The Atkins Diet

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The Atkins Diet is a departure from previously prevailing metabolic theories. Atkins claimed there are two important unrecognized factors in Western eating habits which lead to obesity.

First, the main cause of obesity is eating refined carbohydrates, particularly sugar, flour, and high-fructose corn syrups. Secondly, that saturated fat is overrated as a nutritional problem, being not as important in developing vascular disease, and that trans fats from sources such as hydrogenated oils are much more important in developing vascular disease.

Accordingly, Dr. Atkins rejected conventional nutritional advice (eg, that embodied in the food pyramid), instead claiming that the tremendous increase in refined carbohydrates has been responsible for the rise in metabolic disorders of the 20th century, and that the focus on the detrimental effects of dietary fat has actually contributed to the obesity problem by neglecting the increased proportion of carbohydrates in the diet.[citation needed] While Atkins puts his emphasis on diet, nutritional supplements and exercise are also considered important elements.

The Atkins Diet involves restriction of carbohydrates to more frequently switch the body’s metabolism from burning glucose as fuel to burning stored body fat. This process (called ketosis) begins when insulin levels are low; in normal humans insulin is lowest when blood glucose levels are low (mostly before eating), and blood glucose levels are most fundamentally increased by ingestion of some kinds of carbohydrate (eg, glucose, starch (ie, long glucose chains)). Other kinds of carbohydrates don’t participate in the insulin mechanism controlling metabolism. Ketosis involves lipolysis in which some of the lipid stores in fat cells are transferred to the blood. Ketosis is normal, and is the chief mechanism by which stored lipids are used for fuel; in principle, the body alternates between glucose metabolism and ketosis, being in glucose burning state after meals (especially meals with glucose content) and ketosis after ingested glucose is consumed.