It's yet another round in the ongoing battle to undermine the success of the Atkins diet. In particular, the doctor who came up with this name (Dr. Howard Peiper), says that eating undigestible sweeteners like sorbitol, sucralose and maltitol will cause nutritional deficiencies in your body. In principle, I agree with the doctor. Many low-carb diets are shockingly unhealthy (read my free online book Low-Carb Diet Warning for full details), but it isn't just the artificial chemical sweeteners; it's the sodium nitrite, hydrogenated oils and monosodium glutamate, too.
Even if I agree with Dr. Peiper on the potential health risks of consuming low-carb processed foods with chemical ingredients, that doesn't mean I think we need another silly disease label slapped on it. Eating low-carb foods isn't a "syndrome," it's a behavior, just like obesity isn't a "disease" either. Obesity is the result of poor nutritional choices and a lack of physical exercise. It's simple cause and effect. There are probably fewer than fifty people on the planet who have a true-to-life genetic mutation that makes it impossible for them to stop eating. For everyone else, it's just poor choice in regards to foods and fitness.
Let's face it: eating nothing but processed low-carb foods isn't a disease, it's just an attempted shortcut by many people who want a new excuse to eat all the food they want. If it says "low carb" on the package, they think they can consume unlimited quantities. It's exactly like the low-fat craze in the 1980's where people consumed loads of fat-free cookies (loaded with refined white sugar, of course) and told themselves they were following a healthy diet.
In reality, processed foods are never healthy foods, regardless of their labels. If you want to eat healthy, you've got to consume fresh, wholesome ingredients: vegetables, fruits, whole grains and "super" foods like quinoa, chlorella, spirulina and chia seeds. Failure to do so doesn't mean you have a "syndrome," it just means you need to find a way to make better choices. I'm tired of doctors taking power away from people by slapping disease labels on free will actions.
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