Nov. 24, 1999
Despite our fancy with fitness - people are getting fatter!
That worries the Centers for Disease Control - and it worried a couple in Roosevelt Utah, until they and a lot of other folks in town went on a controversial diet.
A year and half ago, Rick and Mary Stewart were stair stepping and walking treadmills like these folks - but it wasn't enough. They needed something more dramatic!
Like many others in the town of Roosevelt, Rick and Mary Stewart are using a controversial low carbohydrate diet to lose weight. The trendy Atkin's plan is the most popular, but other diet authors preach the same approach.
For lunch, the Stewart's eat chicken and a salad plate made up of lettuce, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and strips of cheese. Also on the table-- a sugar free drink and a homemade sugar free desert which tastes a lot like cheesecake.
In the past four months, Rick has lost 37 pounds. His wife, Mary, lost 20. And this is a typical lunch.
Mary Stewart: "What we're doing is counting our carbs. And Rick and I are eating around 35 to 40 grams of carbs per day. And the lunch that we have just eaten is around 13 grams of carbs."
Rick works for Roosevelt City and exercises a lot on the job. He has an artificial heart valve, so he's conscious of keeping the pounds off. He orginally weighed 245 - and wants to drop to 190.
In addition to weight loss, overall cholesterol levels are down for both Rick and Mary. And the ratio or balance between the good and bad cholesterol has improved.
Mary says the low carb meals were intense at first, but now they've moved to a different level.
"You just stay with it. You just increase your carbs so you are not losing any more weight, yet you are not gaining any weight, either."
What users say about the low carb diet is true. I joined the Stewart's for lunch. It was delicious. My appetite was satisfied. I wasn't hungry again until suppertime.
Rick Stewart: "I'm not hungry and if in between meals I do want to snack on something, I eat an ounce of peanuts or something like that-- and an ounce of peanuts is something like five carbs."
But low carb diets, if extreme, are risky!
While Dr. Gary White supports them and has even simplified the Atkin's diet for his patients, it's easy, he says, to abuse the plans. The first mistake?
Gary White, M.D. / Roosevelt Physician: "Mistaking the low carb diet for a high protein diet first-- because that's what most people do."
Despite how the Atkin's plan is marketed, lowering carbohydrates in meals does not mean you pig out on lots of meats and eggs and bacon - fatty foods high in protein.
More red flags on the low carb diets tomorrow - and we'll visit a dieter losing weight on one of the new fat-blocking drugs. That's Thursday on Eyewitness News Live at Five.
Read Special Report Part Two
