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Atkins Diet Warning

pointless and uncalled for

11:41 / 28.06.04

This one goes out to all of you on the Atkins Diet.

Studies in the University of Colorado are indicating that there may be health related side affects of high protien diets, such as the Atkins Diet.

Those of you on the Atkins Diet or contemplating it may wish to give this some serious consideration.

bitchiekittie

12:13 / 28.06.04

"there may be health related side affects of hig protien diets"

tee hee

Papess

12:14 / 28.06.04

Ammonium, is a chemical compound that is produced by decomposition.

Given that, I have to ask: Could it be what we feed our livestock that is the problem? After all, feed with up to a certain percentage of feces are allowed to be fed to livestock.

Or, could it be the putrefaction that takes place within our own digestive and eliminatory process that is causing these high levels of ammonium?

One more question...Are mice really herbivores? Somehow that doen't seem right.

Ganesh

12:27 / 28.06.04

Well, as ever, it's largely extrapolated speculation based on animal studies - but it might explain why Xoc and me are having trouble making babies...

Papess

12:32 / 28.06.04

Maybe you need to put some ice in yer shorts Ganesh.

■

12:32 / 28.06.04

Wow! People eating a wholly unnatural and strange diet to drastically lose weight might have health problems? Who would have thought it?

Papess

12:39 / 28.06.04

Wow! People eating a wholly unnatural and strange diet to drastically lose weight might have health problems?

Well, no. That isn't what the article says at all. It is not about affecting the health of those who are on the radical diet. It is about the effects on the embryo of someone on the Atkins diet, which is another matter.

Ganesh

12:40 / 28.06.04

Wow! Barbeloids commenting sweepingly on the 'naturalness' of this or that diet based on a single animal study! Who'd have thought it!

Papess

12:50 / 28.06.04

What I am getting at is it may not actually be the Atkins diet. I mean who paid for the research? The South Beach Diet author? I do not know. What I do know is is that there are trace elements of feces found in many animal products we ingest. So, maybe this is not about the Atkins diet at all.

Also, we are allowed to speculate in the Conversation, correct?

pointless and uncalled for

12:54 / 28.06.04

You can speculate anywhere really, you just get different responses is all.

I really only put this up as a humourous poke at the general witch-hunting that seems to continually go on with the Atkins Diet. Plus, as health concerns go, this is a particularly lame one.

Ganesh

12:54 / 28.06.04

That last post in response to Koala Cube, BTW.

Papess

13:05 / 28.06.04

I don't think it is lame at all SK. As infertility is rising in North America, this study may be giving a clue to us. If meat is consumed in high volume and concentration it is causing damage to embryonic/fetal development. What is to say that similar effects are caused by smaller quantities over a longer period of time?

I think this has more to do with the quality of animal products and not specifically to do with the Atkin's diet. Although, for guerrilla marketing tactics, it does do the trick.

Papess

13:07 / 28.06.04

I mean:

What is to say that similar effects are *not* caused by smaller quantities over a longer period of time?

...Hence the increase in infertility. Speculative, yes I know.

■

13:16 / 28.06.04

OK, it's very easy to be negative. I'm just amazed that anyone even bothered to commission the study in the first place. Atkins is just yet another in a long line of diets which promise the world with a quick fix.
It happens to be very effective in the short term by forcing your system to do things that have immediately nasty side effects. There must be long-term effects as well.
Stands to reason, dunnit? Bloke down the pub told me.
Just eat a little less, exercise a little more. In two or three years you'll be fine.

Papess

13:35 / 28.06.04

Okay, what species of mice are we talking about? Because from what I am reading, there are a species of mice that are omnivorous. Don't mice just eat whatever they can? Talk about your blind biased statements. I suppose the Atkins spokeswoman is counting on the ignorance of the masses. Or, maybe we can just count on hers.

Cat Chant

14:05 / 28.06.04

Talk about your blind biased statements. I suppose the Atkins spokeswoman is counting on the ignorance of the masses.

Well, the leader of the study (who should know) also says that the test was on herbivorous mice.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:10 / 28.06.04

I think muridae are generally herbivorous, but can sometimes eat small amounts of meat. A herbivorous mouse might be a mouse on a herbivorous diet rather than one that is by nature herbivorous, maybe?

Papess

14:17 / 28.06.04

Well, I don't know much about the different species of mice, but it does seem rather dim to draw conclusion about meat consumption from testing done on herbivores. They could have picked better test subjects, but then again, the frivilous nature of this research (to discredit the Atkins diet) is suspicious in itself. I think they are missing the point of their findings. However, using herbivores to test meat consumption discredits their conclusions in my mind too. There are too many unaddressed variables.

Not to say that I am in favour of the Atkins Diet.

Papess

14:28 / 28.06.04

A herbivorous mouse might be a mouse on a herbivorous diet rather than one that is by nature herbivorous, maybe?

Good point, Haus. I was thinking that too. I am pretty sure mice will eat whatever is available to them, making them omnivorous. But it is misleading to just call them herbivores because of their diet. It is like calling a vegetarian a herbivore because they are not consuming meat. It doesn't mean it changes their DNA and ability to eat meat. They still belong to a species of omnivores.

Mourne Kransky

15:04 / 28.06.04

I want pizza!

But the fact that I've lost a stone and a half will regird my lean loins for a while yet...

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:10 / 28.06.04

Slightlier trickier. I mean mus musculus is herbivorous in the wild, for example, living mainly on seeds, but adapts in human environments to be omnivorous. Left to its own devices, it would be herbivorous. Most lab mice are mus musculus, but are again so inbred as to be a difference type - mus musculus laboratarius. Mad, innit? Other muridae, and other myomorpha, predate, usually on insects but also sometimes (the North American grasshopper mouse springs to mind) on smaller mammals, and in the case of specialised water animals like ichthyomys on fish.

So, you can certainly say that a 30% protein diet would be a pretty insane level of protein for a mouse, even a mouse with an omnivorous diet, although the next step might be that it is also a rather high level of protein for a human...

Persephone

15:22 / 28.06.04

The accompanying photo of meat is funny, isn't it? With the caption "Meat is a good source of protein." It's like an ad for meat.

Papess

15:36 / 28.06.04

Wow! Inbreding in labrotory mice created a different species? That is mad.

I did read that the Deer Mouse (or Peromyscus maniculatus, if you prefer) may consume up 50% animal products, but it is only that high if there is nothing else available, fo my understanding.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:49 / 28.06.04

And there are mutterings in the dark that there are dendromuridae that live on a diet based entirely around predation, but this remains unclear because it is cocking difficult to stop them for long enough to ask.

They never made a film about *that* starring Tim Curry. Flesh-eating tree-rats! That spells box office to me.

Papess

16:09 / 28.06.04

...but this remains unclear because it is cocking difficult to stop them for long enough to ask.

tehehe

They never made a film about *that* starring Tim Curry. Flesh-eating tree-rats! That spells box office to me.

Only if they are dressed in drag.

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