What Is The Atkins Diet - Dr Atkins Diet Foods Allowed

Originally created during the 1970’s, the creator of the Atkins diet, Dr. Robert Atkins, may not have realized just how popular his program would become when the craze for a low-carb diet reached its zenith about ten years ago. It has now come to be of great help to many people who wish to lose weight. In fact, it is believed that today as many as twenty-five million Americans may be on low-carb diets at any given time.

Getting Low Carb Products at Your Local Supermarket

Thanks to the Atkins diet, you can now visit many supermarkets or food outlets and see rows of “low carb” products that will surely remind you of the “low fat” products so popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s. If you are curious to know just how the Atkins diet works, be prepared to spend the first two weeks of the program consuming just twenty grams of carbohydrates on a daily basis. This introductory period will allow the dieter to eat meat, eggs, poultry, cheese, seafood and oils in their diet during these two weeks.

After the first two weeks, the Atkins diet will allow the dieter to add five grams of carbohydrates to the diet, and throughout this maintenance period, the dieter should not take more than forty to ninety grams of carbs on a permanent basis. Be warned that this is in contradiction to what health organizations as well as many health experts advocate.

Unlike the recommendations of the American Cancer Society, which advocates five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily, the Atkins diet has no limitations imposed on consuming high protein foods as long as there are not excessive amounts of carbohydrates. This is particularly important to note, because countries such as Japan have their populace consuming foods that are especially rich in carbohydrates. These diets are diametrically opposed to what is recommended by the Atkins diet.

Conforming to the requirements of Atkins diet is often not easy, even though in the long term it would not adversely affect the dieters. There is however certain risks associated with the Atkins diet, such as high cholesterol and electrolyte imbalances. Nevertheless, the Atkins diet delves into the topic of insulin resistance, and why people that are overweight have trouble with their cells performing in less than satisfactory ways.

In a nutshell, insulin resistant individuals tend to become fat because the carbohydrates get turned into fat instead of energy. Thus, the Atkins diet, which emphasizes low carbohydrate intake, keeps the problem at bay. This may well be yet another reason that this program is currently the number one diet preferred by most Americans.