Low fat versus Low carb

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The "low fat vs low carb" debate has been going on for a longer time than I thought.

Nathaniel Pritikin, an inventor, did his own research and came up with the low fat diet in the mid 1950s after he was diagnosed with severe cardiovascular disease. At the time the best doctors told him to keep eating what he was eating. He also had leukemia.

The first low carb diet was written in the late 19th century by a middle aged undertaker who wanted to drop a few pounds. Since then it has come in and gone out of vogue in cycles......almost like women's fashions.

In the end all diets are about taking in fewer calories, despite the claims of the gurus. What sets one diet apart from another is:

1. How good at is it at keeping the weight off?

2. How livable is it, can you take in fewer calories for a long time without going nuts?

3. How does it effect your health?

Different people respond to #2 in different ways. Fervent low carbers claim that high protein, high fat meals keep them satisfied on fewer calories. The low fat advocates say that low fat foods have more volume and bulk with fewer calories....so you can feel full on fewer calories. For example, 200 calories of oatmeal will make you feel much more full than 200 calories of potato chips.

Both of these diets go off course when they become popular, because the various gurus don't highlight the above points. They give people the impression that they can eat as much as they want to, as long as they avoid something. Which is what many people want to hear. Again, the whole point to either diet is to feel happier on fewer calories. When the diets become popular, high caloric but "low fat" and "low carb" foods come out, which people pig out on and gain weight.

Atkins and Pritikin debated each other throughout the 70s.

I found this article interesting as it mentioned how both men finished their lives.

Atkins:
- died at 72 from slipping on ice and banging his head
- at his death he weighed 258 pounds, making him clinically obese
- medical examiners claimed he had a history of heart disease, congestive
heart failure, and hypertension
- Atkins' widow threatened legal action to avoid a full autoposy. The Atkins
corporation which survived Atkins was starting to make a lot of money
selling special low carb lifestyle products.

Pritikin
- died at 69, from leukemia, which he managed to live with for 35 years
- a full autopsy revealed that there was no trace of the heart disease he
was diagnosed with back in the 1950s
- medical examiners claimed his arteries were as clean and flexible as a man
decades younger.

In my opinion, you can't blame Atkins' obesity or heart disease on his age, as many low carb fans have tried to do. Pritikin was only 3 years younger at his death and had neither of those issues.







Diet Guru Autopsy: Atkins vs. Pritikin - What Do Their Autopsy Reports Say About Their Diets?

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side effects of the Atkins diet:
- constipation
- bad breath
- malnutrition unless you buy special supplements

No supplements are required for a low fat diet and that diet is free of all of those side effects, with no risk of cardiovascular disease.

In the last two years there have been 2-3 studies that have shown people on either diet lose about equal amounts of weight.