Limelight:
Food for thought
By
Lubna Abdel-Aziz
"The history of our world is the record of man, in quest of his bread and butter." After 20 centuries of pursuing his quest, he finds himself with too much bread and too much butter, and the inescapable ugly face of obesity by his side. His ailments mounted as a result, and experts, scientists, physicians, therapists, nutritionists rushed to the rescue. Their ideas, theories, methods, strategies flood the market taking us on a diet roller-coaster ride that seems to know no end. Our luxuriously inactive lifestyle afforded by our extensive industrial and technological advances include "whopper junk foods" and "mile high carbonated sweet drinks" that we find hard to resist. Our bodies possess the ability to store excess food as fat, but the opportunity to store increased amounts has only recently become a fact of life. Our metabolism, unable to cope, gives way to ghastly fat that proceeds to destroy our bodies and our lives.
With all our sophisticated scientific know- how we still cannot digest the fact that not only do we eat to live, but we need to eat less, in order to live longer. Knowledge of our nutritional requirements did not occur until the 1800s. Before then there was precious little, or no food science, whatsoever. It is said that in the year 1087 William the Conqueror, King of England, found he could no longer mount his horse because of his heaviness. He began to drink alcohol instead of food hoping it would result in the loss of his excess weight. King William died later that year from injuries sustained following a fall from his horse. We know that his diet worked, because he was able to ride his horse again. If obesity existed then, it was a problem of only the rich. Prior to 1800s our problem was getting enough to eat, not getting too much. By the mid 1800s "getting too much was becoming a problem, which they called obesity!"
The first recorded diet appeared in the 1850s when an English undertaker by the name of William Banting was growing increasingly unhappy with his corpulent appearance. He tried everything, starvation, purges, diuretics, Turkish baths and vigorous exercise; nothing worked and doctors told him that "obesity" was incurable. But Banting never gave up. On a visit to Dr William Harvey for a totally unrelated medical problem Banting found the answer to his overweight. Dr. Harvey ordered Banting to cut down on his sugar and starch intake for effective weight loss. Thus was created the "Low Carbohydrate Diet". Banting dropped 23kg in one year, after which he wrote his book entitled Letter on Corpulence in 1863, the first diet book in history.
After 140 years we have come full circle. Tons of books and thousands of ideas have come and gone, and the second half of the 20th century has seen an explosion in diet books, which became a $30 billion business. Had we followed what Dr Harvey ordered Banting to do during the last century, we would be a healthier, more slender, more active race today.
One hundred years after the Banting/Harvey diet Dr Robert C Atkins wrote his renowned book The Diet Revolution in 1973, drawing attention to the perils of carbohydrates. Dr Atkins is considered "the modern father of the high-protein diet" the "king of the low-carb gurus", now considered in the mainstream of popular culture. His higher fat diet defies the traditional low-fat approach to weight loss, so ingrained in our culture for nearly half a century. Yet millions have lost significant amounts of weight on his diet. Such a diet was met with scepticism and resistance from the medical community for decades. They have presented us with pyramids of nutritional values that have left us as fat as ever. Now we are back where we started following the same regimen for weight loss that our parents and grandparents swore by.
Low-carb guru
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Dr Atkins, who died last year from complications after a fall, is the centre of social, scientific and medical debate and controversy, because his diet works and is more popular than ever. His influence has spawned several spin-off publications, such as the South Beach diet, Sugar Busters, Protein Power, and The Zone. Atkins' first book sold 10 million copies -- the eighth edition printed in 1998. His second book Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, published in 1993, 20 years after the first, also ran through several editions and has also sold over 10 million copies. He has left behind an empire of dozens of titles in print, audio and video, his own brand of low-carb foods, and a complete line of nutritional supplements. His monumental success has not diminished after his death but seems on the rise, making him the beacon of the low-carb phenomenon now sweeping the globe.
Whatever happened to the sensible low-fat myth that ruled our lives in the last decade? Like other fads it seems to be dying a slow death since it only resulted in higher rates of obesity worldwide. Pasta, rice, polenta, baked potato are out, whereas meat, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs and even oils and fats are in.
With manufacturers scrambling to take advantage of the trend, the low-carb craze is reshaping the food industry. More than 250 low-carb foods have already been introduced and "there are going to be so many more items coming out of the woodwork in the next six months." Restaurants are offering low-carb alternatives and dieters are delighted. "I've been on Atkins since August and have lost 30lbs and I'm in the best shape of my life" says executive director of TGI Fridays. The $5 billion low-carb industry is expected to reach $30 billion by the end of the year.
The first LowCarbiz conference was held in Denver last week, 23 January, attended by 400 entrepreneurs and 100 reporters and food editors. Manufacturers exhibited, if you can believe that, low-carb chips, tortillas, granolas, brownies, pasta, beer and ice-cream, with only 10 grammes of carbs instead of 40 or 50 per serving. Said keynote speaker, Dr Fred Pescatore, protégé of Dr Atkins: "low-carb is here to stay; it is healthy, it works, and we are not a fad like the 'low-fat' of the 1990s."
According to a recent survey, 40 million Britons and 42 million Americans are on the Atkins diet. With Type II diabetes a real threat and with obesity already an epidemic in the US and rapidly gaining speed in Europe, Africa and Asia, will the low-carb ever position itself into the domain of science proper? After all what it preaches is in direct contrast to the established scientific weight-loss paradigm. Can a diet encouraging increased consumption of fat survive scientific scrutiny? Only time will tell.
Clinical studies show that low-carb diets work; they: 1) reduce cholesterol, 2) reverse or significantly improve type II diabetes, 3) drop elevated blood pressure, 4) offer a long term solution for the problem of excess weight. A typical Atkins extremely low-carb diet (15--45gms) will still allow you a slice bread (12gms), an average portion of certain vegetables (6gms), and for dessert a small apple (11gms), and all the meat, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs oils and butter you can muster. You can even have a glass of wine (4gms) to wash it down. Most low-carb diets will allow you 75--100 grammes of carbs. If you wish to jump on the low-carb bandwagon, do it slowly and keep both mind and body active. Health is our priority, the means to achieve it, our choice.
It is lucky that "man does not live by bread alone"; but if you must, make it whole wheat with a generous chunk of cheese. You are allowed a drink or two, so go ahead and toast one William Banting and his doctor William Harvey who introduced low carbs in 1863, and do not forget one Robert C Atkins, who brought it back to us, defying science, history, nutrition and logic.
After all, nothing succeeds like success!
