Atkins Goes Chapter 11
I’m sure that those anti-Atkins folks out of there will get a kick out of the fact that Atkins Nutritionals has filed Chapter 11. For those of you unfamiliar with US law, it means they have officially said “we have too much debt, we can’t pay it off, let’s renegotiate, creditors, and get the courts involved.”
Personally, I have re-evaluated my stance on Atkins. While I don’t regret going on it–it did help me to get caffiene and sugar out of my regular diet–I think it’s too hard to do long-term. I tried to do it for a year. It seemed counter-intuitive to me to not eat fruits and veggies. Now that I’m trying to go Paleo, I can eat that stuff again. I’m still applying a lot of what I learned in Atkins, i.e. I still avoid bread and things loaded with carbs, but now I consider the source of those carbs. If it came from a fruit or veggie, I don’t worry.
As a result of going Paleo, I am also trying to give up two additional things: artificial sweetners (I’ve read some scary stuff on Splenda and Nutrasweet) and dairy. I am easing off of these things, though I admit it is damned hard. I figure if I stop buying the blocks of cheese at Costco, I will cut out about 70% of the dairy I eat. Eliminating or severely curtailing the use of drinks with artifical sweetners will help with that part of the goal.
Of course, it will also be interesting to see how much of this “theory” goes out the window while on vacation.
