New Atkins diet unhealthy, says Kiwi dietician

Wellington, April 4 : The new Atkins diet is not a healthy way to shed extra pounds, a Kiwi food expert has warned.

The new version of Atkins, which is available in bookstores across New Zealand, modifies the low-carbohydrate regimen unveiled by Dr. Robert Atkins in 1972 for the 21st century.

Ever since it was launched, the four-phase Atkins Diet has been both popular and controversial.

While film stars like Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston and Kim Cattrall followed the diet, which emphasises on high protein and minimum carbohydrate intake, to shed extra pounds, critics panned it for promoting meats and fats.

While the new Atkins Diet is quite pro-veggie, it fails to convince Christchurch dietician Janice Bremer.

"The `new'' diet might offer more varieties of foods but coloured vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dried beans and milk products are still severely restricted by the carbohydrate-counting rule," Stuff.co.nz quoted Bremer, as saying.

She went on: "You would have to be desperate about weight loss to take on the traditional very low carbohydrate Atkins diet. Or mad about eating meat and cheese without much else. Active, social humans are not programmed for no-carb eating.

"Who can readily cope with breakfast without cereal or bread, sandwiches without bread, bolognaise without pasta, stir fry without rice, and strict limits on vegetables and fruit?"

"If you want to cut carbs to reduce kilojoules for weight loss, first reduce sweet and savoury bakery [products] and snack foods, sweets, desserts, ice cream and sugar-sweetened drinks. Remember to cut fats too - weight for weight fat has more than the kilojoules of sugar," Bremer added.