Is Atkins Safe?

by Robert Buran
(Reno Nevada)

A reader just asked about the Atkins Diet and asked Rob to comment on the health of such a diet. Is Atkins dangerous? I would certainly be interested in what Rob has to say, but I am another Rob who would like to throw in his two cents and hope that my views are not censored. By the way I like Rob and this fasting site and I do believe that disagreements and discussions are healthy.

I am 66 years old and recently lost about 50 pounds using fasting and also eating a low carbohydrate and high fat and protein diet when I was not fasting.

When I was a teenager in the 1950s struggling with weight and long before Dr. Atkins came along, I started reading the writings of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, an arctic explorer and anthropologist, who studied the Eskimo diet in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Stefansson noted that the Eskimos then (somewhat different than the Eskimos of today) were not fat and suffered from neither heart disease nor diabetes. They ate practically no carbohydrate and lived almost solely on meat and fat. In fact their diet was extremely high in saturated fat.

Stefánsson published his findings in the 1930s and even went to the extent of going on a one year meat-only diet to prove to his colleagues at Dartmouth that such a diet was healthy and not vitamin deficient.

In the 1950s he was denounced as a communist and died soon thereafter.

Carbohydrate was not an important part of our nutrition until about 10,000 years ago when we started growing things like wheat to make bread.

For about two million years before that, man lived mostly on meat from hunting and fishing. So it is unlikely that a diet high in meat and fat will kill you. Our bodies in fact are genetically well adapted to that kind of diet.

I might add that primitive man also, by necessity, had to fast from time to time. So I believe that we are also genetically well adapted to fasting.

There was a time when heart disease and diabetes were unheard of. Today diabetes in particular has become almost epidemic. Some have suggested that our obsession with low fat, high carbohydrate diets may be to blame.

There is ample evidence that the incidence of diabetes and heart disease are initially aggravated by high levels of insulin in our blood. High insulin can produce insulin resistance and this in turn can cause many degenerative diseases that plague our modern population.

Insulin is produced by the body in response to the ingestion of carbohydrate.

I am in fact of the opinion, that just one reason why fasting is so beneficial is, that it gives our bodies a break from insulin production.

Like Stefánsson Dr. Atkins has sometimes been the victim of vicious attacks and a lot of stupid ideas and bad information. I would like to touch briefly on just one of those misconceptions because it is relevant to all of us who fast.

Some people have attacked the Atkins diet because those who practice it pee ketones. Ketones are said to be poisonous and cause many health problems ranging from bad breath to kidney failure.

OK now that I have your attention go to your local Wall mart and pick up a bottle of ketone strips for about ten dollars. The next time you fast you will find that after about three days the strips will turn deep purple when you pee on them and that is good.

Ketones are a natural harmless by product of your body burning fat. You cannot lose weight, no matter what kind of diet you are on, without peeing ketones. And if you fast you are going to pee a lot of ketones.

You will also pee ketones if you do not eat carbohydrates! The reason for this is your body must use fat rather than carbohydrates for energy. By restricting carbohydrates you turn your body into a fat burner and also vastly reduce its dependence on insulin production.

On a personal level I will tell you that by combining fasting with a low carbohydrate diet I reduced my triglycerides from over 500 to below 100. If you eat a lot of carbohydrate it is likely you are going to see high triglycerides. High triglycerides put you at risk for heart disease AND diabetes.

I also reduced my cholesterol and blood pressure. My blood pressure is now about the same as my eight year old son’s.

I break my fasts typically with stewed chicken legs and thighs. I eat a lot of pork chops, eggs, unsweetened whipping cream, butter and fatty hamburger. Because everybody is on low fat, high carbohydrate diets you can get chicken legs and fatty hamburger cheap! I avoid almost all carbohydrates except onions and pickles which I love with everything.

I remain unmarried because of my onion, pickle and ketone breath!

I feel great!

And those are my opinions on fasting, carbs, meat and Atkins, controversial though they might be.