Author: beforewisdom

Pritikin vs. Atkins

 

The “low fat vs low carb” debate has been going on for a longer time than I thought.

Nathaniel Pritikin, an inventor, did his own research and came up with the low fat diet in the mid 1950s after he was diagnosed with severe cardiovascular disease. At the time the best doctors told him to keep eating what he was eating. He also had leukemia.

The first low carb diet was written in the late 19th century by a middle aged undertaker who wanted to drop a few pounds. Since then it has come in and gone out of vogue in cycles……almost like women’s fashions.

Atkins and Pritikin debated each other throughout the 70s.

I found this article interesting as it mentioned how both men finished their lives.

http://www.pritikin.com/eperspective/specialissues/pritikinatkins/index.htm

Atkins:

  • died at 72 from slipping on ice and banging his head
  • at his death he weighed 258 pounds, making him clinically obese
  • medical examiners claimed he had a history of heart disease, congestive heart failure, and hypertension
  • Atkins’ widow threatened legal action to avoid a full autopsy.

Pritikin

  • died at 69, from leukemia, which he managed to live with for 35 years
  • a full autopsy revealed that there was no trace of the heart disease he was diagnosed with back in the 1950s
  • medical examiners claimed his arteries were as clean and flexible as a man decades younger.

In my opinion, you can’t blame Atkins’ obesity or heart disease on his age, as many low carb fans have tried to do. Pritikin was only 3 years younger at his death and had neither of those issues.

Just say no – weight loss surgery

This is an interesting article on weight loss surgery. It has a dark side. Check out the URL for some powerful pictures.

Life After the Knife

Here are a few quotes I found to be very interesting:

The modified stomach naturally expands a bit over time, most substantially in patients with a penchant for overeating, so weight loss can be hard to maintain in some cases.

Scant research has been done on the psychological impacts of bariatric surgery, and what does exist isn’t particularly conclusive. One study, published last March in the journal Obesity Surgery, surveyed people when they applied for a weight-loss procedure. Two-thirds of them wound up having the surgery. When surveyed four and a half years later, patients in both groups had lost weight, but there was no reported difference between them in terms of psychological well-being — although the bariatric patients lost far more weight on average, both groups showed fewer problems. Nor was there was any correlation between weight loss in bariatric patients and their ultimate levels of anxiety, depression, binge eating, and psychosocial stress.

Yet the potential downsides are also astonishing. The risk of death, depending on which study you’re looking at, ranges from 0.2 to 2 percent — arguably high for an elective procedure. The popular Web site ObesityHelp.com hosts a memorial page listing 132 members who have died since 2000, a mere fraction of the total post-surgical deaths. Up to 20 percent of patients require subsequent operations to address complications. Common side effects include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, lactose intolerance, signs of nutrient deficiency such as anemia and hair loss, agonizing stomach pain, and shockingly pungent gas and stool. And those who lose weight successfully often have huge folds of excess skin to deal with.

These post-surgical ordeals, and the accompanying emotional adjustments, can persist for many years. Then there’s the cost: Even if insurance covers the initial surgery, the price of subsequent cosmetic procedures and myriad dietary supplements required for optimal health can add up quickly. To top it all off, there’s no scientific evidence that weight-loss surgery makes people any happier in the long run.