost no risk of heart
disease, diabetes or our common cancers, he went on to say.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he has published numerous courses on preparedness and survival, including financial preparedness, emergency food supplies, urban survival and tactical self-defense. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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Thursday, April 29, 2004
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