Health-Hack.com

Opening Up

September 27th, 2006

Since I began my new position as Executive Producer for Health Content at Grasshopper New Media, my life has opened up in different ways.

I’ve been accustomed to merely reporting on health news since this blog launched in January of 2005. Now, it seems that I’m something of a public figure. Weird.

In the course of promoting the Health Hacks Podcast, and GNM in general, I’ve participated in public forums like PodCamp Boston, where I lead a (very small) session, befriended some pretty interesting people and saw my boss, Chris Brogan, catapult into the limelight.

So, while I’m not signing autographs or writing my memoirs (yet) I am at least now interview-worthy. Well, at least in the eyes of my compatriot Jimmy Moore of the Livin’ La Vida Low Carb blog. You can read the interview here.

Giving this interview was an awakening because it made me articulate some things that were only loosely formed in my mind. It has sparked a lot of interest, and many people have contacted me about contributing either to the Health Hacks Podcast, or possibly to a new show (Interested? let me know!).

Anyway, in this interview I was asked about being a “former low carber”. I haven’t really discussed my own diet path much here on HHDC, so I wasn’t really expecting the question.

I reponded that I don’t feel like a “former low carber”, but perhaps like a former Atkins dieter. Really, when it comes to diets, I tend toward being “platform agnostic”. One reason I gave for moving on to other Low carb/controlled carb concepts was that BDK, or Ketosis wasn’t very attainable for me and that BDK is one of the major points seperating Atkins from other similar plans.

One reader asked how that made sense, and here is my response:

If I could, I’d like offer a response to Low Carb Tennis Guy’s questions.

First, I’ll answer his second question. Dr. Atkins was not the only person to develop a low-carb diet. William Banting was promoting a LC plan his doctor developed back in the 1800’s. Today there are many low carb plans, most of which differ in small ways. If you include “controlled carbohydrate” diets then you can even lump in the South Beach diet and other similar plans.

One major difference between the plan developed (as a work in progress over decades of gradual evolution) by Dr. Atkins and many of the other plans is the “Atkins Metabolic Advantage”, a physiological response triggered by a near absense of carbs. It is more commonly known as Ketosis, but Dr. Atkins, in his later years, favored the term Beneficial Dietary Ketosis, or BDK.

The reason for the new term is that many DOCTORS (gasp!) didn’t realize that there is a difference between ketosis and a very harmful but completely unrelated condition called ketoacidosis. These doctors would tell patients to avoid the Atkins plan like the plague, out of ignorance.

Now the problem with ketosis is that while it makes your body burn fat rather than other fuels, it can be really hard to trigger ketosis. Moreover many LC dieters found they could lose significant amounts of weight without reaching ketosis.

I, myself had much trouble reaching ketosis, and was blowing a fortune on ketone test-strips, even though I was losing weight at a good clip. I did find, though, that while Atkins stressed that you wouldn’t need to conciously limit your food intake that didn’t work for me.

You see, in theory, he had a great idea. Atkins was relying on the hunger/fullness mechanism to kick in, which is likely to happen because fats and proteins are filling. However, a certain portion of americans (like me) had such a screwed up way of eating (thanks, McDonald’s!) that we no longer really understood these concepts of “full” and “hunger”.

So, anyway, I found that I did need some external control on portion sizes, which is why I now pair low-carb dieting with the No-S diet (and the Shangri-La diet, but using oil, not sugar).

I still support the Atkins diet both in theory and, for those it suits, in practice. Look at Jimmy- who can argue with that kind of success?!

For more great info on different Low Carb diets, please read Dana Carpender’s excellent “How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet And Lost 40 Pounds”.

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Entry Filed under: Diet, General Health, Site News