What is The Atkins Diet?

1. A lifetime nutritional philosophy, focusing on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation. The Atkins diet restricts processed/refined carbohydrates (which make up over 50% of many people's diets), such as high-sugar foods, breads, pasta, cereal, and starchy vegetables. Core vita-nutrient supplementation includes a full-spectrum multi-vitamin and an essential oils/fatty acid formula.

2. A lifetime nutritional philosophy that has been embraced by an estimated 20+ million people worldwide since the release of Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in the 1970s.

3. The cornerstone of the treatment protocols for over 60,000 patients of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York City.

The Major Benefits of the Diet, In Short

Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta, cereal, and other mainly "low-fat" processed foods increase your body's production of insulin. When insulin is at high levels in the body, the food you eat can get readily converted into body fat, in the form of triglycerides (to top it off, high triglyceride levels in the body are one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease).

Even worse, high carbohydrate meals tend to leave you less satisfied than those that contain adequate fat levels; so you eat more and get hungrier sooner. If you find this hard to believe, think about how much pasta you can eat at lunch and then how hungry you are running to the vending machine for another "carbo-fix" in the mid-afternoon. If the pasta you ate was really giving your body what it needed, you would stay full until dinner time. So the typical low-protein, low-fat meal leaves you eating more and hungry sooner.

So what should you do? Get off the insulin generating roller coaster of the low-fat diet and start cutting down on your carbohydrate consumption, especially the worst offenders: sugar, white flour and other refined carbohydrate-based products. What can you expect from this? Three wonderful results:

• You'll start to burn fat for energy: Since carbohydrates are the body's primary energy source, you'll rarely use your secondary energy source, you own body fat, for energy unless you restrict carbohydrate consumption. This offers a lifetime of body fat burning, which is the goal of most people trying to lose weight.

• You won't feel hungry in between meals: The biggest battle that most people have with weight loss is the constant obsession with food (for example, if you've ever thought about dinner when you're eating lunch). Again, much of this is caused by blood sugar fluctuations that are aggravated by carbohydrate consumption (especially the refined kind). By cutting the carbs, you'll maintain a more even blood sugar level throughout the day. No more false hunger pains or mid-afternoon brain drains.

• Your overall health will improve and you'll feel better: Many of the toxins you take into your body are stored in your fat cells. By getting your body to burn stored fat, you allow it to clean itself out. Combined with the benefits of stable blood sugar, the end result is that many common ailments you have been experiencing could well be alleviated. Fatigue, irritability, depression, headaches, and even many forms of joint and muscular pain simply go away. Furthermore, you should see a significant improvement in your blood profile, (including cholesterol and blood pressure levels). All this leads to better health and well-being-- something all of us strive to bring into our lives.

Key Information About Sugar

It contains no vitamins. No minerals. It is 100% carbohydrate. So it must be metabolized immediately. The stores of nutrients built up in your body are called out like militia men, to "charge" the sugar, and similar forms like glucose and fructose, and turn it into ready energy, depleting your body in the process. Sugar is an energy sucker: the Anti-Nutrient.

White flour is its second-cousin—almost as bad. When you partner the two together— flour and sugar—it spells disaster for anyone trying to maintain a healthy body, let alone someone who is fighting disease or trying to lose weight. If they are consumed on a regular basis, the body is in a constant state of nutritional deficiency. If you don't believe that sugar is an anti-nutrient, try having a rich dessert after dinner on a night you're feeling under the weather – you'll be sure to wake up the next morning with a full-blown illness.

What's frightening is that in recent years, the government and other advisory groups like the American Medical Association have encouraged the consumption of flour by unveiling a new food pyramid that is based on grains and recommends six to eleven servings a day. And no distinction is made between white processed flour, which is stripped of the nutrients, especially important trace minerals, and the much more healthy whole grains (unless you have a food allergy). And the result? Americans now think they're making healthy choices by loading up on cereals, pasta, crackers and breads. We even have products like Pop-Tarts®, with 39 grams of carbohydrate, 20 of which are sugar, carrying the American Heart Association Seal Of Approval. It is a travesty.

So how do we protect ourselves and stay healthy? One thing we can do is eat a healthy, balanced diet of low-carbohydrate foods. And when our foods fail us, as they often do after being picked, shipped, stripped, processed and packaged, we can protect ourselves with solid vita-nutrient support. It is critical that you include this extra "insurance policy" to take you into the kind of healthy life we all want to lead.

© 1998 Dr. Atkins.

For more information, read Dr. Atkins' books.

Dr. Atkins' Age-Defying Diet Revolution

The latest wisdom from Dr. Atkins to help you fight the effects of aging.

Dr. Robert Atkins turns his attention to the concerns of the 78 million baby boomers approaching their mid-fifties. He incorporates the latest research on the aging process into his revolutionary diet and nutrition program, based on his unique blend of traditional and alternative medicine. Through a symptom-by-symptom discussion of the specific signs of aging and their causes, he helps readers understand what is happening to their bodies as they age and suggests how to combat these effects through diet, vita-nutrient supplements and age-defying herbs. He also focuses on ways to reduce the risks of many types of cancer, stroke, adult-onset diabetes, arthritis and cardiovascular disease. An important volume for anyone who wants to live longer and healthier.

We all know the real culprit in weight gain - carbohydrates. But most of us are unfamiliar with the carbohydrate content of our food. With Dr. Atkins New Carbohydrate Gram Counter this is no longer a difficult task. With this easy and accurate book, you can be sure that you always know exactly what you are eating. Keep one in your kitchen, and pick up an extra copy for the office or dining out.

After over six years in publication, the popularity of New Diet Revolution is stronger then ever. It has now been on the New York Times best-seller list for over two years and is approaching 5 million copies sold. This national sensation incorporates over 25 years of Dr. Atkins research and clinical experience at The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York City.

Through the Atkins Center, he has helped thousands of patients, and millions of his readers achieve a slimmer, healthier life. Discover The Atkins Diet for yourself, and discover the simplest, most logical, and most effective diet ever developed. It is truly the diet for the millennium and beyond.

This original landmark book tells the story of the new era of how we look at health and nutrition-what Dr. Atkins calls complementary medicine. He calls for dramatic changes in conventional medicine and reveals the new medicine of the future that is already working wonders for thousands of his patients.

Using patient-tested therapies and treatments from a wide variety of healing arts. Dr. Atkins presents a common sense guide to alternative medicine that works. The perfect historical addition to any Atkins library."

Written as a companion to New Diet Revolution, this cookbook will help you easily eat the Atkins way. Written with his wife, Veronica, herself a gourmet cook and low-carbohydrate food expert, the book contains hundreds of mouth-watering meals that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. Imagine eating Steak with Zesty Wine Sauce, Shrimp Scampi, and even a Hazelnut Torte. Sumptuous low carbohydrate dishes like these will help you stay on the diet, while giving you variety, flavor and effortless meals. And each recipe includes an exact carbohydrate count per serving, so you can exactly match it to your specific dietary needs. This cookbook has sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Millions of followers already know that the Atkins Diet really works... and new, important studies from leading universities agree. Where, in the past, the Atkins Diet has been the center of medical controversy, it has now been medically proven that the Atkins way is not only delicious, it's a safe and effective plan for shedding pounds for good. Followers are hungry for more information on how to stay on Atkins -- and that's what this book delivers, with:

• 200 menu plans and 125 recipes
• Special holiday meals and fantastic ethnic cuisines
• Before-and-after photos and inspiring success stories -- with time-tested tips from those who've been there and won their battle with weight
• Self-tests to help readers meet and stay with their goals