ATKINS DIET CONTROVERSY || ATKINS DIET PROS AND CONS

ATKINS DIET CONTROVERSY

TOPIC: ATKINS DIET

Pros and Cons, a critical review

Study Atkins diet as a Critic not as a customer

Study Atkin’s diet, go online and see what this diet is all about? What is it offering? What are their main points that make it different? Etc.

This assignment has three main sections.

1. Introduction


2. Comparison of the characteristics of a healthy diet (ABC-MV)


3. Research about the opinion of major health organizations regarding this diet




 
4.  
5.  

Compare this diet with ABC_MV (the basic characteristics of healthy diet Chapter 2). Explain if this diet meets or does not comply with any of the components of a healthy diet and support in detail your viewpoint with scientific and logical arguments.

Also, investigate and discuss in detail what major health organizations such as the American Health Association, American Cancer Society, etc. feel about this type of diets.

Discuss each component of the assignment, as described below.

Template:

EACH SECTION MUST BEGINS CLEAR AND BOLD HEADING.

Page 1

COVER PAGE     Points 5

Atkin’s Diet.

Your Name

Class Day & Time (like Friday 8 am)

Page 2- Section 1

Introduction: – (SHOULD NOT EXCEED MORE THAN 250 WORDS)    Points 10

         Write a brief introduction- must not exceed one page. (Short and concise cover all important aspects)

Page 3- Section 2  ( This part may need more than one page)  Points 30

Comparison of Atkin’s diet with ABC-MV: - (MUST NOT BE LESS THAN 250 WORDS)

Make sure each Characteristic must be discussed in separate sections under BOLD subheading as shown below.

ADEQUACY:  Must state whether this diet meets this characteristic or not with a YES or NO- Than explain, in detail, your reasons how did you reach to that conclusion?

BALANCE:: Must state whether this diet meets this characteristic or not with a YES or NO- Than explain, in detail, your reasons how did you reach to that conclusion?

MODERATION:: Must state whether this diet meets this characteristic or not with a YES or NO- Than explain, in detail, your reasons how did you reach to that conclusion?

 VARIETY:: Must state whether this diet meets this characteristic or not with a YES or NO- Than explain, in detail, your reasons how did you reach to that conclusion?

Section 3 (need research and details) Points 40

DISCUSSION: (MUST BE AROUND 300 WORDS OR MORE)

Discuss what major health organizations, government Departments and Independent Research Institutes thinks about this diet. Keep in mind any institute linked with Atkin’s Organizations or funded by it will not be considered as an unbiased opinion. Your discussion must be divided into separate sections with BOLD SUB-HEADING as shown below:

   AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION: Explain what are the views of this organization about this diet? What are their reservations, apprehensions about this or similar diets?

   AMERICAN KIDNEY FOUNDATION (AKF): Explain what are the views of this organization about this diet? What are their reservations, apprehensions about this or similar diets?

   AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY (ACS): Explain what are the views of this organization about this diet? What are their reservations, apprehensions about this or similar diets?

Section 4 (MUST be, at lease, 60 words )   Points 10

CONCLUSION: After all the discussion, what do you think about this diet and give your judgment and support with scientific arguments.

Section 5- (minimum 4 references)   Points 5

REFERENCES

Requirements

• All research papers must use MLA citation.


• All research papers must be submitted online on Canvas, with a .doc suffix. No other formats will be acceptable.


• All research papers must include some sources, including printed and internet sources. The number of sources and ratio of print/internet sources are detailed below.


• Students may use Wikipedia to help choose a topic, or to find possible sources for further research. However, Wikipedia may not be included as a reference in the bibliography.


• Research papers can include images appropriate to the paper's content.


• All research papers will be evaluated for length by word count, rather than pages, to account for differences in fonts, margins, pictures, etc. In Microsoft Word, you can check your work count by selecting Tools>Word Count.


• Save your finished paper, only use your first initial, last name and your CLASS DAY (must)


• You may want to review the definition of plagiarism (Links to an external site.) and review the HCCS policy on academic integrity.  (Links to an external site.)


• If assignment turned in in class, it must be organized and stapled. No loose papers will be accepted.

SAMPLE PAPER : ATKINS DIET PROS AND CONS

Introduction

Nutrition plays an important role in the health of individuals. This fact can be supported by the existence of various malnutrition diseases as well as other lifestyle diseases that arise from poor dieting. One major concern associated with poor dieting is the gaining of excess weight. Excessive consumption of junk food and food with high protein and fat content has been   to increase weight gain. The gain in weight has been found to be even more pronounced among individuals who do not take part in any form of physical activities. If unchecked, this excessive weight gain may further manifest into serious medical conditions such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and many more. Due to these grave health concerns, various medical experts have developed approaches which they believe will help individuals in checking their diet and subsequently avert diseases resulting from sedentary dieting. Among such approaches is the Atkins diet proposed by Robert Atkins. This discussion is therefore a critical review of this diet in terms of comparing it with ABC-MV. The key aspects that will be considered in this comparison will be the adequacy, balance, moderation and variety of the diet. Further, the discussion will also investigate the perception of different health institution towards this approach of dieting.

Comparison of Atkins Diet with ABC-MV

Adequacy

Every diet should have an adequate concentration of different essential nutrients in any given serving. Essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates should be given top priority and as a result, should be provided in quantities that much the required metabolic rates of the individuals consuming the food. Equally important is the adequacy of the calories consumed. Based on the Basal Metabolic Rate of individuals, it is important for every diet to put into consideration the minimum energy requirement needed.

Atkin’s diet therefore does not meet this characteristic because of the following reasons. To begin with, the diet primarily advocates for the loss of weight by cutting down on the consumption of carbohydrates. This can be seen through Atkin’s two week plan of reducing the total consumption of carbohydrates by 10g daily for an entire month. Cutting down on carbohydrates implies that the calories consumption is reduced significantly since carbohydrates are the main sources of energy in any given diet.

Balance

The necessity of a proper balanced diet has been emphasized in technically every nutrition study conducted. Advances in the field of nutritional geometry have explored the various benefits associated with proper balancing of nutrients in any given diet. Among other things, proper balancing of nutrients in the diet has led to longer lifespans and improved immune to diseases (Simpson, et al,1). Atkins diet also has no proper balancing of nutrients. In spite of its carbohydrate regulation, the diet does not provide any restrictions for the intake of proteins and fats. The primary reason for this unrestriction is to encourage metabolism from other sources apart from the usual carbohydrates. Therefore, there exists a large imbalance between the consumption of carbohydrates and other nutrients such as proteins.

Calorie Control

Controlling body mass significantly depends on how an individual controls the intake of food rich in calories. Cutting down calories is empirically known to reduce body weight and its associated anomalies such as hypertension. Calorie control is  a major characteristic of Atkins diet since it forms the back bone on which the diet program is built on (Mendelson, 131). The primary objective of the program is to cut down on calorie consumption in order to reduce the body weight of individuals.

Moderation

While having essential nutrients in any given diet is necessary, it is equally important to ensure that each of these nutrients should be taken in the appropriate quantities. Excessive intake of proteins for instance has been linked to increased bone loss among adults. This is because, increased protein consumption leads to an increase in acid production in the body. This increase translates to reduced reabsorption of calcium in the body subsequently leading to hypercalciuria(Delimaris,3). This example and many more show how important moderation is to the human diet.

Atkins diet does not have a definite moderation characteristic. While the diet may be seen to advocate for reduced intake of carbohydrates, it is also important to note that it has no restrictions in place for other nutrients such as proteins and fats. This lack of restrictions therefore implies that individuals are more likely to suffer from different diseases based on their overconsumption of some nutrients.

Variety

Selecting food from a wide variety has been found to have a close relationship to adequacy of nutrients. Different food types offer different concentrations of nutrients. Therefore, selecting food from a wide variety is essential in ensuring that one obtains the nutrients effectively ((Foote,1).

Atkins diet has a strong sense of variety. This characteristic is evident in the sense that the diet encourages individuals to seek other sources of energy such as bacon, fat and proteins. The primary objective of this variety is to reduce dependence on carbohydrates for energy needs.

Discussion:

American Heart Association

The Atkins diet has received various mixed responses from different organizations. While there are organizations which tend to agree with the approach, various other national institutions strongly disagree with the approach. The American Heart Association for instance strongly disagrees with the diet approach by stating that excessive intake of proteins with very low carbohydrate intake rapidly increases the production of free radicals in the body (Mahdi, 244). Such radicals eventually lead to the development of stress in various body organs. These opinions were in agreement with similar studies which found out that depriving the body off carbohydrates subjects the brain to immense stress eventually leading to feelings of nausea and other fatal cardiac conditions.

American Kidney Fund

Similarly, the American Kidney Fund has also displayed skeptical opinions regarding the use of Atkins diet. The Fund’s Chairman was once quoted stating that high protein diets have been suspected to be leading causes of kidney failures since they inhibit the ability of these organs to fully perform their detoxification duties (Michael Greger, M.D). Such remarks directly refer to the diet since the Atkins diet is well known to advocate for high protein intake.

American Cancer Society

Finally, the American Cancer society also expressed its opinions regarding diets similar to the Atkins diet. The society appreciated the need of having protein included in the diet of its patients. However, the society emphasized on the need of having a diet where the nutrients are properly balanced and moderate (Byers, et al,94). Furthermore, the society advocates for whole grains with minimal consumption of red meat containing high fat content.

Conclusion

Based on the discussion above, it is evident that the Atkinson diet is misleading and should therefore not be followed. While it is true that cutting down on weight loss is important, the approach followed by the diet cannot be considered to be appropriate. The diet approach has been seen to have various devastating and even fatal consequences to those who practice it.

Works Cited

Byers, T., et al. "American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention: Reducing the Risk of Cancer with Healthy Food Choices and Physical Activity." CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, vol. 52, no. 2, 2002, pp. 92-119.

Delimaris, Ioannis. "Adverse Effects Associated with Protein Intake above the Recommended Dietary Allowance for Adults." ISRN Nutrition, vol. 2013, 2013, pp. 1-6.

Foote, Janet A., et al. "Dietary Variety Increases the Probability of Nutrient Adequacy among Adults." The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 134, no. 7, 2004, pp. 1779-1785.

Mahdi, Ghanim S. "The Atkin’s diet controversy." Annals of Saudi Medicine, vol. 26, no. 3, 2006, pp. 244-245.

Mendelson, Scott D. "DIETS FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND METABOLIC SYNDROME." Metabolic Syndrome and Psychiatric Illness, 2008, pp. 129-140.

Michael Greger, M.D. "American Kidney Fund." Atkins Facts - Atkins "Nightmare" Diet, www.atkinsexposed.org/American_Kidney_Fund.htm.

Simpson, Stephen J., et al. "Putting the Balance Back in Diet." Cell, vol. 161, no. 1, 2015, pp. 18-23.