Dear Reader,
There is a simple truth about your diet and your health:
We have been deceived into eating way too much carbohydrate.
A new study “proves” this to my satisfaction but will not end the controversy because financial incentives distort this simple truth.
You will hear results from a new study in this week’s JAMA by researchers at Stanford University. It was the largest and best done study ever to compare popular diets. It proved that women on the Atkins diet lost and kept off significantly more weight than women on other diets.
At the end of one year, women on the Atkins diet lost an average of 10 pounds versus just about 3 pounds for followers of The Zone, Standard, or low-fat diets. What’s more, women on the Atkins diet ended the year with higher HDL (good cholesterol) and lower blood pressure.
In spite of the persecution Atkins faced during his life, he had correctly diagnosed the cause of the modern epidemic of obesity. For the first time, he made it clear that Americans were not getting fat because they were consuming too much fat.
They were getting fat from eating too many carbs.
And this Stanford study is not the first to prove Atkins right:
February 2003: A landmark study that compared the American Heart Association’s low-fat diet to the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet caused greater weight loss and lowered cholesterol and triglycerides much more effectively than a low fat diet of equal calories.
May 2003: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that found the Atkins approach beat out the American Heart Association’s low fat approach for both weight loss and blood fats improvement.
Nutrition Week 2003: National meetings recently reported preliminary results of a study performed by Heritage Medical Center on patients with Metabolic Syndrome. Participants ate a low-carb diet for 18 months. Their LDL (“bad” cholesterol) reduced by an average of 82%. HDL (“good” cholesterol) scores increased by an average of 30%.
But Atkins didn’t go far enough in providing a solution…
He was right in noting that dietary fat was not the modern change that had made us fat. But there are other issues with modern fat he neglected:
You must eat more “good” fats than “bad” fats.
By implying that the modern over consumption of omega-6 fatty acids and trans fats in processed and artificially created foods is okay, Atkins failed to get the solution right.
An excess of omega-6 fats, which you’ll find in today’s grain-fed meat, causes inflammation. And this internal swelling leads to arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Artificial trans fats clog your arteries and boost your risk of heart attack.
To get the most out of Atkins’ diet and legacy, cut down your carbs as he recommends. But stay away from the bad fats and focus on getting more of the healthy omega-3 fats.
How do you get back your omega 3 fats we used to get from the internal organs of our catch? Cod liver oil is the most effective way I’ve found.
Cod liver oil builds up your HDL (good cholesterol) and lowers triglycerides (blood fats). It also improves memory and relieves depression.
Cod liver oil plays an important role in fat loss. I’ve seen remarkable results in my patients. And that’s one I never heard Atkins elucidate. Cod liver oil helps you to lose fat by improving your response to blood sugar your sensitivity to insulin. That’s why I use it to treat diabetes. (And others have had good results.123)
Controlling your blood sugar and lowering your insulin is the key to losing fat and keeping it off.
I use 5 grams of cod liver oil daily.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 Lombardo YB, et al. Dietary fish oil normalize dyslipidemia and glucose intolerance with unchanged insulin levels in rats fed a high sucrose diet. Biochim.Biophys.Acta 1996;1299:175-82.
2 Chicco A, et al. Effect of moderate levels of dietary fish oil on insulin secretion and sensitivity, and pancreas insulin content in normal rats. Ann.Nutr Metab 1996;40:61-70.
3 Shimizu H, et al. Long-term effect of eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl (EPA-E) on albuminuria of non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. Diabetes Res.Clin Pract. 1995;28:35-40.