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Study says Atkins Diet will not make you happy

By | November 10, 2009, 11:11 AM PST

The next happy dieter I see will be the first.

Conventional wisdom was given me just now by my contractor, who said he dieted many times and only lost weight using the Atkins plan - no carbs, but all the fat and protein you like.

“The moment I finished I ate a pound of pasta,” he recalle. And his gut still precedes him.

Anyway, Australian scientists recently completed working with 106 dieters, half of whom went low-carb and the others of whom went low-fat. As they reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the latter group wound up happier.

Both diets worked, they wrote, for those who completed the program, but:

These parameters decreased initially in both diet groups and then tended to remain low in the Low Fat (LF) group but rebounded toward baseline levels over time in the Low Carb (LC) group.

At the study’s conclusion there was significantly more depression, confusion, and even anger among the Atkins-style dieters than in those who just cut out the fat and concentrated on calories.

Why? A report for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a clue. A brain chemical called corticotropin-releasing-factor (CRF), released when addicts go through withdrawal, is also expressed when people are coming off a junk food high. (No more doughnuts? I’m going to be sick.)

What does this mean? Perhaps it means that sugar and starch, the basic carbohydrates, are programmed as essential, while other foods are not.

Skip the burger, big guy, and eat the bun.

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Dana Blankenhorn

About Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2009 to 2010.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Contributing Editor, Healthcare

Dana Blankenhorn has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement and founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media. He holds degrees from Rice and Northwestern universities. He is based in Atlanta.

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Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a technology reporter since 1982, a business reporter since 1978, and a writer for as long as he can remember. His Schwab IRA has a few tech stocks in it, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials bought over 10 years ago. But the vast majority of his tiny fortune (emphasis on the word tiny) is invested in mutual funds. He presently writes for no one else but ZDNet, SmartPlanet and himself. But if you've got an opportunity let him know. If he takes the gig he"ll first add it to this disclosure page.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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RE: Study says Atkins Diet will not make you happy
I think you're guilty of emotional manipulation by showing that picture in your article. No one following an Atking diet would eat a burger like that.
I you were argumenting honestly you would show a picture of a steak with salad.
Besides it's no wonder that we're geneticly programmed to seek sugar and starch, since for a hurter-gatherer they are difficult to obtain and valuably as calories-rich food.
Posted by lykkelig
10th Nov 2009
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The picture is of a fat man
I didn't want to characterize either diet, just people who need to diet. Sorry you were offended.
Posted by DanaBlankenhorn
11th Nov 2009
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RE: Study says Atkins Diet will not make you happy
I have found I could stick to the Atkins diet, but not the low fat tasteless ones of which I have tried many. I feel that is the reason for the success of the Atkins diet. Of course the people on the low fat diet are happy, they have finished the diet and aren't starving themselves anymore.
Posted by hayneiii@...
13th Nov 2009
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Haneiii@
Sticking with the diet was not at issue in these studies.

It was the mental health of the patients who stuck with them for 6 months and their post-diet experience that was at issue. Both groups in this study lost an equivalent amount of weight.

But those on the low-fat diet kept the weight off, and did not report as much depression.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Posted by DanaBlankenhorn
23rd Nov 2009
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