High-profile ad urges low-carb approach to dietary guidelines
, medical review by Dr. Bret Scher, MD
in Failed low-fat diets, Low carb & high fat, The food revolution, The obesity epidemic 
More than 50 US doctors have signed a prominent ad placed in both The New York Times and The Washington Post advocating for a low-carb approach to the new dietary guidelines.
The ad appeared July 9, the day before the next round of scientific meetings and deliberations about the guidelines were to start, July 10 and 11, in Washington D.C.
Spearheaded and paid for by Atkins Nutritionals, the company founded by Dr. Robert Atkins who popularized the low-carb “Atkins” diet in the 1970s, the ad was signed by many high-profile, low-carb doctors including Jeffry Gerber, Sarah Hallberg, David Diamond, Eric Westman and more.
The ad is an open letter to the US Government’s Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging it to base the 2020 Dietary Guidelines on current, relevant science which supports a controlled carbohydrate eating approach as a viable option for ALL Americans. The ad said:
“The U.S. Dietary Guidelines are designed for healthy Americans. And yet, only 12% of the adult population is metabolically healthy. Today, 72% of American adults have a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight or obese range and 52% have either diabetes or prediabetes…. This is a public health crisis and we can’t afford to wait any longer to overhaul the US Dietary Guidelines to represent all Americans – healthy and not.”
The Atkins company also put out a press release describing the reason for the ad, noting the guideline’s Advisory Committee is currently holding its second set of meetings to begin shaping their recommendations to the USDA and Health and Human Services for the 2020 guidelines.
Atkins: Call To Action For Guidelines to Benefit All Americans
Earlier this year, journalist Nina Teicholz, founder and executive director of the Nutrition Coalition, wrote about how at the first meeting in March 2019, some delegates were very surprised that the guidelines are deemed to be only aimed at “healthy” Americans. That leaves out the more than 70% of people who now are overweight, obese, or have metabolic disease.
The Atkins ad focused its call to action to make the guidelines science-based and relevant to ALL Americans, healthy and not.
The high-profile ad garnered Twitter support but also condemnation. An op-ed in The Hill, a political newspaper published in Washington, urge government officials to ignore the ad. The op-ed was written by Susan Levin, MS, RD, of the Physicians for Responsible Medicine, a lobby-group that promotes plant-based diets. “Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. shouldn’t be able to sway federal food policy that influences what Americans eat,” the op-ed charged. It advocated an even greater increase in fruits, vegetables and healthy grains in the guidelines.
The Hill: Don’t listen to Atkins call for cutting carbohydrates in the Dietary Guidelines
The new dietary guidelines are expected to be released in 2020 and are the basis for meals served in schools, hospitals, the military, and senior homes; the guidelines also influence what doctors can tell patients about healthy eating.
The agenda, topics, committee members and presenters for the two days of meetings can be found on the USDA website here.
For more on what is at stake with the formation of the 2020 dietary guidelines, please listen to the recent Diet Doctor podcast with Nina Teicholz: A hope for the nutritional guidelines.
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Since we knew staying on the same diet we'd been on all along probably wasn't going to help, we started tracking which foods made his blood sugar spike and which didn't so we could adjust to a better diet. We weren't planning to go low carb or keto but we quickly figured out that the culprit foods were the carb-laden ones. Even a bowl of the whole-grain cereal that we had been eating for breakfast for years (with skim milk) caused his blood glucose to spike to over 220! Meanwhile, 3-egg ham, spinach and cheese omelet barely caused a blip. HUH??? We both have undergrad chemistry degrees and "carbohydrates convert quickly into sugar when digested" is just basic biochemistry! DUH! We SHOULD have known!
Once we figured it out, we went on a very low carb diet and within three months, my husband's HbA1c was down to 5.8 which is considered normal! During that same three month period, I joined my husband in eating the foods that did not cause his blood glucose to spike and I lost over 20 lbs... without even trying! And, without ever going hungry!
We have continued eating low-carb ever since. Five years now and counting! Instead of slowly succumbing to "progressive T2 diabetes" my husband is now off all diabetes medications and his HbA1c remains stable at 5.4 to 5.6.
As for me, after about 18 months eating low carb, my weight (which had been somewhere above 265 lbs) dropped down into the 170s. As we added a few more carbs back into our diet, my weight crept back up a little bit but it has been stable in the mid 180s for three years now. I'm 5'9" and truly big-boned so, while that is still a bit higher than I would like, it is a whole lot better than it was back when I ate the USDA's recommended low-fat way...and stayed HUNGRY 90% of the time! Additionally, my blood pressure has normalized. My sleep apnea is gone. My knees and feet don't hurt anymore. My overall lipid scores have improved and, last year, I got a perfect score of 0 on a coronary calcium scan.
At ages 65 and 68, we are both healthier and more active than we were in our 50s. It is past time for the USDA to recognize that low carb is a healthy way to eat! Let's hope that this time, they get it right!
Now-a-days, we both normally skip breakfast except for coffee with a dollop of cream. We didn't set out to skip breakfast but, over time we just quit being hungry first thing in the morning so started postponing eating until we got hungry and now it is usually 11:30 AM to 1 PM before one of us gets hungry enough to want anything.
Our first meal might be "breakfasty": an omelet with cheese, mushrooms, onions, chopped up ham, spinach, spinach, chopped tomatoes or whatever else I happen to have available; or traditional bacon and eggs with a cinnamon mug muffin made with almond and flax meal; or occasionally a crust-less quiche. Or, our first meal might be a more traditional lunch: hamburger lettuce-wrap; or a bacon, lettuce, tomato "sandwich" on a savory bun made with flax meal; or a half-avocado topped with spicy taco meat, or chicken fajita wraps, or a bowl of my creamy tarragon fish soup (I need to submit my recipe to Diet Doctor because it is AMAZING!).
Then between about 6PM and 7:30PM we'll have a second meal. It almost always consists of @6 oz of meat each plus and plenty of low-carb vegetables. Sometimes I'll grill chicken breasts or salmon or pork chops and serve on top of a salad which could be a garden salad or a Caesar salad. Other times, we'll have the meat with a side of steamed or oven-roasted veggies. And often, I'll chop up whatever meat we're having and fry it in butter or bacon grease along with various low carb vegetables and then add spices and either cream or a bit of sugar-free tomato paste or some soup stock to make a sauce. With a little creativity, you can create curries OR meaty Italian-style "pasta" sauces or Oriental-style stir-fry, or replicate almost any style of cooking you want.
I don't eat anything after dinner. Around 10 PM, my husband will usually have a small glass of red wine and he'll usually have an ounce or so of some sort of flavorful cheese to go with it.
When we have company - which is actually quite often - I usually fix the same sort of meal that I would fix for the two of us but add a starchy vegetable and/or some bread for our guests. Then, for dessert, I will fix a low-carb cheesecake and serve it with a homemade blueberry or raspberry sauce. Or I'll make molten chocolate lave cake from the recipe here on Diet Doctor.
If you're looking for ideas about what you can eat, Diet Doctor has an amazing recipe collection. And, once you get used to what ingredients you can use, you can start getting creative! There is absolutely no reason to ever get bored on a low-carb diet!
the book: The Ketogenic Solution for Lymphatic Disorders
that the author, Leslyn Keith, sent you?
Because from most accounts I hear from real people who follow the LCHF way of eating, from the current research, it HELPS and HEALS people. It only makes sense to me that the Dietary Guidelines should change to benefit more people.
I don't care if Atkins is lobbying for it. I still won't buy their products.
I have been following LCHF for almost a year and following the boards hearing hundreds of stories like mine. This is what happened when I ate LCHF:
- Vastly increased energy and stamina.
- Able to run laps around my local lake whereas before LCHF I couldn't run at all! One time I walked so far my 3-year old couldn't walk anymore and I had to carry her piggy-back (with my 8-pound camera!) Two miles back on a gravel road. No pain afterwards.
- No more fatigue.
- No more brain fog.
- Vastly improved recall.
- No more sciatica.
- Psoriatic arthritis stiffness and achiness vastly diminished.
- Chronic back pain HEALED during a fast.
- Never fasted longer than 14 hours before LCHF. Didn't know about the health benefits.
- No longer fit bipolar diagnosis.
- Reduced fasting blood glucose from 100 down to 89.
- Lost 8 inches in my waist.
- No longer obese.
- BMI went from 36 down to 25.
- I lost 63 pounds!