Pros/Cons Of Atkins Low Carbohydrate Diet

In recent history, no single diet program has been universally praised while at the same time roundly criticized more than the Atkins Diet. When Dr. Robert Atkins introduced his high protein/high fat diet to Americans many years ago he caused regular Americans and the U.S. health care industry to take opposing sides on whether Dr. Atkins diet was both safe and effective at weight loss. Just like any other diet on the market today, there are pros and cons to the effectiveness and safety of the Atkins Diet Program. Personally, I believe common sense should lead most consumers to shy away from the Atkins Diet because of it's extreme limits on carbohydrate consumption. My personal opinion is that when dieters take any type of food and severely limit it's consumption in their diet then there is a high possibility that future health problems could face that person if they stay on the diet for too long of a period of time.

I have known hundreds of people that have experimented with the Atkins Diet and just like with other diet programs, people that have used the Atkins Diet to lose weight over the long run have very different opinions about their experiences with the Atkins concept. While people that stay on the Atkins Diet over a long period of time do lose weight and keep that weight off if they don't backslide and start eating massive amounts of carbohydrates again, almost to the person I have heard stories about cravings for certain carbohydrates and other sugar foods that they never experienced when they were not on the Atkins Diet. In my opinion, these huge cravings for high carbohydrate foods and simple sugars is a cry of starvation that the body is sending out to the dieter.

While the pros side of the argument about the Atkins Diet revolves around it's success rate if the diet is rigidly followed, on the cons side at the top of the list are the types of foods that are not only encouraged on the Atkins Diet, but are available with no suggested limits to the dieter. The reason most doctors and nurses do not believe that the Atkins Diet is good for people is because there are no limits on the amount of red meat and saturated fat that can be consumed on the Atkins program. While there is strong evidence that heart disease and higher cholesterol levels are not tied to this high protein/fat diet, common sense would suggest to anyone that is really paying attention that not limited the amount of red meat and saturated fats in the diet is not a positive thing for anyone's health over the long run.

While I am overweight, I usually shy away from diet programs because while all of them work for a short period of time, over the long run I always end up heavier than I was before I started and then quit the diet. I did try the Atkins Diet for a one week period of time several years ago. While I did lose some weight over that short period of time, I noticed my body going through some negative changes that caused me to stop the Atkins Diet and never try it again. The first thing I noticed while on the Atkins Diet was a terrible taste in my mouth most of the time. While I understand that bad taste in my mouth was proof that the diet was working, I certainly did no like that side effect. However, there was a bigger reason why I stopped the Atkins Diet and that revolved around severe cravings for bread and baked potatoes when I was on the diet. Shortly before I stopped the Atkins Diet I could actually smell a bread truck coming down the road before I could even see what kind of truck it was.

All diets have pros and cons, but to me the cons far out weight the pros when it comes to Dr. Robert Atkins Low Carbohydrate Diet.

Title: Pros/Cons Of Atkins Low Carbohydrate Diet
Written: April 26 2008
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