THURSDAY, Feb. 27, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Forget fad diets for weight control. They're potentially dangerous and ultimately ineffective.
That's the advice of the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), a physician group whose members are dedicated to health promotion and disease prevention.
At the close of its annual meeting this week in San Diego, the ACPM issued a policy statement voicing strong opposition to any weight-loss approach that fails to take overall health into account. The group warns against "fad diets," and is especially critical -- without expressly naming it -- of the Atkins Diet, the low-carbohydrate, high-fat eating plan that has attracted legions of followers.
A spokeswoman for the Atkins Diet quickly took issue with the statement, contending the doctors aren't up-to-date on emerging science and they are misrepresenting the weight-control plan.
The ACPM statement was prompted by the growing epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in the United States, notes one of the co-authors, Dr. David Katz. He is a member of the ACPM Board of Regents and director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
More than 97 million American adults are overweight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher, the college statement notes. A 5-foot-5 woman who weighs 150 pounds and a 6-foot-tall man who weighs 185 pounds each has a BMI of 25, for instance. Excess weight boosts the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
"Fad diets are a dangerous distraction from a serious response to the serious problem of epidemic obesity," Katz says. The statement warns against those diets that restrict carbohydrates and allow liberal intake of fat, protein or both, which the Atkins diet does in its "weight-loss" phase.
The ACPM recommends a diet similar to what the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association recommends: 55 percent of calories from carbohydrates, about 25 percent of calories from fat, and about 20 percent from protein.
The Atkins diet recommends different intakes, depending on which of four "phases" a dieter is in. However, the dietary maximums suggested (typically during the initial weight-loss phase, not the "maintenance" phase) are 5 percent carbohydrates, 60 percent fat and 35 percent protein. That's still within the upper limit of protein intake recently suggested by the National Academy of Sciences, says Colette Heimowitz, a spokeswoman for Atkins Health & Medical Information Services in New York City.
Katz counters: "The protein is not really the issue. The real problem with the diet is that it is unrestricted in trans and saturated fat, which are clearly the most harmful elements in the American diet. And it restricts foods that are health-promoting, such as whole grains."
Heimowitz counters that those foods can be phased in after the initial weight loss phase of the Atkins Diet.
"It mystifies me why the medical establishment continues to refer to a low-carbohydrate diet as a fad," Heimowitz says. "It's been around for 30 years, a way of life that has been around for 30 years."
Studies in recent years have proven the worth of the diet, she says. Those who promote the Atkins plan say that restricting carbohydrates means the body must turn to fat and burn it for energy, resulting in weight loss.
Consistently, the Atkins diet has proven better than the low-fat diets in terms of weight loss, Heimowitz says. It also cuts factors that can lead to heart disease risk factors. For instance, the diet raises levels of HDL cholesterol, the so-called "good" cholesterol.
Atkins proponents also say that reducing carbohydrates and insulin production are the key to keeping insulin levels healthy and reducing diabetes risk.
However, in its statement, the ACPM notes there's evidence that some high-fiber carbohydrate sources actually help maintain healthy insulin levels.
Fad diets of all types should be avoided, Katz insists. They do nothing but perpetuate what he calls "that miserable cycle of losing and gaining with interest, until you just feel like a failure."
More information
To learn more about the Atkins Diet, check with Atkins Nutritionals. To read the American College of Preventive Medicine's entire policy statement, click here.
