News today of an article in a British Medical Journal that raises health concerns about no-carb diets.
LONDON -- The popular Atkins diet could be linked to a life-threatening complication which one woman who claimed to be following it developed, according to doctors who published a case report on it Friday in a British medical journal.
Doctors from New York University wrote in The Lancet journal of a 40-year-old woman who developed a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of acids called ketones in the blood which can lead to patients falling into a coma.
The patient, who was not identified, was admitted to an intensive care unit for four days after becoming short of breath. Before being hospitalized, she had lost her appetite, felt nauseous and was vomiting four to six times a day, the doctors wrote in the paper. Tests confirmed ketoacidosis.
Ketones are produced in the liver when insulin levels fall due to starvation or diabetes.
"Our patient had an underlying ketosis caused by the Atkins diet ... This problem may become more recognized because this diet is becoming increasingly popular worldwide," said Professor Klaus-Dieter Lessnau, who led the team from the New York University School of Medicine.
...some outside experts said the case is rare and does not reflect a major health threat associated with low-carb diets. "I think this is an isolated case. The idea that serious ketoacidosis could be triggered by a low-carb diet does not happen very often," said Dr. Paul Clayton, president of the forum on food and nutrition at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. Clayton said that the main problem of high protein diets is in the strain they put on kidneys and the risk of renal failure.
Okay, that's great and all guys but um... where were you three years ago, when anyone gave a damn? It's been over a year since Atkins declared bankruptcy, relabeled their food to allow some carbs, and pretty much vanished from the national prominence in the US, and
now you pop up with your isolated case health concerns?
I guess no-carbs are still popular in the UK? They're gone in the US though, and to quote myself from
a post last year:
as most dieticians predicted, the Atkins' forced ketosis thing did work for quick weight loss if you could stomach the super protein food plan, but hardly anyone could long term, and hardly anyone took steps to change their lifestyle (I.E. eating healthier and exercising), so hardly anyone kept the weight off. And thus does America turn to the next "sounds too good to be true" weight loss plan that doesn't involve any sort of sacrifice, hunger, or exercise. Hard to imagine why 2/3 of us are fat, eh?
Labels: diet, obesity
