Living the Low Carb Life, Chapter 3

Chapter 1 review - Chapter 2 review

In chapter 3, Jonny Bowden takes pains to list the positives and negatives of all the diet plans he profiles. With those that get a low rating, such as Lindora, he mentions what is good about the program. And with the highest rated, such as Atkins, he mentions the faults he sees. So far from being overly biased, he does his best to highlight the whole story behind all the diets - good and bad.

Here's all the diets and how they rated, from top rated down to lowest rated. When more than one program has the same rating they are in alphabetical order. If you want to know Mr. Bowden's reasoning behind these ratings, you'll have to get the book! :) Below each diet I will put my comments.

The Atkins Diet - 5 stars

I am, of course, biased toward this program because it is my plan. :) Atkins is high-fat, low-carb, consisting of four phases, each one less restrictive than the last.

Favorite quotes:
"But you have to realize that in 1972, banning these foods [high carbohydrate foods] for even two weeks was the nutrition equivalent of suggesting that every school and office in the country burn the American flag. These foods were the holy grail of low-fat religion" (pg. 68).

"Atkins has been one of the most misunderstood diet authors and has been the target of more attacks than any other low-carb proponent, probably because his was the first and the most commercially successful of the plans and also, to the constant chagrin of the establishment, because he simply wouldn't go away" (pg. 72).

www.atkins.com

The Fat Flush Plan - 5 stars

A good basic plan. There really isn't anything bad to say about it. It restricts wheat, dairy, and sugar, which some people are sensitive to in which case these foods would cause bloating.

fatflush.com

The Hamptons Diet - 5 stars

Favorite quote:
"Dr. Pescatore points to the fact that the American Heart Association diet - which recommends limiting total dietary fat to less than 30 percent of the diet and saturated fat to less than 10 percent - fails to lower triglycerides and actually lowers HDL (good cholesterol). In addition, the AHA diet has never consistently shown long-term improvement in any heart disease outcome" (pg. 107).

www.hamptonsdiet.com

Protein Power - 5 stars

Not much to say. It's a very good, well-balanced low carb diet.

Interesting feature of the diet:
It has three levels, representing your level of commitment. The higher the level, the more healthy you will be. You'll have to get the book for the full explanation, but here's the name of the levels.

Purist - very restrictive
Dilettante - a little less restrictive, but still bans certain foods; the authors themselves are on this level
Hedonist - the least restrictive; anything goes as long as you stay within your allotted carbs and get the amount of required protein

If I had to go on this diet I would most certainly be a hedonist!

Interestingly enough, I recently stumbled upon Dr. Michael Eades' blog and have been reading it.

eatprotein.com Not much there at the moment. They say they are moving the site.

The South Beach Diet - 5 stars

Consisting of three phases and a good carbs/good fats approach (after the initial low-carb approach of Phase 1), the diet's true genius was that Dr. Agatston managed to get accepted by the mainstream. This is probably do to his demonization of saturated fats, which Mr. Bowden feels is dead wrong. However, if it can get people eating less carbs, that's a good thing.

I can't find fault in this diet. It encourages people to eat carbs in the amount their individual bodies can handle them, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Best (if not favorite) quote:
"The genius of Agatston is that he has taken this information and make it extremely user-friendly and accessible, and has done so while making sure not to alienate his more conservative colleagues in the medical profession. This makes it much more likely that his important message will be heard" (pgs. 155-156).

www.southbeachdiet.com

The Zone - 5 stars

Consists of 40% carbs/30% protein/30% fat.

Mr. Bowden then takes time to explode some basic myths about the diet.

1) "The Zone is not a high-protein diet" (pg. 161). It includes about 112g of protein a day.
2) "The Zone is also not a low-carb diet" (pg. 162). It includes about 150g of carbohydrates. (Yikes! Way too high for me. Any more than about 90g a day and I get the most horrible cravings.)
3) "The Zone was never meant solely as a weight loss diet. It was designed to reduce heart disease through the control of inflammation" (pg. 162).

In this section Mr. Bowden touches on the topic of eicosanoids. Very interesting stuff. Don't skip it.

He says that Dr. Sears has "almost singlehandedly forced the dietary establishment to reevaluate the prohibition on fats" (pg. 165), and that 40/30/30 beats the USDA food pyramid any day of the week. He says the Zone is a good place to begin, even if you later move on the a different program.

drsears.com

The 7 Day Low-Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan - 4 stars

By the same authors as the The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. This is a week-long program and not a lifestyle. It's meant to transition you slowly into the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. (See below for more on this.)

www.carbohydrateaddicts.com

The GO Diet - 4 stars

Favorite quote:
"Fruits today are definitely not the same fruits out ancestors ate. Our fruits have been bred and engineered for far more sweetness than the bitter little things that our Paleolithic ancestors gathered" (pg. 102).

www.go-diet.com

The Schwarzbein Principle - 4 stars

Mr. Bowden says that every low-carber should have the original Schwarzbein Principle in their library. He also says that if you aren't familiar with the case against a low-fat diet that this book is a good place to start.

The Schwarzbein Principle focuses on both insulin (as all low-carb diets do), but also on having healthy adrenal glands. This is what sets it apart from all other low-carb diets.

Why does it get only 4 stars? Because it's not really a weight loss plan. "As an overall plan for health, this is five-star material. But as a weight loss diet - which it was never intended to be - it may not be the ideal entry-level plan, as it requires a good deal of patience and lots of commitment" (pg. 146).

schwarzbeinprinciple.com

The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet - 3 stars

Two "on plan" meals a day consisting of mostly protein and vegetables and one reward meal, but that meal must be eaten in one hour. No snacks.

I could do a LOT of damage in one hour. This program would never work for me.

www.carbohydrateaddicts.com

Neanderthin - 3 stars

Notable quote:
"Until the advent of agriculture, grains, beans, potatoes, milk, and refined sugar were not part of the human diet" (pg. 119).

This is SO true! Agriculture has only been around for 10,000 years. Our digestive tracts don't change that quickly. Our bodies are much better suited for a hunter/gatherer diet - low carbohydrate, high protein and fat.

Interesting feature of this diet:
"You...shouldn't drink alcohol, though he [the diet's author] says that if you must, you can do damage control by drinking fruit-based alcohol such as wine or champagne" (pg. 121).

No quibble here. I'm a wine girl all the way!

Favorite quote:
"A vegetarian diet, says Audette, is about as natural to humans as a diet of Cheerios to a lion" (pg. 122).

I think that's a bit hyperbolic, but point taken.

There doesn't appear to be a Web site for this diet, at least not anymore. When I went to the one given in the book, there was nothing there.

The Paleo Diet - 3 stars

Here Mr. Bowden gets into what he only touched on in the last section - that agriculture with it's attendant carbs and refined sugar is the cause of obesity. There's far too much info. to type up, but suffice to say that if you want to understand the role agriculture has played in modern life (and food) as we know it today, then this section is a must-read. For now, let's just say that Mr. Bowden lays out the fact that "61% of calories in a modern diet come from foods that were largely unknown before the adoption of agriculture" (pg. 125), and spells out how he came to this figure.

I have more stuff highlighted in this section than any other.

Favorite quote:
"Interesting, isn't it, that grains are the food of choice for fattening livestock and yet are still recommended by the dietary establishment as the foundation food of a weight loss program!" (pg. 127).

thepaleodiet.com

Curves - 2 1/2 stars

Favorite quote:
"This is a textbook example of what happens when a businessperson writes a book on nutrition and fitness. It's so filled will god-awful voodoo nutrition and snake oil salesmanship that by page 23 I was downright angry. Want an example? The author talks about turning on 'starvation hormones.'...I've never heard the term 'starvation hormones.' Wanna know why? 'Cause they don't exist" (pg. 91).

Also, Mr. Bowden quotes the Curves book as saying, "...a diet should be temporary." What, no lifestyle change??? That's the definition of a "god-awful" program!

www.curves.com

The Lindora Program - 2 stars (couldn't find a book, just the official Web site)

Focuses not just on food, but on the physical, psychological, and environmental causes of cravings, and teaches people how to manage them. It reminded me a bit of Dr. Phil McGraw's Ultimate Weight Loss Solution, with the emphasis on the whole person, and in that case, as in the case of Lindora, the "food" portion of the diet isn't all that great.

leanforlife.com

Somersizing - 2 stars

Gets only 2 stars "purely for the emphasis on real food" (pg. 151). It's a food combining plan - protein/fats can be eaten with vegetables, but not carbs, and carbs can be eaten with vegetables, but not protein/fats. Fruits are always eaten alone. There is no science to back up food combining like this.

Favorite quote:
"It's a lovely system. The problem is that it has no basic in fact and doesn't even make sense on an intuitive level" (pg. 148).

www.suzannesomers.com

Sugar Busters! - 2 stars

Gets only 2 stars, and those are "awarded for effort" (pg. 160), and nothing more. This diet is only about controlling sugar, but not other carbs. He considers the diet a step in the right direction, but "too lenient" for most people.

sugarbusters.com

The Scarsdale Diet - 0 stars

This is a low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie diet. At zero stars, Mr. Bowden says it "is only mentioned here because it is still in print and still has a following. This is the kind of book that gives low-carbing a bad name" (pg. 140).

And yet, he does manage to find one positive comment:
"The only thing it [this diet] brings to the table - done so much better by others - is a limitation on sugar, starch, and flour" (pg 140).

There is no official Web site.

Do you have any experiences with any of these diets, or perhaps a low carb program not mentioned here? Leave a comment!