Chapter 3. Atkins Goes To South Beach
“Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction.”
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC)
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!”
Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)
This chapter explains for the first time the mechanisms of precipitous weight loss during the induction stage (first two weeks), describes the causes of the most common diet-related side effects, and deciphers the weight loss plateau phenomenon associated with the Atkins Diet.
If you benefited from the Atkins Diet, and can't stand any criticism of its late author, let me say this before you start calling me names — you are in the lucky minority! This information, however, is intended for people who had failed the Atkins Diet, and would like to learn why. In all other respects, I am a die-hard advocate of low-carb dieting, and living proof of its prowess.
The number of overweight and obese Americans is mind-shattering — by the turn of the 21st century, 137 million adults out of 210 million adults were overweight. In this context, it isn’t surprising that in the United States alone over 35 million people have read Dr. Atkins’ books with the intent to lose weight.
And the facts are: when the original Diet Revolution was published in 1972, only 14% of Americans were overweight. When New Diet Revolution was released, in 1992, 56% of Americans were. In 2003, when Dr. Atkins passed away, the figure rose to an incredible 65% — a staggering 464% jump in just one generation. Some revolution!
True, some of Dr. Atkins’ readers lost weight. Fewer kept it off permanently. The majority failed completely. Some of these dieters ended up with more health problems after the diet than what they had started with, including Dr. Atkins himself.
After Dr. Atkins’ cardiac arrest, unquestionably from obesity-related complications, and his mysterious death one year later, ever-hopeful dieters jumped onto the South Beach bandwagon. Still, permanent weight loss remained as elusive as ever for most do-it-yourselfers, and the shortcomings of this new fad diet were just about the same as the shortcomings of the Atkins diet.
Both the Atkins and South Beach diets share a common denominator — a low intake of carbs. Though Dr. Agatston, the author of the South Beach Diet, denies that his diet is low-carb, it absolutely is: around 100 grams (3.6 oz) of carbs are allowed on South Beach, which is still 300% to 500% less than what most Americans consume daily.
Food from plants — grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables — are the major source of dietary carbohydrates and fiber. Whenever the amount of carbohydrates in any diet goes down four to five times, so does the corresponding amount of fiber. Thus, someone who was getting 25 to 50 grams (0.9–1.8 oz) of fiber on a regular diet is now getting only 5 to 10 grams (0.17–0.35 oz) on a low-carb one.
Not surprisingly, an instant and dramatic reduction of fiber in the diet causes constipation among dieters, who depend on a high intake of fiber to move their bowels — a condition this book defines as latent constipation. Here are the reasons behind this grief-causing dilemma of constipation":
- Zero-residue food. Unlike indigestible fiber, protein- and fat-rich food — eggs, meats, fowl, game, seafood, and dairy — digest almost completely. Only minute traces of these foods reach the large intestine intact.
- Reduction of stool volume. With negligible residue from fat and protein, the volume of stool gets proportionately smaller.
- Decreased rectal sensitivity. Because the large intestine adapted its elimination reflexes to a far larger stool volume, the defecation urge diminishes or disappears altogether.
- Insufficient retention of moisture. As stools keep accumulating, they compress, harden up, and dry out because the fiber that was retaining water (instead of bacteria) is no longer present in stools.
- Pain and suffering. Finally, straining and hard stools cause anorectal pain and discomfort, which, in turn, leads to unconscious avoidance or delay of defecation, and so the severity of constipation grows exponentially.
These cumulative problems are even more acute for someone who already has a prior history of constipation and anorectal disorders, such as hemorrhoidal and diverticular diseases, which are present in over half of the adults over, respectively, the ages of fifty and sixty.
When constipation becomes unbearable, most people just drop the diet and resume a high-carb, high-fiber lifestyle. Others may do so only after belatedly following Dr. Atkins advice to add fiber laxatives. Supplemental fiber forces out hardened stools with considerable pressure, often strong enough to cause hemorrhoidal prolapse and/or laceration of the anal canal. That’s enough pain and suffering to stop any diet dead in its tracks.
We know, of course, that other people (including my family and many readers of my early books) embraced a low-carb lifestyle, lost weight, and weren’t perturbed by constipation a tiny bit. These people belong to three distinct groups: