The Theory Of Dr. Atkins

Dr. Robert C. Atkins received his medical degree from the University of Michigan in the fifties. As an internist and cardiologist, Dr. Atkins came out with the Atkins diet in the early seventies. Unlike many diet fads, the Atkins diet has remained popular over time. This is partially due to the fact that the Atkins diet is not for weight loss alone, but a way of life.

The Atkins diet is built around four phases. The purpose of the first two phases is to help you lose weight, while the second two phases are about eating healthy for a lifetime to keep the weight off. Dr. Atkins did not just develop a diet fad. He developed an easy way for people to form good eating habits, losing weight and becoming healthier all at the same time.

The Atkins diet is about carb counting. According to Dr. Atkins, many people are overweight because their body does not process carbs in the right way. This causes the carbs to turn into fat. The main idea behind the theory of Dr. Atkins is that people eat too many of the really bad carbs, like processed foods and soda pop. This, over time, creates a hypersensitivity to carbs, and the body becomes insulin intolerant. Basically, insulin intolerant is another way of saying that the body is not processing carbs as energy, and instead the carbs are turning into fat.

This is the main basis for the Atkins diet. Dr. Atkins believed that by cutting out carbs your body would be forced to turn to its own fat stores to create energy. This has seemed to be true, as the Atkins diet has worked well for millions since 1972. Another basis for the Atkins diet is that by eating high protein, high calorie foods, you will become full more quickly and for a longer period of time. Although the Atkins diet shows that you can eat how much ever you want, Dr. Atkins has always purported that the very nature of the diet lessens appetite. This has been proven by recent studies.

One attack that Dr. Atkins had to overcome, beside breaking the calorie barrier of dieting, is the fact that with high fat and high proteins, many doctors and nutritionists had a hard time believing that this was truly a healthy way to eat for life. However, new studies have vindicated Dr. Atkins, by proving that the Atkins diet will not increase the risk for heart disease or heart attack.

In 2003, Dr. Atkins moved on from this world, due to a slip and fall on the ice during his daily walk to work. The death of Dr. Atkins shook the nutritional and diet world. Many people who's lives were changed by the Atkins diet took the even particularly hard. But, with all of the books, cookbooks, research, and the two companies that Dr. Atkins left behind, there are still plenty of resources for followers of Dr. Atkins.