This is Your Blood on the Atkins Diet...

A Message from Caroline J. Cederquist, M.D.

It's a fair bet that most people who jumped on the Atkins diet signed on for the weight loss, rather than to adjust their blood chemistry.

One researcher was particularly interested in how the Atkins diet had affected things like cholesterol and blood sugar in patients after a year of being on the diet.

In order to research his interest in the diet's effects on blood chemistry, he set up a research study that compared the Atkins diet with a low-fat, low-calorie diet. About 40 percent of his subjects in the study were diabetic.

While there were distinctions early on, after a year, there were no differences in either weight loss or blood glucose levels between the two diets.

But there was a 17 percent increase in good HDL cholesterol for Atkins dieters at one year, which is good, and the non-diabetic subjects benefited from a 28 percent decrease in triglycerides, which is even better.

I've seen the same positive effects in my patients' blood work results with some specific carb limitations, without quite the radical restrictions advocated by the Atkins diet. Limiting the simple carbs like sugar and flour makes a difference. Most of these foods contain bad carbohydrates that can actually make your weight loss goals more difficult to attain.

I designed the BistroMD plan with foods that taste great, but contain the right combinations of protein, carbohydrates, and fat to help you lose weight and live healthy.

The Atkins Diet will help you lose weight, but you still won't get the nutrition that your body craves. Protein is key to healthy weight loss, and is essential for burning stored fat. With the right amount of protein portioned in your meals throughout the day, your body turns this into healthy energy, that is used to burn excess stored fat.

Rather than dramatically limiting your intake of essential nutrients, our plan is designed to fuel your body with what it needs most to retrain your metabolism to burn fat effectively. You also won't have to sacrifice great taste when going on a diet.

To learn more about what BistroMD can do for you, please visit the website: www.bistromd.com, for more information.