The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever".
The Zone diet is a fad diet emphasizing low-carbohydrate consumption. It was created by Barry Sears, an American biochemist.
Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.
William Banting was a notable English undertaker. Formerly obese, he is also known for being the first to popularise a weight loss diet based on limiting the intake of carbohydrates, especially those of a starchy or sugary nature. He undertook his dietary changes at the suggestion of Soho Square physician William Harvey, who in turn had learned of this type of diet, but in the context of diabetes management, from attending lectures in Paris by Claude Bernard.
David S. Ludwig is an American endocrinologist and low-carbohydrate diet advocate in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a promoter of functional medicine.
The Montignac diet is a high-protein low-carbohydrate fad diet that was popular in the 1990s, mainly in Europe. It was invented by Frenchman Michel Montignac (1944–2010), an international executive for the pharmaceutical industry, who, like his father, was overweight in his youth. His method is aimed at people wishing to lose weight efficiently and lastingly, reduce risks of heart failure, and prevent diabetes.
A diabetic diet is a diet that is used by people with diabetes mellitus or high blood sugar to minimize symptoms and dangerous complications of long-term elevations in blood sugar.
The Western pattern diet is a modern dietary pattern that is generally characterized by high intakes of pre-packaged foods, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, high-sugar drinks, candy and sweets, fried foods, industrially produced animal products, butter and other high-fat dairy products, eggs, potatoes, corn, and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pasture-raised animal products, fish, nuts, and seeds.
Frederick Madison Allen was an American physician who is best remembered for his carbohydrate-restricted low-calorie diet for sufferers of diabetes mellitus. He was known for pioneering the "starvation diet".
Michel Montignac was a French diet developer who originally created the Montignac diet to help himself lose weight, which he based on research that focuses on the glycemic index of foods, which affects the amount of glucose delivered to the blood after eating. The diet, which distinguishes between good and bad carbohydrates, became the basis for best-selling books and a chain of restaurants and stores promoting his diet regimen and was one of the theoretical predecessors of the South Beach Diet.
The South Beach Diet is a popular fad diet developed by Arthur Agatston and promoted in a best-selling 2003 book. It emphasizes eating food with a low glycemic index, and categorizes carbohydrates and fats as "good" or "bad". Like other fad diets, it may have elements which are generally recognized as sensible, but it promises benefits not backed by supporting evidence or sound science.
Ronald M. Krauss is an American professor of pediatrics, medical researcher and low-carbohydrate diet advocate. He studies genetic, dietary, and hormonal effects on plasma lipoproteins and coronary disease risk.
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health is a 2007 book by science journalist Gary Taubes. Taubes argues that the last few decades of dietary advice promoting low-fat diets has been consistently incorrect. Taubes contends that carbohydrates, specifically refined carbohydrates like white flour, sugar, and starches, contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments. Taubes posits a causal link between carbohydrates and cancer, as well.
Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It is a 2010 book by controversial journalist Gary Taubes. Following Taubes's 2007 book Good Calories, Bad Calories, in which he argues that the modern diet's inclusion of too many refined carbohydrates is a primary contributor to the obesity epidemic, he elaborates in Why We Get Fat on how according to him people can change their diets. Taubes is a controversial figure whose work often goes against accepted scientific, governmental, and popular tenets such as that obesity is caused by eating too much and exercising too little and that excessive consumption of fat, especially saturated fat in animal products, leads to cardiovascular disease.
Fat Head is a 2009 American documentary film directed by and starring comedian and health writer Tom Naughton. The film seeks to refute both the documentary Super Size Me and the lipid hypothesis, a theory of nutrition started in the early 1950s in the United States by Ancel Keys and promoted in much of the Western world.
"A calorie is a calorie" is a tautology used to convey the thermodynamic concept that a "calorie" is a sufficient way to describe the energy content of food.
Pure, White and Deadly is a 1972 book by John Yudkin, a British nutritionist and former Chair of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College, London. Published in New York, it was the first publication by a scientist to anticipate the adverse health effects, especially in relation to obesity and heart disease, of the public's increased sugar consumption. At the time of publication, Yudkin sat on the advisory panel of the British Department of Health's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA). He stated his intention in writing the book in the last paragraph of the first chapter: "I hope that when you have read this book I shall have convinced you that sugar is really dangerous."
Nina Teicholz is a journalist who advocates for reducing restrictions on naturally-occurring fats, including saturated fats, in the American diet.
The carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) posits that obesity is caused by excess consumption of carbohydrate, which then disrupts normal insulin metabolism leading to weight gain and weight-related illnesses. It is contrasted with the mainstream energy balance model (EBM), which holds that obesity is caused by an excess in calorie consumption compared to calorie expenditure. According to the carbohydrate–insulin model, low-carbohydrate diets would be the most effective in causing long-term weight loss. Notable proponents of the carbohydrate–insulin model include Gary Taubes and David Ludwig. The CIM has been tested in mice and humans. Although some experts consider that these studies falsified the CIM, proponents disagree. Available evidence does not support the existence of a long-term advantage in weight loss for low-carbohydrate diets.
