Any longtimers on this forum?

[happycamper]

Once again, I am hearing warnings that Atkins is all right for awhile, but that it can do dammage if you stay on it too long. Liver and kidneys were mentioned.

I would like to know if there is any one on this diet that's been on it since the 70's or 80's and is in good health. I've had a couple of heart attacks and by-pass surgery that eventually failed. My cardiologist is not supportive. It's Kaiser, and they promote the American Heart association diet. I feel so good on this diet, I can't believe it could be hurting my body. Somebody please reassure me if you can.

Sue

Sue Scofield

[April]

I originally did low carb from 1978 to 1979 and have been eating this way continuously since July 1, 1998. Does that count?

April
352 / 205 / 180
5'10", large frame, size 13 shoe
www.geocities.com/aprilreinhardt

[Maggie]

There may be some, but remember that Dr. Atkins was roundly discounted during the eighties and early nineties. Most of the medical profession was (interestingly, without any good data) just dismissed him out of hand. That's starting to change. I've converted my physicians.

Since adopting this way of eating just about 5 years ago, I have normalized my blood sugar, lowered my cholesterol and improved my lipid profile to "fantastic."

Take a look at Andrea's latest numbers:

http://lowcarbeating.infopop.cc/6/ub...7276097314&p=1

Don't forget that Dr. Atkins WAS a cardiologist.

To review the current research, go to www.atkins.com and do a search with any topic. Choose the links labeled "Science behind Atkins" to review (and maybe print out for your md's edification) various research studies.

HTH

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

[RQP]

Sue, forgive me for posting because I have not been a longtimer in the sense you mention here but I wanted to add my proverbial two cents.

I wanted to add that although a rare few on Atkins will have kidney stones - this is a condition that doctors say can be brought on by low-carbing but if it is, was present regardless of Atkins. In other words, Atkins will not "give you" kidney stones.

Anyone who follows Atkins appropriately and changes their eating ways for life will be including an increase in the amount of water they are taking in. The water, in addition to rehydrating your skin, eyes, bones, blood, and brain (!) is also a very efficient waste delivery system, cleansing the kidneys in particular, but also the whole gastro-intestinal system.

Lastly, I just wrote a long post in response to another newbie about how funky it felt to be eating all this meat and butter and whatnot. To summarize. Homo Sapiens are designed to process animal proteins/fats and vegetable matter. For only the last 10,000 years have we been consuming processed grains and sugars. Evolutionarily we are not designed to consume grains and sugars the way we are to consume animal fats and vegetables.

The American Heart Assoc is still using the old pyramid, no? All those grains? I'm no doctor, but I'd be willing to bet that after a few months staying away from all those foods your body doesn't actually process well (I wonder if those foods are the actual cause of the heart attacks?) and sticking faithfully to a low carb program - that your cholesterol will fall, your triglycerides will fall and many other good healthy things will result.

My last note... Some people find it just too hard to go to the low carb regimen that Atkins prescribes... they find that a program like South Beach (which incorporates fewer really high fat items) is more comfortable. Perhaps you should consider that.

In any case, I like to listen to my body... I feel terrible after eating carbs (sluggish, lethargic) and after eating sugars I feel positively sick to my stomach - never mind the shakes. If this way of eating makes you feel good, doesn't that count for something!?

Hugs,
Rachel
165/142/130
Haec trutina errat. (Latin for,"There is something wrong with this scale".)

[Terese]

... just hit the 4 yrs mark myself!! Still alive and kickin'

I plan to get my blood retested this fall, but i'm not worried about them at all - and i feel great.

Terese
LCE Member since 12/00
My LC web site

[barb keith]

Hi Sue,

I am not a long timer, but have been doing this now for 6 months. I, unfortunately did not get my blood work done before starting this because we don't have insurance. I did however have my blood pressure checked which had gone alarmingly high. I refused to go on B/P meds. I just don't trust the AMA, the FDA, and doctors in general. They are a bunch of pill pushers, with the drug companies in their hip pockets. I did tons of research about this before beginning. I would never do anything to intentionally harm my health as far as food consumption is concerned. I am eating much healthier than I ever have in my life, even since I was a child, when I would ask my mother, "Is this good for me?" If she answered,"yes" I would eat it wholeheartedly, even if I didn't like the way it tasted. I eat 1 portion of meat, a vegetable and a salad usually, for dinner. I usually have a flaxmeal type cereal for breakfast, a soy shake (homemade) or Mock Danish. I drink lots of water. I use decaf coffee. I use soy milk, which I am NOT sensitive to. I don't eat candy, cake, cookies, white bread, chips, and all that kinds of garbage. I eat heart healthy nuts. I challenge you to tell me what I am doing that is sooooooooo unhealthy. I exercise. I have more energy now than I have ever had in my entire life. When I reach the 6 months mark, I will be going back to the doctor (grudgingly) to get my B/P checked. (or maybe I will just buy myself a home monitor) I really can not figure out what the hubub is about this WOL (way of living). I eat MORE veggies than ever before. What is so unhealthy about veggies, fiber and water (which is the mainstay of my program)? Oh and I am also eating strawberries and blueberries liberally, which are tremendous sources of vitamins C and phytonutrients, amino acids, enzymes and other vitamins. I'll take those over twinkies any day.

Just my newcomer 2 cents.

I hope you can sort out the questions about this and realize that it is the most healthy way of eating, as long as you do it RIGHT, whether it's Atkins, Suzanne Somers program, Schwarzbein, The Zone, Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, or whatever. Keep coming back here for answers to your questions, we are all GLAD to help. And..........be sure and come back when the permanent website is finished.....it's under construction right now.

OH and........WELCOME!!!!!



Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/151/135
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

[Doctor Insomnia]

If you're in otherwise good health, I'd just switch doctors. Tell Kaiser you want a GP sympathetic to Atkins or else you're going to make problems for them. It's a big institution, and they certainly have to have some local guys who have done Atkins before. Atkins is very, very popular right now and it's a very old diet.

I did low-carb for the first time back around 1970. I've done it many times since, although I've gained my weight back just as many times by mickey-mousing around. It's not a very good temporary diet. It's best used as a permanent lifestyle.

I have had kidney stones. They hurt. I wasn't on the diet at the time. It seems like reasonable speculation that all my cheese consumption while doing Atkins in earlier years may have contributed to it. But drinking water wasn't emphasized as much in the early days of low-carb either. Drink your water.

[jestey]

Sue - I am not a long timer per se (started Atkins in May), but my mother raised my brother and me on a diet that I now realize was low carb. Pasta, rice potatoes and desserts other than jello were rarer than tigers in our house. It was only after I went to college (and moved north from FLA) that I gained a lot of weight. Both my parents returned to this woe about 5 years ago (they are in their 60's) after essentially following the high carb, low fat pyramid for a couple of years (and both gained weight). My Dad's cholesterol is controlled by meds, but his condition is not related to diet. Both of them are in AMAZING shape and health - no heart issues, etc.

One other thing to point out here - it seriously frosts my pipes when organizations point the food pyramid as being the be-all-end all for healthy eating. Why? Because the construction of it was enormously influenced by agribusiness money any heavy duty lobbying. Agribusiness and packaged food manufacturers saw the handwriting on the wall and spent an awful lot of money to make sure that the average joe kept buying their products in order to get the recommended number of grain servings per day. The interest in public health espoused by those who promote the pyramid is therefore suspect in my eyes.

Personally, I'll stick with this woe. BTW, my brother recently found out he was born with only one kidney - eating lower carb when we were kids and young adults certainly didn't seem to hurt him, though his current doctor has advised him to check kidney function regularly if he chooses a LC woe in the future.

Just my $.02

Jen
175/131/120

[Sky68lark]

Well, how about looking at it this way:

I followed the low-fat/food pyramid approach long term, and here's what I got: 40 pounds overweight, high blood pressure, gall bladder disease, chronic fatigue, and a heart bypass at age 46.

I have only been following the Atkins Nutritional Approach for one year, but those 40 pounds of fat are gone, my blood chemistry is excellent, my blood pressure is normal, I haven't had so much as the sniffles in a year, and I look and feel better than I ever have. I can't wait to see what the long-term effects are going to be!

Sky
186/144/under 150

[yaz]

It is sooo good to see all these positve results WOW I never ever thought I would find out that I love VEGGIES !

[Rob]

I met a woman who had been on Athkins since 1975. She was in her mid 50's looked mid 40's and had a great figure. She swears by Atkins even after 28 years. But people who are doing it that long aren't coming to forums looking for support. They've mastered this plan. I mean this woman has been on maintenance for over a quarter of a century. What is she going to learn here?
my .02
Rob

[April]

Yes, but think of the insight she could GIVE.

April
352 / 205 / 180
5'10", large frame, size 13 shoe
www.geocities.com/aprilreinhardt

[barb keith]

Hey "UN...." I LOVE your new name, toooo funny!!!!

Really, can you imagine having someone on these boards that's been doing this WOL for 25 yrs???? WOW, it would be amazing to get HER feedback.

Think we'll all still be writing to each other in 25 yrs on these boards? I think of so many of you as dear, dear friends, I can't imagine our ramblings disappearing, ever. Who knows, maybe that National Convention will happen someday and we will all REALLY meet each other, how cool would that be?



Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/151/135
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

[Sweetgal549]

Many doctors do actually support a LC WOE. I've yet to find anyone that I work with (at St Louis University Hospital) that is hardcore against it. My supervisor is a little hesitant about it, he doesn't have a weight problem, but I notice doesn't eat alot of carbs anyway LOL. I worked in the open heart ICU for a little over a year but just changed ICU's and am now in Pulmonary/Medicine. Where I work, anyone who is losing weight or who has lost it and kept it off, is LC! A nurse that I work with lost 140 pounds on Atkins a little over 3 years ago, and yes, he has kept every pound of it off. A fellow therapist lost 50 pounds at that same time, didn't stay LC and managed to keep it off for a year but has gained it all back and then some (thanks to menopause?) A month after I started LC, a security guard there who is very obese, was constantly tugging at his pants trying to keep them up. I told him I could tell he had lost weight and he was looking good. He had just finished induction and lost 58 pounds! Yes, 58 pounds on INDUCTION! I've never heard of a loss like that on induction but let me tell you it was obvious that he had dropped significantly. He said he had been trying to wait to get some new uniforms because they are so expensive but had to get some that day (his pant's had ended up.. gasp... around his knees!) He has over 100 more pounds to lose and I'm sure he will get there. I don't know any long timers but I sure know a lot of docs and other degreed healthcare professionals who are very positive about Atkins. Ours is a teaching institution so we see the docs originally as newbie residents fresh out of medical school. I hope what I'm seeing here is the trend of things to come!

Susan

LC and feeling better every day!

Atkins since 7/18/03
210/190/140

[Ginger]

I don't qualify as a long timer but I can tell you that when I started Atkins in 1999, my doc was skeptical, but not opposed. I'd been doing the low fat/low cal thing for over 5 years and was slowly but surely gaining weight. My cholesterol and triglycerides were way out of whack and my borderline diabetes was about to go full blown. I was taking 4 medications for blood pressure, 2 for cholesterol and under evaluation to start an oral medication for my insulin resistance. Ugly situation for some one not yet 40 years old!!!

I spoke to my doc and she said she'd support me in the trial, but she wanted to keep a VERY close eye on my cholesterol ... after three months on Atkins my cholesterol had dropped to the point where she cut my meds in half. BP meds were phased down to one pill daily and my blood sugars were COMPLETELY NORMAL. After 9 months, I was within 5 pounds of my goal weight, bp normal without meds, no more high cholesterol and still normal blood sugars.
My doc started recommending the plan to her other patients

About that time, I moved from Texas to California and slowly reverted to my unhealthy eating habits again. Over the period of 4 years, I gained back about 30 pounds and once again the bp and cholesterol monsters were hounding me.... I'm back on Atkins (blended with Protein Power) since April 2003 and all my recent labs show vast improvement. I fully expect to have things in the normal range when I go back in for my checkup in November.

It's a lifestyle, not a diet. If you can't get support from your doc, see if you can get a referral to one who's at least open to monitoring your progress.

Good luck to you.... and remember to drink your water!!

Ginger
159/149/135

Life is NOT a dress rehearsal