Be prepared for the newest trend in weight loss. It's called the Dukan diet. Carbs are out, yet again. Do you want to lose pounds? Follow this high-protein diet that insists you eat only protein for an entire day once a week (Thursday is recommended), and say good-bye to most fruits and vegetable every day. Alcohol? Don't even think of it. Want to mop up the steak drippings with a piece of crusty bread? Dream on. It is not going to happen.
Does this diet sound familiar? Sure. It is the Atkins diet with a French accent -- actually, make that a French-British accent since the diet is now taking over the U.K. With the speed of a trans-Atlantic flight, it is coming soon to your American neighborhood. We are learning about the diet because the popular media announced that Kate Middleton and her Mum are on it.
The diet will work. Why wouldn't it? All of us will lose weight eating very lean protein in tiny portions, eliminating most fat, and not allowing a morsel of carbohydrate to pass our lips. If you go to the Dukan website and read the questions addressed to the diet authority during the evening chat, you will see how careful the dieter must be. Even a food as low in calories as an artichoke was forbidden because it contained too much sugar! The neat thing about this diet is that anyone who lost and then gained weight on the Atkins diet now has a second chance to lose and gain back the weight again.
If Kate is on it and I hope not (she is certainly thin already) I am concerned that bad things will happen to her good mood. Several years ago, I received a frantic phone call from a young man about to be married. "Help me," he begged, "please tell my fiancée to go off the Atkins diet. Her entire personality has changed and I am not sure I can marry her."
After he calmed down, he told me that he was to be married in five weeks to someone he had been dating for a few years. She wanted to lose weight quickly and insisted on following the no-carbohydrate phase of the Atkins diet until the wedding. She did lose a considerable amount weight but, according to my caller, he couldn't bear being with her. My protestations that she was just going through pre-wedding jitters was not reassuring. "No, it isn't that," he insisted. "I could understand if she was anxious or worried or obsessed with some wedding detail. She is simply nasty."
I offered to call her but she refused to speak with me. The wedding never took place.
Changes in mood following carbohydrate deprivation due to the depletion of serotonin in the brain are not surprising. Many years ago, the predecessor to the Atkins diet was being followed in the Boston area. Patients were allowed to eat only very lean protein and were quite successful in losing weight. But they were irritable, had trouble sleeping, and angry. And as soon as they met their weight loss goal and were allowed small quantities of fruits, vegetables and some starch, almost all of them binged and gained back their weight.
We were curious about the effect of not eating carbohydrates on the ability of their brains to make serotonin. So we studied rats who were following a similar diet. The laboratory animals were able to eat as much fat and protein as they wished but no carbohydrates. After a couple of weeks we compared the amount of tryptophan (the amino acid that makes serotonin) in their brains with the amount of tryptophan in the brains of rats that were eating carbohydrate all along. The brains of the carbohydrate-deprived rats had abnormally low amounts of tryptophan. This meant that their brains were unable to make normal amounts of serotonin.
So what, you may be thinking? Who cares how much tryptophan or serotonin I have in my brain ... at least I will lose weight . But this weight loss comes at a cost, especially for female dieters. Women have about 25 percent less serotonin in their brains than men. This has been shown many years ago by several laboratories and it is thought to account for the higher percent of depressive illness among women. Serotonin is not a 'throw away' neurotransmitter that we can make or not make without any ill consequences. In addition to depression, low serotonin activity has been linked to the pain of fibromyalgia, difficulty in falling asleep, depression, difficulty focusing, loss of energy, as well as the anger and fatigue of PMS. Low serotonin may also be involved in binge-like eating after carbohydrates are finally put back into the diet. (This happened with our rats.)
The natural way to make serotonin is to eat simple or complex carbohydrates except fruit. But of course if the diet forbids carbs, then serotonin levels drop.
I doubt if Kate will exhibit the kind of behavior seen on some reality TV shows about bad-tempered brides. But I suspect that as the inevitable stresses of the royal wedding increase, lack of this calming brain chemical may make them harder to endure.
Weddings, mothers-in-law to be (even those who are not Queen), and life in general pose real or potential obstacles to weight-loss attempts. Serotonin helps take the edge off of these stresses and helps us cope with what we cannot change.
If Kate is listening, my advice is to have tea with your future mother-in-law, eat a fat-free biscuit, and enjoy the serenity that comes with new serotonin.
Follow Judith J. Wurtman, PhD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/stopmed_wt_gain
Robert Sullivan: Royal Wedding: LIFE's Portrayal Of Will And Kate (PHOTOS)
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The pure protein phase is short and you re-introduce veggies after a few days.Then, in the last phase of the diet, that can last up to 3 months you can eat carbs a few times a week, whole grain bread everyday and fruits. Dukan also insists on the dieter eating bran everyday, even on pure protein days, which is a grain. You can also eat dairy, yogurt in particular. Dukan's diet is very low in fat contrary to Atkins.
I've been doing it for the past 2 weeks, lost 5 pounds. I have eaten only protein for 3 days at the beginning to jump start the weight loss and I've been eating lean protein and veggie since. Even had a tacos night 2 days ago, using low carb tacos. Still on track... No change of behavior except feeling thinner!
The real secret in dukan and in the french diet (I'm french) is moderation : eat carbs but not everyday, eat fruits but not to the point where you over do it, just be mindful of fat and sugar content in general.
Sorry...going overboard on anything is crazy. Moderation is the key.
Humans can thrive on very few carbs as long as they replace the carbs with healthy fats from pasture raised livestock, game, and wild caught seafood.
To much of a reminder of Princess Di's body image problems....and this makes me think Kate is following Di's patterns to closely.
I don't think William will be unfaithful to Kate...they appear to very compatible...but their is tremendous pressure put on a Royal...Kate is going to have to strike a healthy balance in her life early on...perhaps some yoga for stress and proper nutrition...this foolish diet is not what she needs right now. It is weight her body needs that she is displacing and her body is going to go into starvation mode throwing her whole system off. I hope someone she trusts will see the problem and they will be able to help her...for pities sake..let the wedding dress out an inch or two...and breathe ! Also, as someone suggested...everything in moderation. Keeping you in my prayers, Kate...v.
As the title of her book suggests, her target audience is fat people who over-eat, or otherwise emotional eaters. Her recommendations make a little sense if you're a middle-aged, sedentary fatty who's interested in investing only the time, effort and self-control to be not quit as fat.
Wurtman should clarify this. Far too often sub-optimal diet advice that's simply meant to improve the condition of someone who is obese or borderline obese is taken and advanced as advice for ideal health, physique and/or performance.
But Wurtman is not being honest with us. The reason our bride is cranky is because she, like most people in the industrialized world, who were raised on an FDA food pyramid-like diet, have destroyed their insulin receptors, and when they cut carbs, until their insulin sensitivity returns to healthy levels, their body will tell them their constantly hungry for sugar. This goes away pretty quickly, and your body goes back to functioning the way it would like to. To suggest this mood is a permanent condition related to a lack of carbs and their role in serotonin production is totally dishonest.
Let your five year old live off of soda and candy for a week or two, then take it away: tell us what happens to his or her mood.
Cranky, no. A patient advocate, yes.
A quick Google showed me that you are a spokesperson for Atkins. Atkins fans are certainly passionate about their diet. From what I can see, several respondents have signed up just to post in defense of it!
Some have gone so far as to say that I know NOTHING about the Atkins diet. Rest assured, I actually was a guest on the radio show that Dr. Atkins had in the 80s, and we had a correspondence for some time. I realize that people get very protective of their nutrition choices. If you find that you are getting too cranky, however, I strongly recommend a high carb snack to help boost your natural mood enhancer - serotonin.
I'd bet that the same thing would happen to rats/humans after being given ample time to "recover" from their carb addiction.
Balanced diet requires that we take the nutrients in their right proportion. So if we completely eliminate carbohydrate from our diets where would the needed energy come from?
I believe convenience, long term benefits and reality should all be considered whenever we come up with something that must be useful to people.
The Atkins and Dukan eating plans have nothing much at all in common aside from the fact that both require eating actual food. Ms. Wurtman needs to do some better research before putting out information about what comprises a particular dietary plan.
I've been eating according to Atkins for a while now. As someone who used to suffer from depression that required medication (an SSRI,) I can tell you that I'm now free of the meds and the depression. I'm also free of high blood pressure, chronic tiredness and nearly 40 extra pounds of body fat. Because the Atkins plan is an enjoyable way to eat, I find no problems with sustainability.
No Atkins or Dunkan "DIEt" for me !
I am fortunate in many ways.
I make a choice to avoid junk food.
And i choose to get up an hour earlier than I need to so I can excersise
for an hour.