Diet and weight loss

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Jenny Craig, like Weight Watchers, views weight loss not as an end in itself, but as a positive benefit in an overall program of wellness and healthy living. This includes both eating well, appropriate physical exercise, and building a strong foundation of self-esteem.

A research study carried out by the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania, reported in May 2003 that the Atkins diet raised levels of HDL (or "good") cholesterol by an average of 11% and reduced the amount of triglycerides in the bloodstream by 17%. In the study, conventional dieters' HDL cholesterol raised by only 1.6% while their triglyceride levels did not improve significantly. Weight loss was also statistically greater in the Atkins dieters after three and six months compared with the conventional dieters (although this did not remain statistically significant after a year). The study followed the diets of 63 obese men and women. (See New Scientist, May 21 2003) Two other large-scale studies are planned, one funded by Atkins's nonprofit foundation.

Some advocates of low carb diets believe that humans did not evolve to eat the typical modern Western diet, reliant on processed grains, starches, and refined sugar, and that their consumption causes undesired and largely unknown effects. Specifically, it is argued that they cause the body to produce excess amounts of the hormone insulin, which tells the body to store rather than burn fat, hence causing obesity and its complications (heart disease, cancer, diabetes). They claim that humans evolved to eat a diet which consisted mainly of meat and that the current "epidemic" of obesity is due to the popular assumption, reinforced by the food industry and the new field of dietary medicine, that the low-fat approach is healthier.

Critics contend that low carbohydrate diets are not without harmful side effects. Very low carbohydrate consumption can lead to the metabolic state called ketosis, which may cause headaches, tiredness, nausea, dehydration, dizziness, and an unusual sweet-smelling breath odor. The lowered intake of dietary fiber that often accompanies dramatically reduced carbohydrate intake (such as in the Induction stage of the Atkins diet) can result in constipation if not supplemented.

Medical conditions often require the use of a special diet that either contains or lacks certain chemicals. A person who has diabetes is often on a diet designed to carefully regulate their blood sugar level, sufferers of celiac disease must follow a gluten-free diet, the lactose-intolerant omit milk and dairy products, and people with kidney disease must follow a strict low-sodium diet to ease the strain on their kidneys.

Diet and weight loss