HOCUS FOCUS

Facts, facts, facts or what?

Under the heading "The bold promise", Focus (No. 25/2004) dedicated its cover story to the booming low-carb diets. Due to the enormous popularity of these carbohydrate-reduced diets, an objective explanation and scientifically undogmatic assessment for German consumers was more than overdue. After all, this topic has been discussed in the USA and England for several years. In this respect, the commitment of Focus was commendable.

My mustard on this:

However, the result is full of errors and annoying "old hats". The most insignificant mistake may be that Robert Atkins became Richard Atkins. It is also wrong that he invented the fat-protein diet. Long before Atkins, for example, the doctor Wolfgang Lutz from Austria warned against eating too many carbohydrates and advised more fat (including saturated fatty acids) and protein. However, his book "Leben ohne Brot", one of the smartest nutrition books I have ever read, was ignored or discredited by the established nutrition experts for decades - without being able to provide any solid evidence against Lutz' experiences.

The Focus took a similar approach. Although he talked to well-informed and well-read low-carb representatives, the résumés show that once again the focus was not on the scientific data but on opinions. Or did the editors not even notice that the Göttingen nutritional psychologist Pudel contradicts himself? Although he had to admit that you can both lose weight and improve your blood values ​​with low-carb diets, he still advises against it.

The experts are absolutely right when they point out the lack of long-term experience with low-carb diets - but they fail to mention that they can't show any long-term success for their own carbohydrate-rich diet recommendations either. And that the short-term studies, of which there are a few more than the two that the Focus mentions, generally do better: in terms of weight loss, fat loss, satiety and blood values.

But the "knocker" is that a scientist from the German Institute for Nutrition Research complains that low-carb dieters eat fewer calories and therefore lose weight. Firstly, no one disputed that and secondly, it is exactly what everyone wants: that the fat eat less and lose weight.

For a magazine that likes to advertise with the slogan "Facts, facts, facts", it is surprising that the facts and figures in this article are often wrong:

• The distribution of nutrients in the LOGI diet (claiming only 10 energy% carbohydrates) is just as wrong as it is
• the high protein content of the Atkins diet (allegedly up to 60% energy, which is physiologically impossible),
• the claim that two slices of toast raised blood sugar as much as 70 grams of glucose,
• that "every gram of fat" lands directly on the hips,
• that alcoholic beverages are "taboo" at LOGI,
• that Nicolai Worm preaches that you can eat Ham and Eggs indefinitely without getting fat,
• that diets that rely purely on calorie savings are balanced,
• that it is the unsaturated fats in the sausage that lead to the occlusion of the arteries (by the way, the saturated ones do not do this either, which was probably what was meant),
• that omega-3 fatty acids lower cholesterol levels (they lower triglycerides),
• in addition, omega-3 fatty acids are confused with monounsaturated fatty acids. The list goes on.

And finally ...

Hair-raising! It would probably have been better to show the manuscript to the experts interviewed before going to press. Then the readers would have received good information, which is urgently needed in view of the increasing uncertainty about healthy eating.

Source: Hünstetten [Ulrike Gonder]