The claim: A low-carb diet is good for your health and helps
you lose weight. This past February, the controversial high-protein,
high-fat Atkins diet made headlines when a preliminary study revealed
that many overweight men and women lost weight on it and lowered
their cholesterol in the process...
The counterclaim: Low-carb diets are ineffective and dangerous.
A federal review of diet plans last January revealed that moderate
fat and protein plans are the best way to permanently keep pounds
off.
Expert analysis: Dieters most likely lost weight on the Atkins
plan simply because they were consuming less food, says Wahida
Karmally, R.D., director of nutrition at the Irving Center for
Clinical Nutrition at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center,
in New York City.
"When you eat a diet high in fat, you feel fuller faster,
which may result in eating fewer calories overall," she explains.
"Plus, the Atkins study only looked at respondents in the
short term--and that's important, because they may have since
gained some of the weight back," she adds. "Diets like
Atkins don't teach you long-term healthy eating strategies, so
you may revert to your old bad habits when you go off of them."
