Atkins Meals

Since 1960's, one of the most popular diet plans was introduced by Dr. Robert Atkins—the Atkins diet. Here, it forces the body to suppress appetite and maintain levels of carbohydrate intake so as to achieve goals in losing weight. However, though the years, many people are starting to disprove the diet because they have found out the truth about Atkins meals.

Weighing the pros and cons of Atkins meals

Indeed, a lot has been said about various diets and how these work for some people. Some of the popular ones include the South Beach, the After-Six Diet plan and so on goes on the list of diet crazes that swept the western world and even Asian regions. Among all these, one type of diet has become popular than the others—it’s called the Atkins Diet.

Basically, this is a low carbohydrates diet actually emphasizes cutting down on from a person’s daily food intake. This diet allows the dieter to take in all foods except those that have carbohydrates. Although there are many testimonies that prove that low carb diet really works, you must be very knowledgeable first about its pros and cons before deciding to go with the hype.

People who have tried Atkins diet say that its advantages include faster and quicker weight loss compared to fasting, the diet may result to higher protein intake and absorption, and it stabilizes blood sugar levels and is extremely beneficial to those who suffer from diabetics.

Experts say that the disadvantages of Atkins diet may include high cholesterol levels due to the lack of protein-rich and fatty foods that has saturated fats, increased blood pressure due to elimination of whole grains products that help lower blood pressure, it can lead to osteoporosis because there will be no enough supply of calcium, in some cases, this diet can lead to diarrhea, constipation, and severe headaches, low carb diets increase the possibility of lower mental acuity, and instead of losing weight, this diet can lead to weight gain.

Dealing with an ugly side effect

Although Atkins meals are proven to help people is losing weight, there is one disadvantage—it may cause you bad breath. How? Through the inevitable release of ketones which cause halitosis. Experts say that through the lack of carbohydrates to burn for energy when a person is in diet, it burns stored fats that emits nasty odor leading to bad breath.

No matter how good oral hygiene dieters have, they cannot do so much about this problem because it a natural process that the body has to go through. If you are under Atkins diet or doing regular exercise and you have bad breath due to ketones, don’t fret because the foul smell does not come from your mouth but from the breath that you exhale. To lessen the impact of bad breath due to ketones, you can:

- dilute it which can be done by taking in lots of water to wash out the chemical-causing odor in your mouth; and

- mask it by taking mints or chewing gum more often. Just make sure that these are sugar-free to ensure that you don’t regain the sugar that you are losing.

The truth about Atkins meals is that you really cannot avoid having bad breath because the process involves ketosis. If you cannot control this, it would be best to have ample supply of carbohydrates once in a while since ketones result from lack of carbohydrates in the body, make sure that maintain enough supply of carbs in your body to prevent it from burning stored fats.