I feel like I am sharing new, exciting information like this with you every week that continues to support the Atkins Diet. And here I go again. New research in the journal in PLOS ONE shows that reducing your carbohydrate intake is actually better for your health than trying to avoid fat. The study’s lead author, Dr. Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein admitted that he, like many doctors, were taught that a low-fat diet was the diet to follow in order to prevent heart disease and improve health. But patients didn’t end up doing as well when they followed a low-fat diet. And this is supported by the latest research. For their meta-analysis, researchers analyzed 17 studies involving a total of 1,797 overweight and obese patients who had no risk of heart disease. When placed on a low-carb diet lasting between eight weeks and two years, there was a 98% drop in the participants’ risk for heart disease. And another welcome side effect? The low-carb dieters were 99% more likely to lose weight than the low-fat dieters. For those who followed the low-carb, high-fat diet, at least 30 percent of their daily calories came from fats.
Study after study continues to show that a diet that controls carbs may have clear health benefits. For many, a low-carb diet may be your best bet if you want to prevent heart disease and lose weight. But what is most important to remember is that one diet is not necessarily “one-size-fits-all”. And that’s what is so wonderful about Atkins. You can have carbs on Atkins, once you are able to figure out your personal tolerance for certain kinds of carbs. From the beginning, you are fueling your body with carbs, in the form of a variety of vegetables, in addition to protein, healthy fats and dairy sources. And as you continue to control your blood sugar and lose weight, you can add other carbs as well. Truly the only things that you eliminate on Atkins are sugars, trans fats and processed, packaged carbs; these are things any doctor, scientist or expert would tell you that we should not be consuming any way.