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The Atkins Spousal Syndrome: Partners of Low-Carb Dieters Suffer



 
 
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Old October 28th, 2003, 05:08 PM
Mars at the Mu_n's Edge
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Default The Atkins Spousal Syndrome: Partners of Low-Carb Dieters Suffer

from the Wall Street Journal... here it is.

The Atkins Spousal Syndrome:
Partners of Low-Carb Dieters
Suffer

By KATY MCLAUGHLIN

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Alfred Gingold, a 56-year-old writer in Brooklyn, has never been on
the Atkins diet. Nevertheless, his doctor blames Atkins for the
uptick in Mr. Gingold's cholesterol level.
The culprit: Mr. Gingold's wife, Helen Rogan -- who was on Atkins for
several months this summer.
She followed the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, and as a result
the
family dinner table groaned
under the weight of dishes like fried pork chops and "beer can
chicken"
with lots of crispy skin. Though
Mr. Gingold wasn't on Atkins, he was eating all that additional meat
and
fat -- and still chowing down
on items the diet forbids, like spaghetti and bread. As a result, his
cholesterol jumped about 10 points.
Add a new complaint to the various beefs about the controversial
low-carb
diet: Atkins Spousal
Syndrome. With Atkins and similar plans gaining adherents, doctors and
nutritionists say the diets are
having an unintended, and often unpleasant, impact on people who live
with
a dieter but who aren't
dieting themselves. The problems range from rising blood pressure to
halitosis, a common side effect of
low-carb diets. "This diet is the best form of birth control," says
Dayna
Zizis of Bay Shore, N.Y., who
says her dieting husband's breath can be a turnoff.
But while a major recent study showed that a strictly low-carb diet
can be
healthy, spouses of dieters
sometimes find themselves eating the new foods that are appearing on
the
table -- like more beef, cheese
and butter -- and also eating the potatoes, bread and snack food that
their
significant other is avoiding.
Atkins itself warns people not to do the diet halfway by continuing to
eat
carbohydrates while also
adding in more meat and fat. "That's the deadliest combination," says
Colette Heimowitz, education and
research director at Atkins Nutritionals, the company that markets the
Atkins diet.
For a nondieting family member, this spells trouble. "It's kind of
like
second-hand smoke," says Amy
Lanou of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that
recommends a vegetarian diet.
Pork-Rind Dip, Anyone?

WSJ.com - The Atkins Spousal Syndrome:
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/...321800,00.html (1
of
3)9/21/2003 3:24:44 AM

WSJ.com - The Atkins Spousal Syndrome:
While any diet of course can bring tensions into the home, Atkins can
have
a particularly big impact
because it inspires such fervor. It has spawned hundreds of low-carb
Web
sites, where passionate fans
sometimes praise the diet in what might be called low-carb-speak. An
excerpt from Atkinsfriends.com:
"LC is the best WOE for me. Even my BF says I am sweeter when I LC."
Translation: "A low-carb diet
is the best way of eating for me. Even my boyfriend says I am sweeter
when
I low-carb."
Also common online: Snapshots of brides cutting low-carb wedding
cakes, and
recipes for treats like
pork-rind dip. "They're like a cult," says Ms. Zizis, who adds that
her
husband follows her around the
kitchen gabbing about carbs. "It's pretty annoying."
Low-carb diets can have other side effects on loved ones above and
beyond
bad breath (which is caused
by certain chemicals being released in the breath, as well as the
urine, as
the body burns fat). They
include constipation (due to a lack of fiber in the diet's early
stages)
and even a full-blown case of the
grumps. Judith Wurtman, who studies the link between diet and emotion
at
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, says her research shows that a lack of carbohydrates
can
create a depressed mood.
Credibility Boost
The Atkins diet, invented in the 1970s, got a major boost in May, when
the
New England Journal of
Medicine published a study showing that strict adherence to it can be
quite
effective for weight loss and
doesn't have a significant effect on bad cholesterol. Since then,
Atkins-
type diets have enjoyed meteoric
success. Today, nearly 2% of the U.S. population is on some kind of
low-
carb diet, according to NPD
Group. The diet is so ubiquitous that fast-food restaurants are
putting
"protein meals" on the menu, and
supermarkets are rolling out contradictory-sounding foods like "low
carb"
pasta.
Much of the medical establishment believes that the Atkins diet and
others
like it are dangerous even
when properly followed. The American Heart Association and the
American
Dietetic Association warn
against adopting the diet, saying that there hasn't been enough
long-term
study proving that it is safe and
effective.
Breath Mints
Atkins Nutritionals says studies show that mood can actually improve
on the
diet, and that cholesterol
and blood pressure don't go up when carb intake is controlled. It also
says
bad breath and constipation
are likely to occur only during the first two weeks, when carb intake
is
strictly limited; the solution is to
use a sugar-free breath mint, drink plenty of water and eat fiber-rich
vegetables. After the diet's initial
phase, a spokeswoman says, it becomes completely healthy even for
nondieting members of a
household, since it includes many whole grains and vegetables.
Doctors point out that many people get into trouble when they jump on
the
bandwagon without really
understanding how the diet works. "They seem to think that the Atkins
approach legitimizes eating
unlimited sausage and bacon," says Tom Barnard, a general internist in
Leamington, Ontario.
In spite of the potential for marital distress, the Atkins diet
remains
wildly popular mostly for one
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/...321800,00.html (2
of
3)9/21/2003 3:24:44 AM
WSJ.com - The Atkins Spousal Syndrome:
reason: Lots of people lose lots of weight on it. But that, too, can
be
hard on some spouses. For Sharon
Stine, a homemaker in Conowingo, Md., Atkins Spousal Syndrome kicked
in
when her husband lost
weight on a low-carb plan while she remained overweight and pregnant,
to
boot. "It really made me feel
like I was this giant cow," says Ms. Stine. By contrast, her husband
had
suddenly become "kind of a
hottie," she says.
--Jane Spencer contributed to this article.
Write to Katy McLaughlin at 3
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...321800,00.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...858300,00.html
(2) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...219304,00.html
(3)
Updated September 18, 2003
Copyright 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your
Subscription agreement and Copyright laws.
For information about subscribing go to http://www.wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/...321800,00.html (3
of
3)9/21/2003 3:24:44 AM

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