So you are going to try the Atkins Diet. Well done on the decision to get you health back in order. Many critics would say that to follow the Atkins Diet will in the long term do more damage to your health than good but the followers of Atkins swear by the fast weight loss and renewed energy.
What exactly is the Atkins Diet? Well in 1972 Dr Robert C Atkins introduced his Diet Revolution to the masses as a low carbohydrate, high protein, and high fat diet. It went against the ideas of much of the medical community but Dr Atkins hadn’t just dreamt up the diet. He based his finding on years of research with his patients following low carb diets.
If we go way back in time what did our ancestors eat? When humans first evolved on the planet what was there for them to eat? Certainly no fast food outlets with their 24/7 drive through or vast supermarkets filled with every kind of food known.
We were hunter-gatherers. Basically we ate what we hunted and gathered. Large mammals would be hunted, killed and eaten along with berries, nuts and some edible herbs. As we had evolved over millennia to be nourished by what was available to eat so our bodies had adapted to handle the foodstuffs of the time.
Our bodies are adapting still to try and get the best nourishment out of today’s diet but this adaptation is a slow, slow process. We were not designed to eat refined carbohydrates or sugars. Our salt intake was never meant to be as high as it is. We are basically omnivorous and were made to eat meat and vegetables. This is the diet from which we find it easiest to gain nourishment. This is close to the Atkins Diet.
Dr Atkins found that his patient’s health improved following his diet. Could it simply be that a return to the diet it was designed for is the best for the human body?
People have a right to choose to be vegetarian or to consume vast quantities of fast food but do they then have the right to complain that they don’t feel well? If we design a road car and then try and take it off road should we be surprised that it gets stuff after a while?
The Atkins Diet works that much is known and as to long term problems well its has been around since 1972, how much longer does it require to be tested for before the medical profession accept it?
