The Scientific American reports that a study of four popular diets conducted by researchers at the Stanford Prevention Research Center shows that women who stuck to the Atkins plan for ten months lost the greatest amount of weight and had the most improvements
in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure. The four diets tested in the study were Atkins, the lowest in carbohydrates for the four;
the Zone diet, also low in carbohydrates and based on a
40:30:30 ratio of carbohydrates to protein to fat; the
Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition
(LEARN) diet which follows U.S. government guidelines for low
fat but higher carbohydrates; and the Ornish diet, which is
very high in carbohydrates but very low in fat.
The study, which is written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association, randomly assigned 311 overwieght, post-menopausal women to one of the four diets. All
participants attended weekly diet classes for eight weeks and were given
books to follow. After ten months, researchers found that women assigned to the Atkins group lost an average of 10.4
pounds (4.7 kgs) compared to 5.7 pounds (2.5 kgs) for LEARN,
4.8 pounds (2.1 kgs) for Ornish and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kgs) for
Zone.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Mark Sisson does terrific job of summarizing this issue over at his health blog. Today’s rant on Ornish, Uncle Sam and all the sugar lovers is particularly entertaining and insightful: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fat-phobia/
Atkins "Nightmare" Diet
When Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution was first published, the President of the American College of Nutrition said, "Of all the bizarre diets that have been proposed in the last 50 years, this is the most dangerous to the public if followed for any length of time."[1]
When the chief health officer for the State of Maryland,[2] was asked "What’s wrong with the Atkins Diet?" He replied "What’s wrong with… taking an overdose of sleeping pills? You are placing your body in jeopardy." He continued "Although you can lose weight on these nutritionally unsound diets, you do so at the risk of your health and even your life."[3]
The Chair of Harvard’s nutrition department went on record before a 1973 U.S. Senate Select Committee investigating fad diets: "The Atkins Diet is nonsense… Any book that recommends unlimited amounts of meat, butter, and eggs, as this one does, in my opinion is dangerous. The author who makes the suggestion is guilty of malpractice."[4]
The Chair of the American Medical Association’s Council on Food and Nutrition testified before the Senate Subcommittee as to why the AMA felt they had to formally publish an official condemnation of the Atkins Diet: "A careful scientific appraisal was carried out by several council and staff members, aided by outside consultants. It became apparent that the [Atkins] diet as recommended poses a serious threat to health."[5]
The warnings from medical authorities continue to this day. "People need to wake up to the reality," former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop writes, that the Atkins Diet is "unhealthy and can be dangerous."[6]
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