[Sca-cooks] OT Atkins diet, etc

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/27/2002 8:38:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
goldberg at bestweb.net writes:

> Furthermore, for Joe
>  Average, even very high levels of protein are PROBABLY safe. The problem
>  comes in with patients who have subclinical borderline kidney function -
>  overloading them with nitrogenous waste may shunt them into overt renal
>  failure. It is difficult at best to predict which patients may fall into
>  this category; it is impossible if the patients are putting themselves on
>  the Atkins diet without consulting a physician and having an appropriate
>  physical first. Your wife is fortunate in not having underlying problems.

So are there any documented examples of actual harm from the Atkins plan due
to this? Again, I'd like to know. I'm not trying to be confrontational, I
truly want to know.

>  Dr. Atkins got lucky. He stumbled on something that worked, although he did
>  not understand why at first. As other research has gone on around him, he
>  has subtly shifted his "explanations" to match the research being done. I
>  have little respect for Dr Atkins; I consider him an opportunist.

I can only reply that, as an LMT I too have had to modify my explanations to
clients as to why what I do works. I have also modified my techniques as I
find out what works and learn more about the body. I learn and grow in my
chosen profession, and new research is happening all the time. If this makes
me an opportunist, then I plead guilty to that. I don't think any of us comes
upon a full understanding of what we do and why it works (or doesn't) from
the onset. I know I don't. If you've never shifted opinions or explanations,
then you are indeed fortunate.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't consider Dr. Atkins a
messianic figure. I consider him a man who understood (as I do) that we spent
a good portion of our evolutionary history eating small amounts of unrefined
carbs and larger amounts of fats and protein, and a comparatively short
amount of time eating major amounts of refined carbs. We haven't had the time
to adjust as a species.

That we adjust our way of explaining what works to go along with current
research is IMO only common sense. Thirty years ago nobody would have
believed my field was more than an entertainment. When I started, that's what
I had to register in this state as. Now I'm considered a health care
provider. Things change.

With respect

Corwyn


To be humble to superiors is duty,
   to equals courtesy,
   to inferiors nobleness.   __ Richard Saunders (Ben Franklin)