My dad died following an ADA/AHA diet… They just don’t work very well. Things kept progressively getting worse for him until he had to take oral meds, and then insulin, and then meds for his high blood pressure, and then his kidneys failed… it just all went downhill, and his cholesterol was still plenty bad, even though he was a thin man.
How would you modify the Atkins diet? I’m looking into it with a friend who has type 1. A lot of the criticism of the diet may not be warranted. The problems attributed to the diet may be much due to folks who follow some part of the diet, not the full recommendations. This is all new to me.
One good source of information on foods, their carb and nutritional content is George Mataljan’s World’s Healthiest Food, http://www.whfoods.com/. I have his book, which may be a useful guide for developing a modified version of the Atkins diet with my friend. In 1996 I started on a gluten and lactose free diet to try and better control my drug-resistant seizures. Both nuts and various beans can make excellent gluten free flours which can make lower carb breads.
Well, for me, I did Dr. Bernstein’s diet when I was back in college, under the supervision of a nutritionist from the school, and it was so strict, I just failed miserably. I don’t have the will power for that, I guess, and I was starving all the time. No one should have to live on just about 700 calories a day, and just less than 30 g of carb a day. lol What I do is that I consume about 90 carbs a day, sometimes less. I don’t go fat free on things, but I do try to skip things that… are just way too high on saturated fat content. Most processed foods just have a lot of fat that isn’t very beneficial anyway, unlike like fats from full fat cheeses, or from lean meats, or Omega-3’s from things like mayonnaise… And I do eat a healthy level of calories for my body. Makes me feel happy, satisfied (which is very important for people on diets to feel), and committed… cus I don’t feel divided between eating junk, or craving carbs a lot, and the healthier lifestyle. Definitely, if I consumed 200 g of carb like the ADA recommends, I’d be in a hospital right now, for sure.
I follow Dr. Bernstein’s guidelines, 30-35 carbs a day (he recommends 30 carbs), & eat a lot more than 700 calories. I don’t remember reading anything in his book about such a low caloric intake. Did you eat 700 calories for weight loss?
I’ve never counted calories, but since I eat calorie dense foods like cheese, avocadoes, nuts I’m eating quite a few.
Do you follow a diet plan? How are you doing with your diet now? Given the low carbs, wouldn’t more fat be needed to balance out the need for energy usually provided by carbs?
What specifically about the ADA diet would put you in the hospital? When I looked into it, I was concerned about some of the recommendations.
When I was first diagnosed in 2007, my Endo wanted to put me on diabetic and cholesterol medication right away. My primary care physician said, “Not so fast” What is considered a low carb diet nowadays? My nutrionist put me on a diet of 30 carb grams per meal and two 15 carb gram snacks per day. She also taught me how to eat “healthier” foods…not too much fat…lots of veggies, fruit, salads and lean cuts of meat and fish. I can even have a piece of dark chocolate!
I hear many good things about other diets, but I must admit that I once went on the Atkins diet and didn’t do so well. Maybe I just didn’t follow it right? I wasn’t a diabetic yet and found I could not live on it. I was always craving something I couldn’t have, but I did lose 10 lbs on it. I felt sluggish, so I came off it only to gain back 12 lbs. I’m sure some do well on these types of diets, but It wasn’t for me. I find that the diet I’m on now is one that I can live with every day. I’m at a great weight and feel energetic (probably because my blood sugars are stable) but best of all I crave nothing. I am always interested in learning what other diets are out there and what works for others in here. Does anyone know of a good, low carb recipe book?
Hi Alisha,
Can’t recommend a particular low carb cookbook, but there are wonderful recipes on these sites.
Linda’s Low Carb Menus & Recipes http://genaw.com/lowcarb/index.html
The Low Carb Cafe www.lowcarbcafe.com
Low Carb Luxury http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/index.html
Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/low_carb/
Low Carb Eating http://lowcarbeating.com/
Low Carb Friends www.lowcarbfriends.com
Gerri has provided some great on-line resources. For good cookbooks, look at Dana Carpenter, she has a number of good books out there, some of which are probably available at your local public library.