What does a low-carb expert look like?


Robert Atkins was a cardiologist, He published Dr Atkins’ Diet Revolution (1972) and Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution (2012). Atkins died at the age of 72 in New York in 2003, after falling on ice. His report was mistakenly released to the public. The report suggested that Atkins had “a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension.” It also states that his death was caused by a “blunt impact injury of head” and records his weight and height at 258 pounds [117 kg] and 6 feet [182 cm] tall. This represents a BMI of 32, which is classed as “obese”. At the request of his family, an autopsy was not performed. His supporters state Atkins suffered from cardiomyopathy, which was likely caused by a virus.



Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. He specializes in childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar in the diet. He is the director of the UCSF Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program and a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society.

Despite his label of pediatric endocrinologist, his understanding of basic endocrinology is surprisingly lacking. He believes that sugar causes heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia and high blood pressure.


Nina Teicholz
Nina Teicholz is a journalist and author of The Big, Fat Surprise. She is a supporter of Robert Atkins’ high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

Teicholz claims that the American people have been eating a “low-fat, near vegetarian diet for the last half-century” is absurd. Beef consumption may have reduced 20% but all meats have risen 10% and poultry 89%.

33% of calories from fat is NOT a low-fat diet and Americans are eating 25% more calories over the last 50 years.

Read two very brief reviews at The Big Fat Surprise and BMJ Editorial – Are Some Diets “Mass Murder”?


William Davis - Wheat Belly
William Davis is a cardiologist and author of Wheat Belly. According to Davis, “it becomes clear that grains have always been a problematic calorie source, with problems amplified by changes introduced by genetics manipulations and agribusiness. Cutting-edge research, for example, has revealed that consumption of modern wheat is the first step in triggering autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. As powerful as wheat elimination — or even better, all grains — can be, there is more to address as part of an effort to establish ideal health.”

According to Davis, dairy, eggs, ham, pepperoni and bacon wrapped chicken breasts are allowable foods – just stay away from “unhealthy” grains.

Davis claims that, “pepperoni bread just looks unhealthy. After all, this ‘bread’ is really just made of ground nuts, coconut, cheese, eggs, and pepperoni”. 1


Loren Cordain - The Paleo Diet
Loren Cordain is a professor at the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University. He published the book, The Paleo Diet (2001) that promoted the concept and helped popularize the diet. He obtained his Ph.D. in exercise physiology from University of Utah in 19811.

Permissible foods are meat and poultry (grass-fed and free-ranging), fish and other sea foods, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and “healthy” oils. Foods to avoid include all dairy, grains, processed foods, potatoes, refined sugar, salt, refined vegetable oils, and legumes. Paleolithic diets are high in protein (19-35% of energy requirements) and fats (28-47%) and low in carbohydrates (22-40%). 2 3 4


John Funder - Former chief of Obesity Australia
John Funder is a professor of endocrinology. He retired as the chief of Obesity Australia at the end of 2014. He believes that sugar and carbohydrates make you fat.

He expects the development of an anti-obesity pill to be a “game-changer”.

Obesity Australia obtains funding from Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company.


Ernest Curtis - Cardiologist
Ernest Curtis is an US cardiologist based in Long Beach, California. He is the author of the Cholesterol Delusion. He states that cholesterol levels have nothing to do with whether a person develops heart disease or has a heart attack.

“Everybody has atherosclerosis to one degree or another,” states Dr. Ernest N. Curtis. “It is simply a biological fact of aging.” “Cholesterol is a major structural component of every cell in the body and especially vital to the cell membrane that encloses and protects every cell. The bile salts required for proper absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins are made from cholesterol as are many of the hormones without which we could not live. If the human body manufactures 80-90% of the cholesterol in our system, then how could humans survive and advance if manufacturing a toxic substance in the arteries?”

He believes that inflammation is the cause of heart disease, without stating what is the cause of the inflammation.

He quotes George Mann, who states that, the idea that diet and heart diesease is related is “the greatest scientific fraud of the 20th century—perhaps any century.” 5


Denis Stewart - Herbalist
Denis Stewart is a herbalist from the Hunter Valley (NSW, Australia). He is an associate professor at University of Newcastle since 1902. Denis suffers from diabetes.

He believes that breakfast is poison, that carbohydrates are bad and Ancel Keys is responsible for our current obesity crisis and the poor level of nutrition found in our society.

He also advocates a Mediterranean-style diet, completely unaware that it was Ancel and Margaret Keys the coined the term Mediterranean Diet, based on the diets of the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France, southern Italy and Greece of the 1960s.

Ancel and Margaret lived in the village of Pioppi, south of Naples for over 20 years and wrote three books espousing the virtues of the Mediterranean diet.

You can discover more about the work of Ancel Keys and his actual achievements, instead of his imagined failures by reading my book, Low-Carbohydrate Mania: The Fantasies, Delusions, and Myths.

Last updated on Sunday 4 December 2022 at 21:56 by administrators

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Footnotes

  1. Davis, W. (2017)Dr. William Davis | Cardiologist & Author of Wheat Belly Books (Accessed 15 October 2017).
  2. Colorado State University (n.d.) Loren Cordain – Colorado State University . Available from: www.hes.chhs.colostate.edu/faculty-staff/cordain.aspx (Accessed 21 November 2015).
  3. Vandyken, P. (2015) What to Eat on the Paleo Diet [online]. Available from: thepaleodiet.com/what-to-eat-on-the-paleo-diet-paul-vandyken/ (Accessed 21 November 2015).
  4. Cordain, L. (2010) The Paleo Diet. Revised. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
  5. Barko, S. (2017)Cardiologist Refutes Relationship Between Cholesterol Levels And Heart Attack . Available from: www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8398286.htm (Accessed 15 October 2017).

3 Replies to “What does a low-carb expert look like?”

  1. Necklie Geoge
    The Atkins diet is very successful. In the first two weeks of the plan, CHO’s are quite restricted. However, the list of acceptable foods contain small amounts of CHO’s, and the metabolic process of the breaking down of fat cells to provide energy to our bodies requires more energy( calories) than the calories provided. After the two week introduction period, CHO’s can be provided, but only as instructed. Our need for sugar is really just a habit. A baked potato has a medium level permissible by the second stage of the diet. But it is such an important source of minerals, so I used just 1/2 of a baked potato, 1/2 a slice of 9-grain bread, used milk as a major contributor of the allotted CHO’s, but I followed the regimen to the word.
    • administrators

      Greetings

      It appears that when you say Atkin’s diet “works”, you mean that you lost weight. There are many ways of loosing weight but that does not mean that it is healthy.

      Consider the following:

      • Why did Atkins die at the age of 72 grossly overweight (258 pounds [117 kg] and 6 feet [182 cm] tall) and with a history of heart disease? (His supporters try desperately to dispute this fact) His cardiologist admitted that his arteries were “30-40% blocked”.
      • Why did Atkins insist that you buy supplements from the Atkin’s organisation to make up for the missing nutrients such as fibre and potassium. Atkins stated to obtain the “proper amount of potassium you may need is illegal over the counter; therefore you may need a doctor to write you the proper prescription.” Potassium is found in plant-based diets.
      • Why are vegan, Seven-day Adventists the healthiest and longest-lived people on the planet with a higher life expectancy than the Japanese or Okinawans? They have a life expectancy of 10 years more than the average American.[1]
      • Why does the Yancy study [2], funded by the Robert C. Atkins Foundation, reveal that people on the Atkins Style diet suffer from headaches, constipation, diarrhea, and insomnia at a greater prevalence than those in the control diet. The completion rate for Atkins-style diet group was only 55%.
      • Why does National Geographic longevity studies show that the societies that are the healthiest are those that consume mostly a plant-based, high-carbohydrate diet?[3]

      I recommend people have a pathology test and include tests such as fasting glucose, cholesterol, inflammation markers, kidney and liver function tests as well as blood pressure. This will give you a better indication of health rather than the simplistic measurement of weight.

      I have many articles on my website regarding the dangers of ketogenic and low-carbohydrate diets.

      Below is a list of supplements recommended by Atkins Nutritionals – a total of 15 capsules a day. He also recommends Metamucil to make up for the lack of fibre. They made Atkins very wealthy but not healthy. Is it not better to eat your fruit, vegetables and whole-grains? The natural diet for chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans is plant-based. Why are we different?

      Look at all the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that Atkins was aware of that his diet failed to provide.

      Multivitamin formula (administered daily as 6 capsules): vitamin A as acetate (3000 IU); vitamin A as -carotene with mixed carotenoids (1200 IU); vitamin C (360 mg); vitamin D3 (400 IU); vitamin E (300 IU); vitamin B1 (50 mg); vitamin B2 (50 mg); niacin (40 mg); vitamin B6 (50 mg); folate (1600 mg); vitamin B12 (800 mcg); vitamin K (10 g); biotin (600 g); pantothenic acid (120 mg); calcium (500 mg); magnesium (250 mg); zinc (50 mg); selenium (200 g); manganese (10 mg); chromium (600 g); molybdenum (60 g); potassium (20 mg); inositol hexanicotinate (100 mg); choline bitartrate (100 mg); para-amino benzoic acid (100 mg); vanadyl (80 g); N-acetyl-Lcysteine (120 mg); pantethine (150 mg); quercetin (100 mg); boron (2 mg); grapeseed extract (40 mg); green tea (80 mg); and lecithin extracts, garlic, arginine, licorice, bromelain, pantethine, spirulina, inulin, lactoferrin, bioperine, and acidophilus, in unspecified amounts.

      Essential oil formula (administered daily as 3 capsules): flaxseed oil (1200 mg), borage seed oil (1200 mg), fish oil (1200 mg), vitamin E (15 IU).

      Diet formula (administered daily as 6 capsules): citrin (2700 mg), chromium (1200 g), soy extract (9000 mg), methionine (1500 mg), L-carnitine (3000 mg), vitamin B6 (120 mg), pantethine (120 mg), asparagus (300 mg), parsley (300 mg), kelp (120 mg), spirulina (300 mg), potassium citrate (594 mg), magnesium (360 mg), L-glutamine (450 mg), l-phenylalanine (900 mg), L-tyrosine (450 mg), piperine (30 mg).

      [1] Fraser, G. E. & Shavlik, D. J. (2001) Ten Years of Life – Is It a Matter of Choice? Archives of Internal Medicine. [Online] 161 (13), 1645–1652.
      [2]Yancy, W. S. et al. (2004) A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia: a randomized, controlled trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 140 (10), 769–777.
      [3]Buettner, D. (2012) The Blue Zones. Second Ed. Washington DC: National Geographic.

  2. Necklie Geoge
    The Atkins diet does work (have tried it), but only for as long as you use the diet. Once you begin adding carbs back into your diet you will slow down the weight loss and many people, when they go back to eating ‘regularly’ find they put the weight back on. Plus, the first 2 weeks w/no carbs is killer, I had HORRIBLE headaches, I was grouchy and wanted to sleep all the time. My blood sugar was way too low to keep eating like that. I went into phase 2 of the diet rather quickly b/c of that.

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