by Westman, Dr. Eric C. ; Phinney, Dr. Stephen D. ; Volek, Dr. Jeff S.
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Combine paprika, oregano, garlic powder, salt, thyme, and cayenne pepper in a bowl; mix well.
PER SERVING: Net Carbs: 1 gram; Total Carbs: 3 grams; Fiber: 2 grams; Protein: 1 gram; Fat: 0 grams; Calories: 15
BROTHS
Drinking two cups of broth helps eliminate or minimize side effects such as weakness that may result from the diuretic effects of following a very-low-carb (50 daily grams of Net Carbs or less) diet. Along with fluids, you can lose sodium (salt) and other minerals. These three broths will keep your electrolytes balanced. Plus, they’re far more flavorful and nutritious than canned or other packaged versions.
Chicken Broth
Each cup of this satisfying broth contains 7 grams of protein, providing about an ounce of protein—far more than any store-bought product. The broth is also rich in potassium and magnesium.
Phase 1, 2, 3, 4
Makes: 16 (1-cup) servings
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes
1 (4-pound) chicken
2 small onions
2 center celery stalks with leaves
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons salt
4 quarts (16 cups) water
5 parsley sprigs (optional)
5 thyme sprigs (optional)
2 bay leaves (optional)
10 black peppercorns
1. Combine chicken, onions, celery, garlic, salt, water, optional seasonings, and peppercorns in a large pot over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Stir to break up large pieces of chicken. Add enough water to return to original level and simmer 2 to 4 hours longer. Restore water level again; bring to a boil and remove from heat.
2. After stock has cooled slightly, strain, and discard all solids (including chicken).
3. Chill in the refrigerator until fat congeals. Skim off and discard. Transfer broth to small containers; refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
PER SERVING: Total Carbs: 1 gram; Fiber: 0 grams; Net Carbs: 1 gram; Protein: 7 grams; Fat: 0 grams; Calories: 28
Tip: To ensure a clear broth and optimal flavor, rinse the chicken and the neck, but discard all organs, including the kidney, which is a reddish brown clump against the backbone just inside the cavity. You can use the neck.
VARIATION
Beef Broth
Prepare Chicken Broth according to directions above, replacing chicken with 4 pounds chuck or blade roast.
Vegetable Broth
Canned broths and packaged bouillon cubes can never match the flavor of a homemade stock. In addition, this broth is a good source of potassium, an important mineral during dieting. Use it in place of water or chicken broth in most soup or sauce recipes.
Phase 1, 2, 3, 4
Makes: 16 (1-cup) servings
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
4 medium leeks, white and light green parts only
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
2 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 quarts (16 cups) water
5 parsley sprigs
5 thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
5 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons Morton’s Lite Salt (a mix of regular salt and potassium chloride)
10 peppercorns
1. Cut leeks in half lengthwise and wash in cold water to remove any dirt. Chop coarsely.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and garlic; sauté until vegetables are soft but not browned, about 10 minutes. Add water, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer 1 hour, stirring periodically.
3. Remove from heat and strain, pressing on vegetables with a spatula or wooden spoon to release liquid. Discard solids and transfer broth to small containers; refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
PER SERVING: Net Carbs: 2 grams; Total Carbs: 2 grams; Fiber: 0 grams; Protein: 0 grams; Fat: 2 grams; Calories: 26
HOW TO USE THE MEAL PLANS
On the following pages, you’ll find a wide array of meal plans that should allow you to move at your own pace through the four phases of Atkins. (See Index of Meal Plans on page 245.) They include a week of plans for Phase 1, Induction. Simply repeat this week, with your own variations, as long as you stay in Induction. (Remember, you can add nuts and seeds after two weeks in Induction if you decide to stay there longer.) We include six weeks at progressively higher levels for Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss. The five weeks of plans for Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, are also suitable for Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance.
Because vegetarians should start Atkins in Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), our vegetarian plans start at 30 grams of Net Carbs in OWL. We recommend that vegans begin Atkins in OWL at 50 grams of Net Carbs. Once vegans begin to lose weight at this level they can move to higher carb intakes by following the vegetarian meal plans, but substituting plant-based foods for dairy products and eggs.
TWO TIERS
Most of the plans have two tiers. In OWL, you move up in 5-gram increments, so the first week, you’ll stay at the lower level. After a week or more at that level, you can move to the next tier. In Pre-Maintenance, you move up in 10-gram increments, so we’ve provided similarly incremental versions in the first two meal plans for this phase. (See below for more detail on how to read the incremental plans.)
FOCUS ON CARBS
While you’re welcome to follow these plans to the letter, they’re designed to show how to gradually increase your carb intake and, following the carb ladder (see page 120), to add new foods. Feel free to substitute foods with similar carb counts, swapping asparagus for green beans or cottage cheese for Greek yogurt, for example.
The meal plans focus on carbs; however, we have not indicated carbs from sugar substitutes, cream, drinks with acceptable sweeteners, most condiments, or acceptable desserts. If you add these foods, be sure to make adjustments to remain in the right carb range, so long as you consume at least 12 to 15 grams of Net Carbs as foundation vegetables.
PROTEIN AND FAT
Intake varies from one person to another, so protein and fat portions aren’t usually indicated, although both will make up the majority of your calorie intake. Most people eat roughly 4 to 6 ounces of protein with each meal. Eat enough fat to feel satisfied. We have, however, indicated portions for the few protein foods that also contain carbs, such as Canadian bacon and vegetarian and vegan protein sources. Likewise, we’ve included serving sizes and carb content for salad dressings and a few sauces. Feel free to add other fats such as butter, olive oil, and sour cream.
You’ll follow the same meal plans for Pre-Maintenance and Lifetime Maintenance, but once you’ve achieved your goal weight, you’ll need to consume more fatty foods to offset the body fat that you were burning during weight loss. Check out our recipes for delicious salad dressings and other condiments.
JUST TO BE CLEAR
We’ve packed a lot of information into the plans. Here’s how to read them:
• Recipes that appear in this book are in boldface. See the recipe index on page 203 for page numbers.
• Meals and snacks show the carb content of each item and a subtotal.
• When a meal or snack includes an incremental food for the higher level of Net Carbs, it appears in bold italics.
• When a meal or snack includes an incremental food the higher level of carb content in the subtotal follows the lower level and is in parentheses.
• The day’s total appears at the bottom of each day. In the case of two-tiered plans, the higher level of carb intake appears in parentheses.
• Foundation vegetables are also listed in the day’s tally.
Finally, a daily variance at a
ny carb level is natural and fine as long as you don’t consistently overshoot your carb tolerance level, as you’ll see in the daily totals.
INDEX OF MEAL PLANS
Phase 1, Induction
20 grams of Net Carbs
246–47
Phase 2, ongoing Weight Loss
25 and 30 grams of Net Carbs
248–49
35 and 40 grams of Net Carbs
250–51
45 and 50 grams of Net Carbs
252–53
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance
55 and 65 grams of Net Carbs
254–55
75 and 85 grams of Net Carbs
256–57
95 grams of Net Carbs
258–59
VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN MEAL PLANS
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss
Vegetarian at 30 and 35 grams of Net Carbs
260–61
Vegetarian at 40 and 45 grams of Net Carbs
262–63
Vegetarian at 50 and 55 grams of Net Carbs
264–65
Vegan at 50 grams of Net Carbs
272–73
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance
Vegetarian at 60 and 70 grams of Net Carbs
266–67
Vegetarian at 80 and 90 grams of Net Carbs
268–69
Vegetarian at 100 grams of Net Carbs
270–71
Phase 1, Induction
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, at 25 and 30 Grams of Net Carbs (30-gram additions in bold italics)
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, at 35 and 40 Grams of Net Carbs (40-gram additions in bold italics)
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, at 45 and 50 Grams of Net Carbs (50-gram additions in bold italics)
* www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx.
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance, at 55 and 65 Grams of Net Carbs (65-gram additions in bold italics)
*www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.asp, **www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx.
Phases 3, Pre-Maintenance, and 4, Lifetime Maintenance, at 75 and 85 Grams of Net Carbs (85-gram additions in bold italics)
* www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx, **www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx.
Phases 3, Pre-Maintenance, and 4, Lifetime Maintenance, at 95 Grams of Net Carbs
* www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx, **www.atkins.com/Products/productdetail.aspx?productID=36, ***www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx.
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, Vegetarian, at 30 and 35 Grams of Net Carbs (35-gram additions in bold italics)
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, Vegetarian, at 40 and 45 Grams of Net Carbs (45-gram additions in bold italics)
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, Vegetarian, at 50 and 55 Grams of Net Carbs (55-gram additions in bold italics)
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance, Vegetarian, at 60 and 70 Grams of Net Carbs (70-gram additions in bold italics)
* www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx, **www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance, and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance, Vegetarian, at 80 and 90 Grams of Net Carbs (90-gram additions in bold italics)
* www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx, **www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx
Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance and Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance, Vegetarian, at 100 Grams of Net Carbs
*www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe883/Atkins-Cuisine-Pancakes.aspx, **www.atkins.com/Recipes/showRecipe884/Atkins-Cuisine-waffles.aspx
Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss, Vegan, at 50 Grams of Net Carbs
Part IV
A DIET FOR LIFE: The Science of Good Health
Chapter 13 METABOLIC SYNDROME AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
The words healthy and low fat seem inextricably linked, but the rationale for a low-fat diet is based on two overly simplistic ideas that we now understand to be incorrect.
In this and the following chapter, we’ll highlight how carbohydrate-restricted approaches can address cardiovascular disease (and metabolic syndrome) and diabetes and look at the impressive body of research in both these areas. (You may want to share these chapters with your health care professional.)
One in four deaths in the United States stems from heart disease, making it the leading cause of death for both women and men. Heart disease develops over decades, and a poor diet can aggravate and accelerate its progression. Whether you have a strong family history of heart disease or you’re blessed with cardioprotective genes, you can improve your quality of life by adopting a healthy diet that targets some of the known modifiable risk factors.
Although the majority of the medical establishment has focused on LDL cholesterol, an increased understanding of the progression of heart disease has directed attention and appreciation toward other risk factors. For example did you know that LDL cholesterol is actually a family of particles of various sizes and that the smallest particles are the most dangerous ones? The Atkins Diet eradicates small LDL particles like a strategic missile defense system. You’ll soon understand the significance of this fact for both cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.
Before we go any further, two brief definitions are in order. In simple terms, metabolic syndrome is a collection of markers that amplifies your risk for heart disease, including high blood triglyceride level, low HDL cholesterol level, and elevated glucose and insulin levels. Likewise, in simple terms, inflammation is a catchall word that encompasses the processes by which your body protects you from unfamiliar and potentially damaging substances. As part of your body’s natural defense system, a certain amount of inflammation is healthy, especially when it responds to infection, irritation, or injury. But once the battle has been fought, inflammation should return to normal levels. Unchecked inflammation, which can be detected during the early phases of heart disease by elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), is now understood to be one of the best predictors of future heart problems. Levels of triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, glucose, and insulin are also important markers that provide a complete picture of your overall risk status. We’ll explore both conditions in detail below.
This chapter will explore the ascendancy of scientific studies supporting the effectiveness of diets low in carbohydrate as a way to achieve cardiovascular heath. This is true even though you’ll be eating plenty of fat. If you’ve read the rest of this book, we can assume that you’ve put aside any fear of fat. In case you still have any lingering anxiety, however, the following pages will convince you otherwise. First, however, let’s consider the rationale for a low-fat diet and issue a report card.
ARE LOW-FAT DIETS A MAJOR SUCCESS OR A SERIOUS DISTRACTION?
Most of you know that for the last few decades, the government agencies concerned with health care have beamed forth a strong and unwavering message: reduce your total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake to achieve a healthy weight and decrease heart disease. The message has been so unrelenting that the terms “healthy” and “low fat” seem inextricably linked, but the rationale for a low-fat diet is based on two overly simplistic ideas that we now understand to be incorrect.
First, fat contains 9 Calories per gram, more than twice the 4 Calories per gram of both protein and carbohydrate. Since fat is more calorically dense, reducing intake of it should be the easiest way to promote weight loss, while still allowing you to eat a greater total volume of food and thus feel satisfied. This logic is expressed in the axiom “You are what you eat.” In other words, if you eat fat, you must get fat. The corollary is that if you eat less fat, then you’ll easily lose body fat. Many Americans have embraced this seemingly intuitive strategy hook,
line, and sinker, only to find themselves drowning in disappointment.
As a nation, our consumption of total fat and saturated fat has remained relatively steady and even trended slightly downward over the last two decades. So why are we experiencing frightening twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes? And why has metabolic syndrome become a significant health threat to tens of millions of Americans? Not because we failed to pay attention to dietary recommendations focused on lowering fat. Rather, we replaced fat calories with an abundance of carbohydrate calories, without understanding that many people have a metabolism that cannot process the additional carbohydrate. Basically, the low-fat approach has backfired.
A second reason for the major emphasis on reducing dietary fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol is based on the belief that consumption of fatty foods will lead to increased blood cholesterol levels, which, in turn, will increase the incidence of heart disease. This belief system, often called the “diet-heart hypothesis,” has shaped nutrition policy in this country for the last forty years. Despite decades of research and billions of taxpayer dollars earmarked to prove this hypothesis, there’s little evidence to support its basic premise.
The largest and most expensive study on the role of fat in the diet was the Women’s Health Initiative, a randomized, controlled trial in which almost 50,000 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 were tracked for an average of eight years. Researchers assigned participants either to a low-fat diet that reduced total fat intake and increased the intake of vegetables, fruits, and grains, or to a control group who could eat whatever they wanted. Multiple research papers reported on the results of this colossal experiment, which can be summarized as nothing short of a major public health disappointment. A low-fat eating pattern revealed no significant effect on weight loss or the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.1 You can see why the low-fat dietary approach to weight control gets a failing grade.