Posts Tagged ‘low-carb diet’
Think before you swallow – adventures with Atkins
NZ freelance health writer Noel O’Hare recently wrote about a weight-loss study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2008. In his stuff.co.nz opinion piece, O’Hare, who reads as a vocal supporter of the Atkins method of low-carb dieting, champions the Israeli study as strong evidence that a low-carb diet is superior to a low-fat diet.
Before everyone starts jumping on the worship Dr Atkins bandwagon, I’d just like to point out a passage in the methods section from the article itself, which outlines what the low-carb diet actually was:
Low-Carbohydrate Diet
The low-carbohydrate, non restricted-calorie diet aimed to provide 20 g of carbohydrates per day for the 2-month induction phase and immediately after religious holidays, with a gradual increase to a maximum of 120 g per day to maintain the weight loss. The intakes of total calories, protein, and fat were not limited. However, the participants were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat. The diet was based on the Atkins diet (see Supplementary Appendix 2).
So here are a few points that I thought up:
1) The total caloric intake wasn’t regulated (in the other two diets, it was at 1500kcal/day for women and 1800kcal/day for men). Fair fight? Perhaps the low-carb group were consuming fewer calories than the other two groups and therefore lost more weight.
2) Is it really a genuine Atkin’s diet if participants were “counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat”? When I think Atkins, I think steaks. Lots. of. steaks. mmmm.
3) The fine print at the bottom of the article has this to say: “Supported by the Nuclear Research Center Negev (NRCN), the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Research Foundation, and the S. Daniel Abraham International Center for Health and Nutrition, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.” Other than the fact that this blogging correspondent sounds like he could be working for the Atkins Foundation, this study seems to be receiving direct support from the Atkins Foundation. Bias, anyone?
I could say more, but I think it’s probably a good idea to read the NEJM study carefully – “Think before you swallow”. And I guess that goes for anything that we’re asked to believe, in any context.