Misinformation About Atkins Diet Shows Up Just About Anywhere Nowadays

In a seemingly innocent chat session with British athlete Roger Black about the importance of omega-3 fatty acids from fish, one person asked a question that was so full of misinformation about the Atkins diet that I felt strongly compelled to respond.

Here's the question that was asked:

"My friend says that carbs are to be avoided as in the Atkins diet. As Atkins was overweight I don't trust him. What do you do think?

First of all, carbs are not "avoided" when you are livin' la vida low-carb. That's why it's called low-carb and not NO-carb. This is probably the biggest misconception people have about our lifestyle choice because the lie that you don't eat any carbs continues to be spread by those who oppose it.

Second of all, Dr. Robert Atkins was not overweight when he was alive. This is yet another myth. He weighed 195 pounds as a 6-foot tall man when he was first admitted in to the hospital following the tragic fall two years ago that led to his death. His weight increased to 258 pounds because of fluid retention following the fall. But enemies of the low-carb lifestyle have often attempted to use the fact that Atkins was considered obese because of what he weighed when he died to justify their criticism of the way of eating he promoted for the past three decades.

Third of all, what's not to trust about the Atkins diet. If you do it like he recommends, it works beautifully. I lost 180 pounds and countless others have also lost weight. More importantly, we're keeping it off as we are livin' la vida low-carb!

Dr. Ray Rice was with Roger Black and took the time to answer the question.

"There is little doubt in my mind that the Atkins diet does work like any diet if you can stick to it. The importance of Atkins is to rigidly exclude carbohydrates. Fish is an excellent food for Atkins dieters because it has no carbohydrates. The key thing about Atkins is that any small amount of cheating on carbohydrates will destroy the benefit of a whole weeks dieting."

He said it, Atkins works! There's nothing can prohibit you from doing it except for yourself. I disagree that you have to "rigidly exclude carbohydrates," but rather you carefully watch your intake of carbohydrates. You don't exclude them and Atkins even says that in all of his books. You want to focus on the good carbs.

Fish is indeed a great food when you are on low-carb and has many healthy benefits as well. Dr. Rice's comments about "any small amount of cheating on carbohydrates" will make you fail is just wrong. You can have "small" amounts of carbs as long as it stays within your daily allowable carbs. Remember, it's not NO-carb as so many will continue to say over and over again. While you will get kicked out of ketosis if you overindulge on carbs, it usually take about 3 days to get back into ketosis and begin losing weight again.

The negativity continues about low-carb which shouldn't surprise anyone. Don't you just wish that, for once, the facts would be told so we don't go through the same arguments time after time after time? Until then, we'll keep setting the record straight for them! :-)