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Low carb horror story


John Thompson

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I think that one of the things that the South Beach Diet (SBD) tries to get across is the fact that your body doesn't burn carbs. Carbs are turned into sugar or glucose, and that is what your body uses. The object of SBD is the slowing of glucose into your bloodstream and the resulting release of insulin to handle the glucose. To bring everything to a bottom line (the book is a good read) if you can slow the absorption of glucose, the insulin doesn't have to make a drastic release to deal with it, and you don't have a storing of excess glucose (fat), and you don't have hunger re appear because of the rapind insulin loss. The SBD stresses the things that slow the ingeston of glucose ie eating protien with carbs, eating whole grain carbs which are slower to be converted to glucose, eating acidic foods with carbs which also slow glucose and eating anything with fiber to slow it as well. I know that I am now explaining this as clearly as an expert, but having lost over 30 lbs and eating a good variety of foods that taste good, I am a believer. It is just sound eating without overly processed foods. I believe that the SBD even recommends eating a fast acting carb after a strenuous workout....

Mike

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Guess what - I knew all this already :) End up with Diabetes and it's freakin' amazing the words you add to your vocabulary!

Ketones is not Atkins babble - from WebMd.com ( a small portion of the writeup! )

Ketones are substances produced when the body breaks down fat for energy. A ketone test detects ketones in a blood or urine sample. Normally your body obtains the energy it needs from carbohydrates in your diet. However, if your diet does not include enough carbohydrates to supply the body with sugar (glucose) for energy, or if your body cannot use glucose properly, stored fat is broken down and ketones are produced (ketogenesis).

I carry ketone test strips around with me as I have to worry about Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)

"is a life-threatening condition that develops when cells in the body are unable to get the sugar (glucose) they need for energy. When the cells do not receive sugar, the body begins to break down fat for energy instead. When this happens, ketones or fatty acids are produced and enter the bloodstream, causing the chemical imbalance (metabolic acidosis) called diabetic ketoacidosis.

People with type 1 diabetes and some people with type 2 diabetes are at risk for DKA if they do not take enough insulin, have a severe infection or other illness, or become severely dehydrated.

Symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis include:

Flushed, hot, dry skin.

A strong, fruity breath odor (similar to nail polish remover or acetone).

Restlessness, drowsiness or difficulty waking up. Young children may lack interest in their normal activities.

Rapid, deep breathing.

Loss of appetite, abdominal pain, and vomiting.

Confusion.

When diabetic ketoacidosis is severe, the person may have difficulty breathing, the brain may swell (cerebral edema), and there is a risk of coma and even death. The person may need to be cared for in an intensive care unit.

Treatment involves giving insulin and fluids through a vein and closely monitoring the chemicals in the blood (electrolytes). It can take several days for the person's blood sugar level to return to a safe range."

And IMHO, Atkins is a really bad diet for just this reason!

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And IMHO, Atkins is a really bad diet for just this reason!

the key part of DKA is the D...if you are not diabetic, you have no risk of DKA. and if you ARE diabetic, there is a risk of DKA with or without the atkins diet.

i'm sure many endocrinologists wont recommend atkins for their diabetic patients b/c of this risk. however, if you are morbidly obese, there is some amount of risk involved in that as well.

this applies to non-diabetics as well. if you are very overweight, you've taken on lots of risk for adverse health outcomes. even if i acknowledge that atkins carries certain health risks, are they worse then the risks associated with remaining very overweight? thats a tough question, and i certainly dont know the answer.

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been watching this thread for awhile, interesting......... tremendous synergy in the diet thing lately. not a good thing to live on twinkies and snickers bars, have to eat a good balanced diet, but that ain't it alone! you gotta move the unit!!!! i like road bikes, great way to burn calories, great for metabolism. lance is the toughest @%&$# on the planet, check it out! ask adkins(well, i guess not now) to check out the diet of a pro cyclist in the european peloton, see what he thinks. if they listened to him, they'd be in the hospital in a week! i guess it's just a human trait to want to control things, figuring if i structure my diet in a certain way, it'll be all good. heck, i read it in a book, sounds good, so......i know a few horror stories........

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ask adkins(well, i guess not now) to check out the diet of a pro cyclist in the european peloton, see what he thinks. if they listened to him, they'd be in the hospital in a week!

the weight-loss mode of atkins is for FAT people. pro cyclists generally are not fat!

if you are fat, you would likely be better off losing weight. many people who are fat have trouble losing weight because they cant or wont exercise and they eat too much. thats why theyre fat in the 1st place. its very easy to recommend a healthy diet with lots of exercise as a weight loss plan. but with so many fat people in this country that recommendation must not be working. the atkins diet is a fairly easy way to loose a significant amount of weight, without a lot of exercise.

atkins started this thing a LONG time ago. he faced lots of people who called him crazy, nuts, a quack, etc. he totally went against almost all popular dietary beliefs. and you know what, NOBODY has proven him wrong. now the opposition has resorted to talking about POTENTIAL problems that his plan MAY cause. thats actually progress, because initially they just called him crazy and said his plan CAN'T/DOESN'T work. now they cant say that because there are so many examples of people who have lost tremendous amounts of weight using his plan (or any of the copy cat diets).

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Carbs and glucose are the same thing. Carbs is the catch all title for glucose, surcose, and fructose.

Ketoacidosis is one thing "ketones' in the way that Adkins manipulates them is something else.

Even though there was masive thread drift here I'll end it by reminding everyone that if you want to loose weight and you got healthy kidneys then Atkins is fine. The point of this thread is that muscles used in athlete performances need carbs. Don't take my word, the word of my doctor, or the word of countless athletes for it, just believe somoeone who was trying to promote his multi-million dollar diet business.

I can just imagine seeing Lance Armstrong stopping in the middle of the Tour de france to check his ketones.

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i know i'm really drifting now, but..........if you watch cycling, they don't stop, they just stand on the pedals and take a quick whizz........ you just don't wanna be behind the whizzer! to address the fact that the adkins thing is for "fat" people, that's really not correct, IMO. our bodies all work on the same principles, it's just some have let the gizmo get outa whack! obviously, a pro-cyclist, tri-athlete, marathoner, most pro atheletes(except baseball players, they're puds....) have very finely tuned metabolisms. but do you think they just woke up one morning and decided to go run the boston marathon? you gotta work on the thing, just like that race-gun that's persnickitty....... move the unit, eat good, and things change.... JUST DO IT

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