Who You Gonna Call? Part II: I Have More Stuff to Say About the Diet Docs

I thought I was done taking down the high-protein, fad-diet, doctor-scam-artists.   But I want to say a bit more, starting with this quote from “Dr. Atkins’ Health Revolution”:  

“Imagine losing weight with a diet that lets you have bacon and eggs for breakfast, heavy cream in your coffee, plenty of meat and even salad with dressing for lunch and dinner!”

I don’t know if Atkins knew he was hurting millions with this outrageous “advice,” or if he somehow studied the human heart for all those years and remained ignorant of the effects of globs of fatty, cholesterol-dripping junk on your faithful, trusty heart and and arteries.  The brilliance of Atkins’ (and Sears’, Agatson’s, and others’) approach is that they got to tell people what they wanted to hear.   People WANT to eat eggs and bacon for breakfast.   They want to eat a steak for dinner.   It’s the fantasy diet of the Southern United States, right?   And an M.D. told them they could.

Problem is, like every other diet, Atkins is really just another calorie-restriction program.   Add up the caloric intake of a day on the program, and you have about 1,200 calories.   If you eat 1,200 calories on ANY diet, you’re going to lose weight.   Then you’re going to gain it back when your mind, body, and spirit get sick of being deprived.

And this “ketosis” thing that Atkins tells you to trick your body into?   I find the whole idea of tricking or manipulating your body offensive–that would only come from somebody who subscribes to the drug theory of health (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one).   No one has studied the long-term effects of “ketosis,” but it’s a highly unnatural state.  Don’t trick or manipulate your body.  Take good care of it, nourish it, love it: it has served you all these years, and you get only one.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. accurately calls cancer a “Fruit-and-Vegetable-Deficiency Disease.”   And yet what do Atkins and the other protein-mongers ban and criminalize?   Most all the foods with the phytonutrients, the insoluble fiber, the power to prevent cancer and heart disease–fruit and most veggies.  Campbell’s research in China showed that vegetarians can eat several hundred calories a day more than meat eaters–and are leaner!  

Tomorrow I’m moving on, away from the Fat Diet Doctors and onto more of the false gods of nutrition . . .

Posted in: Healthy Weight, Whole Food