The Atkins Diet Essay

The Atkins’ diet has helped many in weight loss and has been known to increase an individual’s health benefits. The basis of this particular diet insures that if one lowers their daily carbohydrate intake, it will, in turn, increase metabolism and body efficiency. This diet causes the body to use adipose tissue, or fat, for energy instead of the alternative, which is glucose, the hormone produced by carbohydrates. A person can experience weight loss steadily when the dieter follows through with the diet and works out on a regular basis (Oaklander). The opposition of the Atkins’ diet is that counting calories is the most important in dieting. Consuming too many calories, despite the type of nutrients in the calories, a person will experience …show more content…
The pancreas is overexerted when one eats carbohydrates with excession, which is causes too much insulin in the bloodstream or the insulin will not work in an effective way. Doctor Robert Atkins says that, “This metabolic defect involving insulin can be circumvented by restricting carbohydrates. When you restrict it, you avoid the food subdivision that causes you to be fat” (6). Excess carbohydrate consumption can result in adipose tissue storage in the body, as extra weight. Hypothetically, proteins, without carbohydrates, should metabolize fat storages for energy, which can aid in weight loss goals. Dr. Frank Sacks and his colleagues ran a study that studied 163 overweight participants to determine whether low- carbohydrate is more effective than other diets, like eating low glycemic index carbohydrates. These experimenters found that participants that followed low-glycemic-index carbohydrate food had a worse insulin response and higher bad cholesterol, while low-carbohydrate participants did not experience these symptoms (Park). There are many instances were insulin problems are thought to be the main reason for causation of physical problems. Such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, which causes painful, irregular menstruation, infertility, weight gain, excess body hair, and symptoms of diabetes (“Atkins’ For Life” 20”). Other problems can be associated by malfunctioning of insulin. Some of these are glucose intolerance (body is not able to break down sugar), diabetes, high blood pressure, digestive difficulties, and osteoporosis (18-20). With all the health problems that could possibly be caused by insulin, it is true that the Atkins’ diet could not be the best option for weight