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Low carbohydrate Atkins diet may pose health problem
Mar 17, 2006, 13:50, Reviewed by: Dr. Priya Saxena
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"These diets also increase the protein load to the kidneys and alter the acid balance in the body, which can result in loss of minerals from bone stores, thus compromising bone integrity,"
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By IANS,
A low carbohydrate diet to manage weight may not be good for your health, say US doctors.
Doctors, led by Klaus-Dieter Lessnau at the New York School of Medicine, treated a 40-year-old woman who was taking 'Atkins' diet - a low carbohydrate diet popular worldwide - in order to lose weight and had taken recommended precautions, including vitamins and other supplements.
The Atkins diet suggests rapid weight loss by cutting carbohydrates out of the diet.
Although a spokeswoman for the Atkins Foundation said the diet would not cause such health problems, the medics detected in the woman ketoacidosis - a serious condition that occurs when dangerous levels of acids called ketones build up in the blood, reported the online edition of BBC News.
"Our patient had an underlying ketosis caused by the Atkins diet and developed severe ketoacidosis possibly when her oral intake was compromised from mild pancreatitis or gastroenteritis," Lessnau said.
Low carbohydrate diets could cause several health disorders including ketosis, constipation or diarrhoea, halitosis, headache, and general fatigue, said Lyn Steffen and Jennifer Nettleton of the University Of Minnesota School Of Public Health in Minneapolis.
"These diets also increase the protein load to the kidneys and alter the acid balance in the body, which can result in loss of minerals from bone stores, thus compromising bone integrity," they said.
They said "indisputable safety" was the most important factor when formulating prescriptions for weight loss, adding "low carbohydrate diets currently fall short of this benchmark". 
- Indo-Asian News Service
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