The Atkins Diet: Limiting Food, Limiting Nutrition

THE ATKINS DIET eliminates practically all carbohydrates for the
first part of the plan, leaving you with only foods that contain protein
and fat: no bread, no pasta, no fruit, no vegetables, no juice—
no fun. The Atkins diet, no question, helps people lose weight. I’ve
seen men lose 10, 20, even 30 pounds on Atkins—all of them
feasting on steak, cheese, and bacon while doing so, and I’ve seen
the studies that support the plan’s effectiveness in helping people
26 T H E A B S D I E T
lose weight, at least in the short term. Emphasizing protein is
smart, but eliminating many other foods that are important to
maintaining good health isn’t. But here’s my real issue with this
kind of diet, one that often gets overlooked in the whole no-carbohydrate
debate. I could restrict you to any couple of foods—let’s
say chips, ice cream, and burgers. Go on a diet eating just those
things, and chances are that you’d lose weight—because you
simply can’t force yourself to eat the same stuff over and over
again. By simply restricting the foods you eat to only a handful of
them, you’ll automatically drop pounds because you’ve dramatically
reduced your total calories. But you’ve also dramatically reduced
your intake of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, while upping
your intake of artery-clogging saturated fats. Even more important,
you just couldn’t stay on such a diet long-term, no matter
how much you liked it, because your lifestyle (and taste buds) demand
a more flexible, more enjoyable eating plan—and because
your body is programmed to crave fruits and grains and juices
just as much as it craves burgers and chips.
Well, as crazy as it sounds, that super-restrictive, low-nutrient
diet is exactly what you get with Atkins. You eat a limited number
of foods—the vast majority containing protein and saturated fat.
You’ll drop pounds because you’ve eliminated carbohydrates, but
you’ve also put yourself at risk for a number of health problems.
For one, the foods on Atkins have high amounts of saturated fats,
and there’s overwhelming evidence that societies with diets high
in saturated fats face a greater prevalence of heart disease.
Second, by eliminating most carbohydrates from your diet, you’re
eliminating some important nutrients, like vitamin B and fiber
and phytonutrients that help your immune system. Worst of all,
even though Atkins does introduce carbohydrates later in the
plan, few people can stick to the limited number of foods that
Atkins allows. So that short-term weight loss leads to long-term
weight gain and, potentially, long-term health problems.