Very informative post. It's just a generic term to me, i'm not a linguist by
any means. I was told by my family and friends repeatedly to go on the diet
or I would be diebetic and lose my feet, so I guess that was just the
experiance I was going for. I really don't want to argue over a word.

"Karen Rodgers" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 01:09:09 GMT, "Chrono-Z" wrote:

You know i'm actually starting to agree with you about the brainwashing
thing. I was on atkins for 3 months and yes I lost some weight, but it
wasn't with out a price. Just 2 weeks ago I was in the emergency room
with a
morphine iv drip in my arm. Apparently my gallbladder had became
mysteriously enflamed. The doctor said my liver and kidney functions were
horrid. He said he's seen a couple of people come in with similar
problems.
He refered me to a dietician who worked with me and helped me form a
healthy
way of eatting that was loosly based on a diabetic diet that was well
rounded and limited calories to a respectable amount. I don't care how
much
fat or protein keeps me from being hungry. I can deal with being hungry a
few weeks until my body gets used to the lower ammount of calories. It
beats
the hell out of being in the hospital again.

(I'm not picking on you, sorry.)

Ah, no, if you'd been brainwashed, you'd continue Aktins, even though,
clearly, it isn't for you. Atkins isn't a miracle diet, there isn't
any one diet that's good for absolutely everyone. I wish you a lot of
luck, and good health with your diet.

But instead of just throwing words like "brainwashing" around willy
nilly, like the OP on that other thread ("Atkins quackery, proof," or
whatever it was) did, let's be very clear about its meaning.

Here's the American Heritage Dictionary definition of the word
"brainwashing."

brain·wash·ing, n.

1. Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or
religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions
and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of
fixed beliefs.
2. The application of a concentrated means of persuasion,
such as an advertising campaign or repeated suggestion, in
order to develop a specific belief or motivation.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

And from CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary,

brainwashing

psychology Inducing an individual to modify attitudes and
actions in certain directions through the application of
various forms of psychological pressure or torture.

(17 Dec 1997)
On-line Medical Dictionary, © 1997-98
Academic Medical Publishing & CancerWEB

Going by these definitions, there is no true brainwashing associated
with low carb diets, Atkins included.

American Heritage definition #1, "Intensive, forcible indoctrination,
usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic
convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set
of fixed beliefs."

No one indoctrinated me forcibly, or otherwise, all I did was read the
Atkins book (and since, other books on the subject), follow it with
further research, and be swayed by hard data. This is indoctrination?
Since when?

American Heritage definition #2. "The application of a concentrated
means of persuasion, such as an advertising campaign or repeated
suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation."

I've never seen buckets of ads on tv for the Atkins diet, nor
commercials on the radio touting it (just ads that advertise low carb
friendly eating, not the same as saying "Go on ____ diet." However it
is saying "Buy stuff to go along with ____ diet"). I get more
advertising persuasion about what car to drive than I get for the
Atkins diet. So far car ads haven't swayed me to go out and buy every
car I see. So persuasion by advertising is out. That leaves repeated
suggestion, nope, that's not applicable either, no one said "Go on
Atkins." to me over and over again, if anything, the opposite is true.

Moving on to the Cancerweb On-line Medical Dictionary definition,
"Inducing an individual to modify attitudes and actions in certain
directions through the application of various forms of psychological
pressure or torture."

I wasn't tortured, nor suffered various forms of psychological
pressure to be swayed to switch to a low carb diet. I'd make a good
bet that most everyone else here wasn't either.

I should also add that I started low carbing when low carbing wasn't
cool (went off, my bad, and restarted seriously again last year). My
own empircal data, weight loss, lower blood pressure, lower cholestrol
(189, thank you very much), and bloodwork all tell my doctor and I,
that I'm on the right track.

Karen Rodgers

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