By Dr. Joseph Mercola
     with Rachael Droege

The low-carb diet, once ridiculed and belittled by scientists and doctors alike, has finally made it big. And Dr. Robert C. Atkins is undoubtedly to thank for accomplishing this feat--he nearly single handedly introduced the low-carb concept to Americans. By now, almost everyone has heard of The Atkin's Diet, and chances are high that you also know someone who has tried it (or have tried it to some degree yourself).

First let me say that I have enormous respect for Dr. Atkins' pioneering work with nutrition. He has been advocating his low-carb approach despite harsh criticism from the medical establishment who have been addicted to their drastically misinformed low-fat, low-calorie approach since the 1970s.

That many millions do instantly recognize his name and his approach is testament to the vision and tenacity of Dr. Atkins himself, and the basis of his program, which stresses a low-carb approach to dieting and allows up to two-thirds of calories to come from animal fat, goes a long way toward getting people away from the dangerous and incorrect 'fear-of-fat' mentality.

However, as you have likely witnessed among those who have tried the Atkins Diet, it does not "work" for everyone in regard to losing weight, and it is not the healthiest way of eating for others. While the bulk of Dr. Atkins' work is right on target, there are aspects of his program that fall short of helping people lose weight and prevent disease permanently.

This means that sooner or later the Atkins Diet will indeed fail for most who try it, and below I tell you why.

Two Major Problems

1. One-Third of the Population Require a High-Carb Diet

The Atkins Diet attempts to dish out a "one-size-fits-all" diet, with one basic program designed to meet the diverse needs of the entire population. Intuitively most people know that what is healthy for one person may not be for another, and this intuition is correct. While initially most people may lose some weight by following Dr. Atkins' program, particularly if they were overweight to begin with, one-third of them will eventually fail.

This is because these people actually require a high-carb diet, and by following the Atkins Diet they are not giving their body the ideal fuel mixture that they were genetically designed to have. To achieve long-term weight loss and disease prevention, they would need a low-protein and low-fat diet, which is quite opposite of the Atkins' approach. For these people, the Atkins Diet also poses a serious possibility that the extra protein they are eating could cause kidney impairment if there was some underlying problem prior to starting the diet.

So how do you know if you need a low-carb or a high-carb diet? In our practice we use a system called "nutritional typing" to make this distinction. After reading this article, I strongly urge you to find out more about metabolic typing, and then take the free condensed version of the nutritional type test on Mercola.com, to gain a basic understanding of your nutritional type and learn what next steps you should take with this critical knowledge.

2. Emotional Factors are Not Addressed

No matter what type of foods you eat, or what combination you eat them in, you will not have successful long-tem weight loss and health if the emotional factors are not addressed. Anyone who's ever tried to lose weight knows that this is the area in which support is most needed--you've mastered the details, knowing what foods are "right" or "wrong," yet are struggling nonetheless. This is the power that emotions have over our rational minds.

Yet Dr. Atkins' program includes no formal approach--only temporary quick fixes to "emotional eating"--to address the underlying emotional factors that can hinder your weight loss efforts. This is a major oversight, as without real tools to overcome cravings, food addictions, self-image issues and other self-sabotaging behavior, most will ultimately fail. This is why I place so much emphasis on the energy psychology tools that have proven to be most effective over my 20 years of clinical experience.

A Host of Other Issues

Aside from the two major problems above, the Atkins Diet falls short in many other areas.

Ketosis is Unnecessary ... and Not Necessarily Healthy

Ketosis is what occurs in your body if you do not have enough carbohydrates to burn as fuel. Instead, your body uses fat as a fuel and one of the breakdown products is ketones. While it is not necessarily dangerous to have ketosis, it is my belief, and that of many other physicians, that this is not necessarily a healthy condition to intentionally induce. In fact, it is my experience that ketosis is completely unnecessary to achieve your optimal weight, yet the Atkins Diet has nearly everyone induce this situation in the beginning phases of the diet. Ketones are also the reason why patients on this diet often develop a strange breath odor.

The Glycemic Index--Not a Good Way to Choose Your Food

Dr. Atkins makes the same mistake as Dr. Agatston in the South Beach Diet in advocating the use of the glycemic index in choosing foods. On page 78 Dr. Atkins says the glycemic index is "a beautiful tool" and "a highly effective system" and he advocates using this tool to choose your foods not only for weight loss but for "minimizing risk factors associated with certain diseases."

This is very misleading advice, as I have found the glycemic index to be of little value, primarily because it contains MANY exceptions that render it practically useless. Take fructose for example. Although it has a very low glycemic index and is acceptable if you follow the index standards, fructose is one of the major reasons why people are overweight. And fructose is not the only exception. Many other low glycemic index foods, like apple juice, chocolate and cherries, should not be eaten if your goal is to lose weight. Clearly, the glycemic index is not a reliable method to lose weight or achieve any other health-promoting state.

Counting Carb Calories is Unnecessary

The Atkins Diet encourages the use of a "carbohydrate gram counter" to keep track of carb calories. The emphasis is particularly strong during the Ongoing Weight Loss phase where it says on page 169, "If you don't count, you could get in trouble." Not only is this a cumbersome and time-consuming way to live, it is also completely unnecessary.

When you eat the diet that I have detailed in my Total Health Program, a diet that is ideal for your metabolic type, you eat until you are full and satisfied. When you eat the ideal foods for you, counting carbs or anything else becomes unnecessary because your body will naturally tell you when it's time to stop eating, and when it's time to start.

Sucralose (Splenda) is Recommended Despite Health Risks

Dr. Atkins heartily recommends and endorses, on page 128, the use of sucralose, sold as Splenda, and appears unaware of the many concerns surrounding this potentially problematic sweetener.

There are currently NO large studies underway researching the safety of this artificial sweetener, and Splenda was released with few studies to support its safety. It's important to realize that this is the same pattern that occurred with the artificial sweeteners aspartame and saccharine--two sweeteners that are now widely known to cause numerous health problems. I encourage you to read the many reader testimonials that can attest to the potential dangers of sucralose.

Nuts are Not Ideal

Like the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet encourages you to eat nuts. While nuts can have important health benefits, nuts are high in omega-6 fats so if you are not supplementing your diet with fish oils it is likely your omega 6:3 ratio is about 15:1 rather than the ideal 1:1. This distortion of the omega 6:3 ratio is one of the major contributing factors to most chronic degenerative diseases.

Not Enough Exercise for Ideal Weight Loss

Dr. Atkins recommends only 30 daily minutes of cardiovascular exercise, but for most overweight people twice that amount is needed. For overweight people trying to lose weight, 60 minutes of daily exercise is necessary to increase the number of mitochondria in muscles--this will increase metabolic rate to continue to burn calories at rest and even while sleeping.

Food Quality--Largely Overlooked and Risky for Health

The quality of the food you eat is extremely important--if you eat a diet of factory farmed animals and pasteurized dairy, you are exposing yourself to toxins and nutrients that have lost their beneficial qualities. Thus, food quality is just as important as the type of food you are eating--that I provide a comprehensive understanding of all the healthiest types of foods in all categories is what has helped The Total Health book become a bestseller--but in the Atkins Diet there is not nearly enough emphasis placed on the quality of the foods. This is why the Atkins diet gained a reputation for allowing less-than-ideal foods such as processed meats like bacon and processed "low-carb" energy bars. The three major areas that need serious revision are:

• Beef: Ideally you should choose cattle that were exclusively fed grass and not factory farmed on grains. This is because when you eat grain-fed beef the fat composition actually changes and become unfavorable for health. Grass-fed beef, on the other hand, is highly health promoting, provided it is right for your nutritional type.
  

• Milk: Dr. Atkins endorses liberal amounts of dairy in his program, but unfortunately this recommendation does not factor in the enormous number of people who have significant complications from consuming commercial pasteurized dairy. Problems can range from lactose intolerance to far more serious health complications. However, choosing raw dairy--as opposed to pasteurized--will eliminate these risks.
  

• Fish: Like the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet recommends you eat fish, but there is no attention given to the importance of avoiding the mercury and PCBs. Nearly all fish from every type of water source are now contaminated with dangerous levels of mercury and PCBs from generations of water pollution from coal plants and other sources. Mercury and PCBs can lead to all kinds of very serious disease including neurological disorders.

  Despite the fact that a warning has been issued by many health practitioners and major health and government agencies-- even the very conservative EPA advises pregnant women to avoid fish--the Atkins Diet includes fish in their program. Almost as damaging as this recommendation is that Dr. Atkins neglected to tell his readers that to safely avoid the mercury and PCBs in fish, yet still get the health benefits of omega-3, substituting clean sources of bottled or capsule fish oil is by far the wisest option.

So while Dr. Atkins certainly deserves some praise for his work--I truly view him as one of the foremost medical pioneers of the 20th century--some refinements are needed to take his groundbreaking work to the next level. It is this next level that will truly bring people the health they are looking for, and no one understood better than Dr. Atkins that such well-intentioned criticism--insight offered to truly help people--is precisely what drives real progress in health care and medicine.