Barb: I don’t think the body needs periods where it gets almost no vegetables, to simultate winters. What about people in equatorial regions?

Here’s the brief case for veganism:

- We don’t need animal products, as evidenced by the large numbers of healthy vegans

- Animals want to live

- Virtually all animal products - at least in the Western world - involve multiple and often severe cruelties, from breeding to transport to slaughterhouse.

- It is good to practice the golden rule as widely as possible. It is wrong to engage in avoidable harm or exploitation.

- Vegan diets tend to be very environmentally-friendly.

I’m not trying to knock everyone who tries Atkins. My brother was on it for a while. I realize losing weight can be challenging. Some of the Atkins enthusiasts have incorporated new foods into their diets. That willingness to try new foods will serve you well when you move to a vegan diet: for every animal product you give up, there are many times more plant-based products available.

Some of the Atkins defenders responded to complaints from people who tried Atkins by pointing our that it has to be done right. I would say the same about vegan diets, in response to those who said they tried it but had problems or no luck. Read http://www.veganhealth.org and perhaps http://www.veganbodybuilding.com for an intro to vegan health.

Susie: A vegan diet not only controls blood sugar, it also has been shown to reverse diabetes. Read Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, which explains the remarkable results of clinical studies of vegan diets for diabetes patients, and recent research showing how saturated fat may be a cause of diabetes because it clogs cells and prevents insulin from doing its job.

The diet itself has been thoroughly discredited as anything but a temporary-weight-loss gimmick with long-term liabilities, a loser both scientifically and in the marketplace, where the diet’s enormous success led the company to file for bankruptcy. Atkins Exposed has all the facts, helpfully cross-referenced and impeccably sourced.

Atkins works if you really follow it. If you are having lots of gas - it is because you are eating hidden carbs - carbs cause gas. You really have to read the lables and really have to count the carbs; then it works well.

I was a vegetarian for 6 years, and a vegan for three of those years. I think it’s time to try “low carb” with a few adjustments. NO MORE RED MEAT, I don’t like it. I’m going to try to eat mostly vegetables, with a measured/monitored amount of beans/legumes, and when I do intake meat, it will be chicken and fish (mostly fish), in moderate amounts. I’ve already done away with milk and cheese, I never liked those much anyway.

It is a however a tad annoying reading some of the prejudiced untruths againt Atkins. I eat plenty of “pure” foods including nutrient-dense carbos. A bonus was the reduction of appetite whilst eating satisfying quantities. Also - Dr Atkins did not die of a heart attack from a high-fat diet. He died from injuries of a fall - another example of people peddling prejudiced waffle.

I have been looking for info on people that have gained weight on Atkins.

When I initially did Atkins about 2 years ago, after eating a A LOT of refined carbs and I did lose about a stone in weight. After about a year though I started to notice a weight gain, and I was addicted to laxatives (not good at all). I had to use them or I would never have gone to the toilet, psyllium husks DID NOT work for me.

I tried it again last week and have gained (you will not believe this) 5lbs….!!! I was livid! I followed the diet to the letter, and hardly had any carbs at all, I also wrote down everything I ate to check this……..

So when once it did initially work for me, having gone to eating complex carbs, it did not have the same effect when I went back to on it….

So I think for mem it worked when my diet beforehand was very poor….but when I went back to it after eating a low GI Diet, then it didn’t work…..I am so upset about the weight gain…..

I also was ’stopped up’ if you know what I mean and I had a lot of pain in the lower part of my stomach all the time…..it was like everything was blocked and it was causing serious problems…

Anyway I went back to porridge this morning…mmmmmmm THANK GOD!! :-)

Beccy

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4221750

In our society there is no longer a reason to pack on the fat in anticipation of the drought! We eat for pleasure, not for need! Therefore it seems appropriate, perhaps even necessary, to allow your body to cycle throught the processes it would have had to follow naturally - if not for a lifetime of nutrition, for an occasional cleansing/purging of fat that is not consumed during the seasons where food is not plenty.

I don’t think the Atkins diet was DESIGNED to meet lifetime nutritional goals - it’s designed to teach you what to eat to lose FAT, and bring you back to healthy nutrition.

I think BOTH approaches are right.