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The Atkins Diet: at last farmers should be able
to breed cattle for tasty beef again.
Dr James Irvine
FRSE DSc FRCPEd FRCPath FInstBiol
Retired Consultant Physician; Farmer at Cultybraggan
Farm, Comrie:
Director, Teviot Scientific, Edinburgh
Filed 23 Jan 04
© www.land-care.org.uk
The Horizon Programme on TV Thursday 22nd
January featured the Atkins diet. It documented the resistance from
the establishment of the medical profession to new thinking. Ironically
this programme followed another interesting one on the development
of computers, illustrating how their clear potential lay dormant
on our own doorstep after World War 2 simply due to the unimaginative
thinking by those in positions of influence.
There can be little doubt that the so-called
nutrition experts in the USA (where Dr Atkins lived and worked)
and in the UK did not like their established line of dogma disturbed,
especially by someone who was not a formally paid-up member of their
clique. What a cheek that a cardiologist should be advising on diet
with a crazy notion that happened to work remarkably well. Have
we not heard of that situation before? In fact it has been the rule
rather than the exception right down the ages.
The Atkins Diet has been known for a long
time. Obesity has also been recognised for a long time as an ever
increasing problem with serious consequences to health. So what
were our Medical Research Council scientists doing about it? They
had their eyes and brains closed to claims of dietary success because
such claims did not suit their thinking. But now they have been
caught with their pants down, because like it or not the Atkins
Diet works very well for an awful lot of people; they feel good
on it and even enjoy it.
It should not have been such a difficult
problem to analyse what was happening with the Atkins Diet, given
the facilities that have been available for many years for studying
nutrition. What was needed was a thought change. It may be cumbersome
and time consuming, but all the necessary laboratory techniques
have been available since I was doing my honours year in the Department
of Physiology, University of Edinburgh many decades ago.
Why was it necessary to claim that the
success of the diet was against the laws of thermo-dynamics? It
is perfectly possible to measure what goes in and what comes out
and what the metabolic rate is. Surprise, surprise it has apparently
taken until 2004 to realise that a high protein diet reduces cravings,
so that overall and given time less calories are consumed and yet
people enjoy what they eat.
How often did we hear from the experts that
a high fat diet is damaging for your heart? Yet it seemed to take
an awful long time for the scientists to get round to do the basic
blood tests to see if the Atkins Diet with its fat permissiveness
(with low carbohydrate) actually raised the plasma lipids. When
the experts did the experiments the Atkins Diet was found not to
be associated with raised lipids.
Now look back and see what the so-called
nutrition experts have achieved and whether we should thank them
for it. They were the ones responsible for the idea that meat contained
more fat than was good for you, and that if you wanted meat as a
treat you should buy it lean (and tasteless). The breeding of cattle
for the commercial and pedigree markets was radically changed. Estimated
Beef values (EBV's) were introduced by the MLC and operated by Signet
which gave great credit and serious financial advantage for severe
degrees of leanness.
At last the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society
is planning to break away from the outdated thinking of MLC/Signet,
while it is understood that other breed societies are persisting
with the old misguided order. Sadly, because of the lack of progressive
thinking in the UK, it will be necessary to adopt an Australian
devised breeding programme (1, 2) so that
we can at last breed to produce meat according to the different
tastes of different customers - and a lot of these customers will
no longer be interested in excessively lean meat. They may well
want to get back to some good old-fashioned marbling.
The Horizon programme ended with the sceptics
continuing to have their say. Perhaps they were scared of falling
out with the authorities that rule them and who dictate what they
choose to call “best practice”. Woe betide any doctor
these days who dare do anything other than “best practice”
as determined by some committee.
There they were talking about unfounded
risks of breast cancer, poor bones, cancer of the colon etc. Not
a mention about the huge benefits of weight reduction. Anyway who
ever said that you had to stay indefinitely on the strict level
of Atkins Diet after initial success? You can relax a bit to consume
more carbohydrate, roughage, fruits etc according to how your body
responds.
Such has been the impact of the Atkins Diet
that the consumption of meat has risen, while the demand for bread
and potatoes has fallen. Sales of the orange coloured book The New
Atkins Diet have knocked Harry Potter off the top of the best seller
list.
If the scientists wish to maintain their
credibility they had better catch up with the public.
References
1. Sundstrom, Brian (2002). BreedPlan
- Australian based international beef cattle genetic evolution programme.
See Science Homepage, filed 2002, www.land-care.org.uk
Click Here to View
2. Editorial (2003). Have Signet
and MLC muscled in on BreedPlan?
See Science Homepage, filed 5 May 03, www.land-care.org.uk
Click
Here to View
Further Reading Recommended by Land-Care
 Groom,
Robert (2003). Letter from America by expatriate Scott AA breeder
See
Science Homepage, filed 5 May 03, www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
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