[Sca-cooks] OT Atkins diet Someone harmed

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/27/2002 10:59:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
vox8 at mindspring.com writes:

> This is not something I would normally share, and I in no way want to be
>  argumentative but you asked & I will share with you my experience.
>
>  I lost a great deal of weight using the Atkins diet, and yes it was the
>  Atkins diet. This was several years ago, before they republished his book &
>  it became all the rage. I have one of the original books from the 60's-70's
>  (whenever) I also now have the Atkins cookbooks, the new Atkins books
yadda,
>  yadda, yadda. After awhile I reverted to my normal eating habits and gained
>  all of the weight back (not Atkin's fault, I have no will power).
>
>  My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for the last 2 years and
>  it is not happening. After an extensive battery of tests it was found that
I
>  have a high fasting insulin level. (I believe others have mentioned this
>  rebound effect, where your body overproduces insulin to compensate for the
>  Atkins diet). This insulin level is preventing me from ovulating and
>  preventing pregnancy.
>
>  There is no history of insulin problens (Diabetes or otherwise) in my
family
>  going back several generations. I am now on an insulin reducing medication
>  (which the dosage has already been doubled once) and if/when it works they
>  will give me a medicine to stimulate ovulation.

First, let me say I'm sorry for your problems.

I have never heard of overproducing insulin in response to the Atkins diet. I
always understood the body produces insulin in response to blood sugar
levels, and on a low carbohydrate (and it would be low carb, not _no_ carb as
some people have said, even in induction) there's not much blood sugar to be
had. The body burns fat for energy, and everything I've read says burning fat
doesn't increase insulin levels. It DOES produce waste, that needs to be
flushed, hence the advised water drinking.

Understand also, a LOT of people (my age at least) begin to overproduce
insulin. I don't know why myself, as said before, I'm not a Doctor, but since
I know that the rise in both blood sugar, diabetes and insulin levels (and
therefore type II diabetes, which is an insulin resistance) date from around
twenty five years ago, and that's also the time they started putting high
fructose corn syrup in virtually every processed food made ... Well, I have
my own theories there. I can't prove them, but I have them. All I know is, my
body started down that path, as my Mother's did a few years earlier (also
with no history of diabetes), and seeing the symptoms, I did something about
it.

If yours were a common occurrence, or even occasional, and it could be
connected to Atkins by even the flimsiest of arguments, in our litigious
society someone would have sued by now and they'd be shouting it from the
housetops. We have a guy suing Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's and KFC right
now because they "made him fat". Somebody would have gotten a lawyer by now.

>  Also, when I first began losing so much weight several of the people at my
>  work wanted to try it too. One of the ladies lasted about a week and then
>  started having major menstrual spotting issues and severe nausea. When she
>  stopped Atkins it went away, she had never had these problems before or
>  since.

Feeling like crap (that's a technical term :-)) upon the onset of a diet, ANY
diet, is normal. This is known as a cleansing reaction. Your body is burning
fat and everything stored in the fat. This can be everything from left over
birth control pills to THC (and maybe paraquat) from that joint you smoked in
high school. As stated before it all needs to be flushed out. I'm assuming
this is what happened to your friend. My Lady's cycle was previously so
irregular she didn't even count it, it could run between thirty to sixty days
on it's own. Since Atkins, she has gotten on a regular cycle, without needing
the pill, which were the way she regulated it in her twenties.

Please understand, I too am not trying to be argumentative. I hope we're
still on friendly terms and nothing I have written is taken to take your
situation lightly. I'm saying that there's every possibility that your
difficulty has other causes, as yet undiscovered. You yourself state that you
had no willpower once getting off the diet, this too is a common occurrence,
and while nothing to be ashamed of, may well be part of the problem.

I sometimes am amused, because I never really went through the induction
phase, and frankly, am lousy at keeping the one true faith (as I jokingly say
to my Wife) of Atkins, and yet somehow, I've ended up defending it on this
list. I just think he has some good ideas and I'm following them, with
occasional "cheating". I maybe could stand to lose a few, but as long as I
feel healthy and the indicators are Okay, I'm happy. I certainly hope that
you regain your health, regardless of cause.

Corwyn

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