Atkins Diet

The Atkins Diet involves limited consumption of carbohydrates to switch the body's metabolism from metabolizing glucose as energy

over to converting stored body fat to energy.

Is this diet healthy for Teens?

• Low carb diets are not a good idea for kids because children are nutritionally different than adults, and these diets are limited in many of the nutrients they need according to Joan Carter, RD, of the USDA-funded Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine

• Carbohydrates provide energy, and without energy they can’t exercise as well

Low Carb Diets can effect thinking• Bruce Rengers, PhD, assistant professor of

nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University says when a body of robbed carbohydrates, the body draws its energy from ketones, a byproduct that results from breaking down body fat

• Ketones have a weak effect on the brain• “Low carb diets work by fooling the body to

think it’s starving”

• The kidney uses minerals like potassium and calcium to help get rid of body toxins like ketones and the people on Atkins Diet are urinating these minerals away and critically low blood levels and can lead to cardiac arrhythmias

• A 16 year old girl went on a Atkins Diet for 7 weeks and lost 16 pounds, for the next 9 days she had a very strict diet. In history class she collapsed and died from cardiac arrhythmia

• In a survey of teen nutrition patterns found that those who ate more low carb foods often had a diet that consisted of few fruit and vegetables and was low in fiber and vitamin C but was high in cholesterol and fat

• Low carb diets may be hard for kids to follow they might simply gain the weight back that they lost in the diet

• Some experts are concerned about the long term health effects that a high protein/ low carb diet could have on the kids heart and kidneys

Bibliography

•http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/48/rachel.htm• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkins_diet•http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040213/are-low-carb-diets-unhealthy-for-kids•http://pediatrics.about.com/od/obesity/a/708_lowcarbdiet.htm