Atkins diet became very popular in the 90s and the beginning of 2000s. The main idea of this diet was to eat food rich in fat and avoid every potential source of carbohydrates. Patients are expected to avoid: bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and also crisps, biscuits, cakes and chocolate. At the very beginning of their diet, people are to avoid milk, fruits and some of the vegetables. General idea is to cut the carbs from your menu and provide other sources of energy for your body, such as fats. Cutting on carbohydrates should also reduce or at least decrease your cravings, ensuring additional help in weight loss. Atkins diet advocates claim that metabolizing fat burns more calories and causes faster and better results in losing some extra weight.
Because of the radicalism of this diet, many doctors and nutritionist were quite worried for the welfare of their patients. Although people have reported very good short term results, long term dieting seems to bring some unpleasant and unwanted side effects.
Constipation
Constipation is also very present in Atkins dieters. Since the food rich in fibers is not supposed to be used (beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables) or should be avoided completely (wholegrain cereals, pasta, brown rice etc.) – patients might have real problems with their bowel movements.
Atkins Diet and Ketosis
Ketones are normally produced in the body while it metabolizes fat. Because Atkins diet provides more than usual amount of fat, patients on this diet experience the state known as ketosis (increased amount of ketones in their body). This condition is known to cause chronic tiredness, weakness, nausea and sleeping problems. People having ketosis can be recognized for the smell of their breath, also called halitosis.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Unbalanced dieting may cause nutritional deficiencies that can’t be solved by multivitamins, and might cause people to experience some health problems later in their life. Food rich in fat is known to cause increased risk of coronary artery disease and there is also a greater risk of osteoporosis and various bones issues, kidney and eye problems and also increased chances to develop some cancers at some point of life.
Additional Problems with Atkins Diet
People following Atkins diet are also found less successful to stick to it for a long time. It has been proven the same for any of extremely restricting diets – people are not likely to manage these diets for long. Vegetarians have plenty of issues with this diet, because the vast of the dishes used in Atkins menu is meat, and some other sources of proteins are not recommended.
Additionally, many nutritionists say that Atkins diet doesn’t give good example to people, and doesn’t teach people about the healthy nutrition, but rather glorifies quick and unsafe fixes for weight loss.
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