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atkins - question about health problems

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General fitness, health and nutrition
Published
11 September 2004
Last activity
2 October 2004
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Jopie
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  1. Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft boiled
    eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went back to the
    yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no sugars). Otherwise my
    diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein (from meats and eggs) and more
    fat from dairy, and took away my may fresh fruit intakes a day.

    This is what I experienced:
    1) leg cramps that started with the cramps I knew from childbearing years,
    but became rapidly worse, so that the least amount of tension on the muscles
    would produce cramps. I learned to lay perfectly still in bed and not move
    my legs, and even then, just the move of a toe could induce cramps. The
    cramps then became different, less like muscle spams, and more like a wired
    sensation located in the bones; eventually my legs felt almost constantly
    weird, tensed, wired, heavy -when sitting down... that's when I was aware of
    it- . I wondered what was going on to my veins, my bones as well as the
    muscles.
    2) enormous fatique that would not go away
    3) hairloss, like after I had had a few months after having my babies.
    4) arthritis acting up big time

    I read through lots of support group listings to see if this was normal and
    what to do for it, and learned first of all how important it was to take
    food supplements. Then to take extra potassium, extra magnesium, rogaine,
    biotin, L-Cysteine , zinc,
    and more......... So all this started me seriously wondering how this
    Atkins diet could be healthy.

    I had changed my diet from a healthy one (I did not eat empty calories, did
    not drink carbonated drinks, but ate fruits, brown rice, whole wheat, very
    little meat, hardly eggs, used olive oil for years, ate fresh natural
    yoghurts, etc etc) to one that can NOT be good for me: lots and lots of
    proteins (all animal), dairy fats and hardly any fruits or good grains.
    Granted I was 36 pounds over weight and have lost 15 of those. I exercise
    not a lot and I ate obviously more than I burned.
    So that is where I have come back to:
    Atkins -or any other restrictive diet- is NOT healthy for me (nor for anyone
    else if you have all these problems and have to supplement so unnaturally
    much) and the key for me is less, but healthy intake, and a bit more
    exercice.

    So in the end I really have answered the question i was going to ask: How
    can this be healthy and what to do or not to do....

    Thanks group for providing me with a forum where to glean so much valid
    information and in the end find my answer to my "prayer"

    Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and 1/2
    hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry, delicious!

    Jopie

  2. Didn't see you mention vegetables, Atkins includes lots of vegetables. A
    good vitamin supplement is a good idea with any way of eating as, unless you
    carefully control what you eat in order to get all the right vitamins and
    minerals, you can't be sure you are getting everything you need. A vitamin
    supplement just gives you insurance. Some of the things you gave up--olive
    oil and yogurt--are fine on Atkins, there is no need to give them up.

    In news:[email hidden],
    Jopie <[email hidden]> stated
    | Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    | problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft
    | boiled eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went
    | back to the yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no
    | sugars). Otherwise my diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein
    | (from meats and eggs) and more fat from dairy, and took away my may
    | fresh fruit intakes a day.
    |
    | This is what I experienced:
    | 1) leg cramps that started with the cramps I knew from childbearing
    | years, but became rapidly worse, so that the least amount of tension
    | on the muscles would produce cramps. I learned to lay perfectly still
    | in bed and not move my legs, and even then, just the move of a toe
    | could induce cramps. The cramps then became different, less like
    | muscle spams, and more like a wired sensation located in the bones;
    | eventually my legs felt almost constantly weird, tensed, wired, heavy
    | -when sitting down... that's when I was aware of it- . I wondered
    | what was going on to my veins, my bones as well as the muscles.
    | 2) enormous fatique that would not go away
    | 3) hairloss, like after I had had a few months after having my babies.
    | 4) arthritis acting up big time
    |
    | I read through lots of support group listings to see if this was
    | normal and what to do for it, and learned first of all how important
    | it was to take food supplements. Then to take extra potassium, extra
    | magnesium, rogaine, biotin, L-Cysteine , zinc,
    | and more......... So all this started me seriously wondering how this
    | Atkins diet could be healthy.
    |
    | I had changed my diet from a healthy one (I did not eat empty
    | calories, did not drink carbonated drinks, but ate fruits, brown
    | rice, whole wheat, very little meat, hardly eggs, used olive oil for
    | years, ate fresh natural yoghurts, etc etc) to one that can NOT be
    | good for me: lots and lots of proteins (all animal), dairy fats and
    | hardly any fruits or good grains. Granted I was 36 pounds over weight
    | and have lost 15 of those. I exercise not a lot and I ate obviously
    | more than I burned.
    | So that is where I have come back to:
    | Atkins -or any other restrictive diet- is NOT healthy for me (nor for
    | anyone else if you have all these problems and have to supplement so
    | unnaturally much) and the key for me is less, but healthy intake, and
    | a bit more exercice.
    |
    | So in the end I really have answered the question i was going to ask:
    | How can this be healthy and what to do or not to do....
    |
    | Thanks group for providing me with a forum where to glean so much
    | valid information and in the end find my answer to my "prayer"
    |
    | Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and
    | 1/2 hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry,
    | delicious!
    |
    | Jopie

  3. In news:[email hidden],
    Jopie <[email hidden]> stated

    Quoted message said:

    Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft
    boiled eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went
    back to the yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no
    sugars). Otherwise my diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein
    (from meats and eggs) and more fat from dairy, and took away my may
    fresh fruit intakes a day.

    <snip>

    Quoted message said:

    So in the end I really have answered the question i was going to ask:
    How can this be healthy and what to do or not to do....

    Why did you start Atkins in the first place, when your lifestyle before was
    so healthy? You wrote you wanted to lose about 36 lb, so that's the obvious
    reason, but to me it looks like you don't like the idea of Atkins at all,
    so why try something you do not believe in?

    I really wonder... dieting or adapting ones way of eating is something that
    should work for YOU. If you feel fine with fruit, low-fat, grains - just do
    it. My mileage varies...

    I don't eat grains - not even a few, I don't have cramps, I feel a lot
    better without grains. I go easy on fruit (have an occasional nibble of
    mango or a few berries every now and then), I eat lots of veggies & salad
    and some meat, fish and eggs. What's not healthy about that? I don't take
    supplements, my hair & nails are growing better than ever; my skin isn't
    dry any more and I drink a refreshing amount of fresh water and green tea;
    and yes I do have coffee and a glass of wine sometimes.

    You state that you have added 'more fat from dairy'. As far as I know the
    book suggests to go easy on dairy products... and to eat good fats such as
    olive oil.

    Quoted message said:

    Atkins -or any other restrictive diet- is NOT healthy for me (nor for
    anyone else if you have all these problems and have to supplement so
    unnaturally much) and the key for me is less, but healthy intake, and
    a bit more exercice.

    See, just what I said. Find what works for you. To me the only restrictive
    point in a LC diet is going easy on sugar & carbs, which is a good thing
    for me - "healthy fruit" makes my blood sugar go bonkers.

    And if you check into this newsgroup, there are lots of variations to LC
    eating - one of these is the South Beach Diet which would probably be more
    what you are looking for. Find a way of eating for life that suits you. And
    keep in mind that Aktins does suit a lot of people in this group whose
    experience is different from yours, to some it has made a huge difference
    in their life, health-wise.

    Petra in Hamburg, Germany

  4. In article <[email hidden]>,

    Jopie said:

    Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft boiled
    eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went back to the
    yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no sugars). Otherwise my
    diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein (from meats and eggs) and more
    fat from dairy, and took away my may fresh fruit intakes a day.

    Where are the vegetables?

    Priscilla

  5. Jopie wrote:

    | Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and
    | 1/2 hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry,
    | delicious!
    |
    | Jopie

    Thanks; I'm enjoying mine! I started my morning with a nice 3-egg ham and
    cheese omelet with fresh strawberries and cream on the side, a tall glass of
    Hood's Carb Countdown chocolate milk, and a mug of decaf coffee brewed with
    cinnamon. (I can't imagine going back to the bland grapefruit/toast low-fat
    thing)! I've lost 56 pounds since 12/15/03 and am in the best health I've
    experienced in years -- completely documented by before-and-after medical
    tests for CV function, kidney/liver function, blood lipids and blood glucose
    levels. And I'm not hungry all that time as are many low-fat dieters.

    What you perceive as "healthy" isn't necessarily true for anyone with
    insulin abnormalities; exactly the opposite in fact. If I ate a grapefruit
    and a slice of toast my blood glucose would spike and an hour later I'd be
    so sleepy I wouldn't be able to function. More beta cells killed off. On my
    (now lifelong) Atkins plan I don't have to worry about the highs and lows;
    my body provides a steady source of energy.

    If you choose the low-fat diet over a low-carb way of eating, that's fine
    and I'm not going to knock it -- it's an "either-or" thing. The fat without
    the carbs and visa-versa is ok; it's the combination of fats and carbs that
    are deadly. The big difference IMO is that because if the rapid metabolism
    of carbohydrates, people on the low-fat diets get hungry more often because
    of those insulin spikes and dips that are a part of eating high-carb foods.

    Good luck to you.

    Peter
    270/214/184
    Before/Current Pix:
    http://users.thelink.net/marengo/weightlosspix/weightlosspix.html

  6. Jopie said:

    Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft boiled
    eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went back to the
    yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no sugars). Otherwise my
    diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein (from meats and eggs) and more
    fat from dairy, and took away my may fresh fruit intakes a day.

    This is what I experienced:

    http://www.atkinsfacts.org

  7. @(none)" <""steve\"@(none) wrote:
    | Jopie wrote:
    || Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    || problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft
    || boiled eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went
    || back to the yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no
    || sugars). Otherwise my diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein
    || (from meats and eggs) and more fat from dairy, and took away my may
    || fresh fruit intakes a day.
    ||
    || This is what I experienced:
    |
    | http://www.atkinsfacts.org

    Jopie = the troll

    @none = the troll's handpuppet

    You must have been on a low-fat diet; it clouds the mind and makes your
    thinking fuzzy.
    --
    Peter
    Before/Current Pix:
    http://users.thelink.net/marengo/weightlosspix/weightlosspix.html


  8. Quoted message said:

    Jopie = the troll

    @none = the troll's handpuppet

    You must have been on a low-fat diet; it clouds the mind and makes your
    thinking fuzzy.
    --
    Peter

    Good for you, Peter. I, too, recognized both of those posts as troll posts.
    I don't know why others considered them to be honest, good questions, when
    it was instantly obvious that some "idiot provocateur" wrote them.

    Pat in TX


  9. Quoted message said:

    Jopie = the troll

    @none = the troll's handpuppet

    You must have been on a low-fat diet; it clouds the mind and makes your
    thinking fuzzy.
    --
    Peter

    Good for you, Peter. I, too, recognized both of those posts as troll posts.
    I don't know why others considered them to be honest, good questions, when
    it was instantly obvious that some "idiot provocateur" wrote them.

    Pat in TX

  10. Pat said:
    Quoted message said:

    Jopie = the troll

    @none = the troll's handpuppet

    You must have been on a low-fat diet; it clouds the mind and makes
    your thinking fuzzy.
    --
    Peter

    Good for you, Peter. I, too, recognized both of those posts as troll
    posts.

    You ought to have Googled first folks. "Jopie" isn't a troll. She's
    posted here since May.

    Carmen

  11. Hi Peter,

    marengo said:

    You're right Carmen, I should have Googled first.

    The anonymous (@none) outright Atkins-bashing post was suspicious,
    but I should have checked before jumping to conclusions about Jopie.

    However, Jopie has not been doing "Atkins". The issues that she
    mentioned are amply discussed in DANDR, and she seems surprised by
    them. She


    Snip

    True enough. Jopie isn't American or Canadian though. She's in
    Holland, and I doubt they have a lot of support for Atkins there. She
    could have ordered it off the 'net I suppose - probably hideous
    shipping costs involved though. There might be a lot of cultural
    biases to overcome as well.
    If she's happier eating muesli and lots of fruit I hope it works for
    her. I know *I'd* rather be eating muesli and fruit and whole grain
    breads all the time. :-) People like you and I also have a
    compelling reason to low carb. It's this odd attachment we have to
    our feet and our eyesight. We don't want to lose them to diabetes.
    Sometimes I think that makes staying low carb easier in the face of
    temptation

    As for the @none cretin, it's probably just Mr. "My wife got thin on
    Atkins and I had to divorce her" again. IOW, a dork.

    Take care,
    Carmen

  12. Quoted message said:

    Otherwise my
    diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein (from meats and eggs) and more
    fat from dairy, and took away my may fresh fruit intakes a day.

    And your veggies?

    LCing since 12/01/03-
    Me- 5'7" 265/169/140
    & hubby- 6' 310/190/180
    http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos

  13. Quoted message said:

    | Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and
    | 1/2 hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry,
    | delicious!

    Dry toast? Are you posting from a prision or something? I can't imagine any
    sane human with a choice about their food actually choosing dry toast.
    <shudder>

    LCing since 12/01/03-
    Me- 5'7" 265/169/140
    & hubby- 6' 310/190/180
    http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos

  14. Carmen wrote:
    | Hi Peter,
    | On 11-Sep-2004, "marengo" <[email hidden]> wrote:
    |
    <snip>
    |
    | As for the @none cretin, it's probably just Mr. "My wife got thin on
    | Atkins and I had to divorce her" again.

    LOL! I haven't thought about HIM in while!
    --
    Peter
    Before/Current Pix:
    http://users.thelink.net/marengo/weightlosspix/weightlosspix.html

  15. "Jopie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    Hello group, we started atkins earlier this summer, my spouse had no
    problems with it, but started his whole wheat toast with his soft boiled
    eggs in the morning after about four weeks, whereas i went back to the
    yoghurt and muesli breakfast 9no refined anything, no sugars). Otherwise


    my

    Quoted message said:

    diet with Atkins introduced a lot of protein (from meats and eggs) and


    more

    Quoted message said:

    fat from dairy, and took away my may fresh fruit intakes a day.

    This is what I experienced:
    1) leg cramps that started with the cramps I knew from childbearing years,
    but became rapidly worse, so that the least amount of tension on the


    muscles

    Quoted message said:

    would produce cramps. I learned to lay perfectly still in bed and not move
    my legs, and even then, just the move of a toe could induce cramps. The
    cramps then became different, less like muscle spams, and more like a


    wired

    Quoted message said:

    sensation located in the bones; eventually my legs felt almost constantly
    weird, tensed, wired, heavy -when sitting down... that's when I was aware


    of

    Quoted message said:

    it- . I wondered what was going on to my veins, my bones as well as the
    muscles.
    2) enormous fatique that would not go away
    3) hairloss, like after I had had a few months after having my babies.
    4) arthritis acting up big time

    I read through lots of support group listings to see if this was normal


    and

    Quoted message said:

    what to do for it, and learned first of all how important it was to take
    food supplements. Then to take extra potassium, extra magnesium, rogaine,
    biotin, L-Cysteine , zinc,
    and more......... So all this started me seriously wondering how this
    Atkins diet could be healthy.

    I had changed my diet from a healthy one (I did not eat empty calories,


    did

    Quoted message said:

    not drink carbonated drinks, but ate fruits, brown rice, whole wheat, very
    little meat, hardly eggs, used olive oil for years, ate fresh natural
    yoghurts, etc etc) to one that can NOT be good for me: lots and lots of
    proteins (all animal), dairy fats and hardly any fruits or good grains.
    Granted I was 36 pounds over weight and have lost 15 of those. I exercise
    not a lot and I ate obviously more than I burned.
    So that is where I have come back to:
    Atkins -or any other restrictive diet- is NOT healthy for me (nor for


    anyone

    Quoted message said:

    else if you have all these problems and have to supplement so unnaturally
    much) and the key for me is less, but healthy intake, and a bit more
    exercice.

    So in the end I really have answered the question i was going to ask: How
    can this be healthy and what to do or not to do....

    Thanks group for providing me with a forum where to glean so much valid
    information and in the end find my answer to my "prayer"

    Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and 1/2
    hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry, delicious!

    Jopie

    For fatigue, I suggest more water. Lots of it. When you get into a
    low-carb diet,.water has a good way of invigorating. If your tap water is
    not appealing to you (mine isn't), but cases of bottled water, refrigerate
    it, and drink it. In the long run, I think you will find it worth the money
    spent.

  16. My first thought was that this was new form of vegan attack. However, from
    Google I found that Jopie is a European who began Atkins in May 2004. She
    had a Weight Watchers background.

    Her complaint about leg cramps is not unusual for low carb. I have had no
    such problems myself, but the anecdotes seem to indicate that this is a
    valid critcism.

    Fatigue is only reported in the beginning of induction as the body adapts to
    a ketosis. I would bet that her carbs were too high. "Muesli" is not low
    carb. Reduced need for nighttime sleep, and increased energy is the common
    result of low carb.

    Hairloss? Coincidence.

    Arthritis? Coincidence.

  17. LCer09 said:
    Quoted message said:

    | Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and
    | 1/2 hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry,
    | delicious!

    Dry toast? Are you posting from a prision or something? I can't imagine
    any
    sane human with a choice about their food actually choosing dry toast.
    <shudder>

    LCing since 12/01/03-
    Me- 5'7" 265/169/140
    & hubby- 6' 310/190/180
    http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos

    On low fat, I ate dry toast all the time. It's not that bad -- sorta like
    rice cakes.

    --
    Bob in CT
    Remove ".x" to reply

  18. Bob in CT said:
    LCer09 said:
    Quoted message said:

    | Enjoy your weekend, I started mine this morning with a grapefruit and
    | 1/2 hour later a nice slice of homemade wholewheat toast, dry,
    | delicious!

    Dry toast? Are you posting from a prision or something? I can't
    imagine any
    sane human with a choice about their food actually choosing dry toast.
    <shudder>

    LCing since 12/01/03-
    Me- 5'7" 265/169/140
    & hubby- 6' 310/190/180
    http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos

    On low fat, I ate dry toast all the time. It's not that bad -- sorta
    like rice cakes.

    And remember that the OP said "homemade" dry toast. My homemade bread
    makes really good toast, and I could see eating it dry.

  19. Quoted message said:

    On low fat, I ate dry toast all the time. It's not that bad -- sorta like
    rice cakes.

    Or eating dirt?
    LCing since 12/01/03-
    Me- 5'7" 265/168/140
    & hubby- 6' 310/188/180
    http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos


  20. Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    On low fat, I ate dry toast all the time. It's not that bad -- sorta


    like

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    rice cakes.

    Or eating dirt?
    LCing since 12/01/03-


    Nah, more like cardboard.

    Pat in TX

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