Niche Marketing

High carb bread is forbidden on the Atkins' Diet - but not the low carb bread.
But that is all rapidly changing - what with many bakeries now supplying grocery and health food stores with low carbohydrate bread. The average slice of grocery store bread has 15-20 grams of carbohydrates per slice. The low-carb breads now being offered with soy flour are boasting only 1 actual carbohydrate gram per slice (3 grams minus the 2 grams of fiber). The average loaf of low-carb bread sells for approximately $5.00. How does it taste? If you like heavier, grainy bread flavors, you will adapt well to the taste of low carbohydrate breads made with soy flour. If you are a Wonder Bread fan, you will find soy bread unpalatable.

Several of the fast food chains are now advertising low carb menu items. Even restaurants are now beginning to cater to low carb fares. From beers to fahitas, acknowledging a low carb diet is beginning to take hold. After the death of Dr Atkins in April 2003, a renewed interest in his diet plan seemingly began to unfold.

Even pizza makers are having to consider altering their menus.

Medical Data

Some in the medical community had hoped for Dr. Atkins' publicized autopsy results.
After 40 years of living the diet that Dr. Atkins promoted, wouldn't it be interesting to see how well his arteries fared? There is little long term data available nor published studies of the long term effects of the Atkins' diet. Surely the good doctor would have wanted to prove to the naysayers, that his body would be a precious testimony to the life long positive effects of his diet theory. It would be interesting to know whether or not his arteries were clogged with all the fat that he'd been eating for the past 40 years on his own diet!

Don't Mix and Match Diet Plans

Most dieters tend to hop around from diet to diet.
Dr. Atkins warned of the negative effects of "cheating" while on the diet. A person who follows the diet accurately (and previously lost weight) but eventually departs from the diet, by including unregulated amounts of high carb foods, generally continued to eat the high fat foods which were acceptable in the Atkins' Diet. Either choose a 40-30-30 type of diet - or Atkins' high fat diet with low carbobydrates. Mixing and matching Dr. Atkins' high fat diet with large amounts of carbohydrates, spells disaster for your health and weight loss regiment.

Carbs, Blood Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners

Can I ever eat fruit again!?
Of course! Protein helps stabilize blood sugar. So when you do eat fruit, it's a good idea to have it with a piece of cheese or some nuts.

Carbohydrates and Sweeteners.
Heightened blood sugar leads to insulin over production. Although fiber is a form of carbohydrate, it does not impact your blood sugar and also minimizes the effect of other carbohydrates by slowing down their absorption into the blood. That is why with the Atkins' Diet, you can subtract fiber grams from the total carb grams for the net carb figure.

Currently, the best sweetener to use with the Atkin's Diet is Splenda®. The other two sweeteners, Equal® and Sweet n Low® can cause your blood sugar to spike. Remember, just because Diet Coke has no carbs, doesn't make it 100% acceptable in a low-carb diet.

Keep in mind, any excessive use of sweeteners OR sugar is not healthy. There is a hot debate about the chemical compound effects of artificial sweeteners on the human body.

Here is a summary of sweeteners by the National Cancer Institute, reviewed September 2003:

Saccharin
Animal studies have linked saccharin, another artificial sweetener, with the development of bladder cancer. For this reason, Congress required that all food containing saccharin bear the following warning label: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.” Congress also mandated that further studies of saccharin be performed.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and FDA have looked at the possible role of saccharin in causing bladder cancer in humans. People in the study (which included a large number of elderly people) who used this artificial sweetener had no greater risk of bladder cancer than people in the population as a whole. However, researchers looked at the data for those people who were heavy saccharin users (6 or more servings of sugar substitute or 2 or more 8-ounce servings of diet drink daily) and found some evidence of an increased risk of bladder cancer, particularly for those who heavily ingested the sweetener as a table top sweetener or through diet sodas. The results of the NCI–FDA study, together with findings of additional research with laboratory animals, suggest that consumption of saccharin is not a major risk factor for bladder cancer in humans. For these reasons, Congress removed the warning label in December of 2000.

Aspartame
Aspartame, an artificial sweetener distributed under several trade names (e.g., Nutrasweet or Equal), was approved in 1981 by the FDA after tests showed that it did not cause cancer in laboratory animals, although not all of the laboratory experiments agreed. Interest in aspartame was renewed by a 1996 report suggesting that an increase in the number of people with brain tumors between 1975 and 1992 might be associated with the introduction and use of this sweetener in the United States. However, an analysis of then-current NCI statistics showed that the overall incidence of brain and central nervous system cancers began to rise in 1973, 8 years prior to the approval of aspartame, and continued to rise until 1985. Moreover, increases in overall brain cancer incidence occurred primarily in people 70 and older, a group that was not exposed to the highest doses of aspartame since its 1981 introduction. These and other data do not point to a clear link, based on animal or human studies, between the use of aspartame and the development of brain tumors. The FDA still considers aspartame safe.

Stevia
In recent years, a sweetening product called stevia (stevioside or steviol) has received much public attention. It is 250 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. To date, the FDA has not approved it for use as a sweetener in the United States, but stevia may be sold as a dietary supplement. Researchers have found that the main chemical in stevia can be converted in the laboratory to a compound that causes changes in genes. More study is needed to learn whether the same changes, which might lead to cancer, could occur in people.

Even stevia has been denied distribution in the U.S. food chain. Safety evaluations sweeteners and other food additives are tightly regulated within the European Union (EU) and may only be used once their safety has been rigorously assessed. The EC Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) is an independent committee that advises the European Commission on questions concerning consumer health and food safety, in particular relating to toxicology and food hygiene.

Stevioside was first considered by the SCF for approval for use as a sweetener within the EU in 1985 and the review was updated in 1989. On both occasions the Committee raised several questions of concern and concluded that, based on the submitted documentation, it could not accept its use.

The data considered by the Committee indicated that the extract has the potential to produce adverse effects in the male reproductive system that could affect fertility and that a metabolite produced by the human gut microflora, steviol, is genotoxic (ie. damages DNA). The Committee concluded that stevioside was not acceptable as a sweetener.

David Schardt, associate nutritionist for the Center For Science In the Public Interest, admits that there are concerns about using the product as a sweetener. ''Although there is no evidence of harm to people, laboratory studies of stevia have found potential cancer and reproductive-health problems,'' he stated. Realize that the US is not alone in its refusal to approve stevia. Neither Canada nor the EU allow food companies to add it to their products.'' In 1998, a United Nations expert panel came to essentially the same conclusion.


Wake Up, Food Manufacturers!
It's interesting to note that very few food manufacturing companies offer dietary products made with Splenda®. Equal has long enjoyed contracts from food manufacturers' use of their product in dietary foods. But that is about to change. As carb-conscious dieters come to realize the blood sugar spikes that Equal® and Sweet n Low® can cause, a demand for Splenda® - sweetened dietary food products will emerge.

Here are a few products now using Splenda®, instead of the previously touted Equal® sweetener:

__ Diet RC® Cola, Diet Rite® Cola
__ Breyer's Low Carb Ice Cream
__ LeCarb Ice Cream
__ Log Cabin® Sugar Free Low Calorie Syrup
__ Ocean Spray® Lightstyle® fruit drinks
__ Musselman's® "No Sugar Added" Apple Sauce
__ Lucky Leaf® Lite pie fillings

In 2004, many more food manufacturers will be offering Splenda®, as the low-carb craze continues.

Adkins' Diet - Quick References

The Rules of the Induction Phase

Induction Quiz

20 carb max daily - Induction
Net carbs (carb total minus fiber)

Lipolysis and Ketosis (via Ketone Sticks)

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Extra Info Articles:
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Induction menus

Acceptable foods you can eat

Nibbling/Snacks

What you can expect week 1

What you can expect week 2

Moving on after 2 week induction - or staying on Induction