Uncomfortable Issues around the Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet has been a popular type of diet among many celebrities for a number of decades since the diet came out in the 1970s.  This diet has been very controversial and has spurred a great deal of research about this kind of diet and the effects it may have on the body.  In fact, studies of longer duration are still ongoing to see whether or not there is a particular effectiveness of these studies.

There have been two small studies of the Atkins diet done at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Center and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  The diets lasted for only a few months but showed a better effectiveness of the Atkins diet on weight loss than a low fat diet.  There were no short term problems with cholesterol or other lipids and, in many cases, the lipid profile improved, in spite of the high fat content of the diet.  The biggest problems with these studies were that the people did not represent the typical people who use the diet and there was a high dropout rate from the studies, indicating problems using the diet.

Specialists in the area of dieting say that the Atkins diet is much too low in fiber.  This attribute and the emphasis on meat in the diet would put an individual at risk for colon cancer.  Those with a family history of colon cancer would be wise to avoid the Atkins Diet.

Critics say that the Atkins diet was also putting the dieter at risk for osteoporosis.  There wasn’t enough Calcium and other minerals in the diet to give a person the strong bones necessary throughout life.  There have been known complications with dieters having progressive kidney failure and liver problems when using the diet for a long term.

Perhaps one of the biggest complaints of the Atkins diet was the lack of fruits and vegetables necessary for fiber and good heart health.  No good research study was done on the effectiveness of the Atkins diet to avoid heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.  It is felt that, in a longer study, the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in a patient on this diet would be adversely affected, putting the patient at risk for coronary artery disease and other diseases. 

One specialist said that the Atkins diet may help an individual lose weight in the short run but that it avoids important aspects of nutrition, like fruits and vegetables—things we need to survive over the long haul.

One proponent of the Atkins diet says that he intends to do a study on over 300 participants for over five years in order to address concerns of cardiovascular risk and exercise intolerance.   He hopes his study will put to rest any issues people may have over the diet.  The issues of kidney and liver failure will be addressed along with osteoporosis risk.  The issues others have with the Atkins diet and colon cancer risk won’t be able to be addressed in so short a study.