Fighting Cancer With Low Carb Atkins Diet?

Basically as a low carb diet plan, the Atkins diet limits the consumption of healthy fruits, vegetables, and whole grain not only during the induction period but also in the long run. Though these food are highly nutritious they are not favored in the Atkins plan as they are high on carbohydrate component. But what about preventing cancer with such low carb diet plan? For prevention of cancer, the American Cancer Society has come up with a series of recommendations on diet plans that could be compared with the Atkins diet to find out their respective features and utilities for cancer prevention.

Atkins Diet and ACS Recommendations

Let us have a look at the recommendations of American Cancer Society for optimal prevention of cancer compare to some of the Atkins diet plan features.

• ACS recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day but it will mean consumption of nearly 85 grams of carbohydrate a day. The standard at the inception of the Atkins diet is only 20 grams of carbohydrate.

• ACS recommends whole grain instead of processed grains and sugars. But each serving of healthy whole grain food contains no less than 15 grams of carbohydrate, the entire menu for a whole day in case of low carb Atkins plan.

• ACS also recommends limiting consumption of red meat as it contains high fat. On the other hand Atkins plan does not restrict consumption of read meat, fat, and proteins as few foods are left out its severe carbohydrate restrictions.

Scientific Research on Cancer

Prolonged research and experimentation on cancer has revealed that 33%-50% of cancers can be prevented substantially with a healthy diet. This means good intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Similarly, for weight loss and fat burning, fiber containing foods are the best of the lot. However, Atkins diet, at least for the first two weeks do not contain any such food and is heavily dependent on protein, fat, oil and red meat. Also according to some scientific research, high protein diets can increase the chances of cancer though there is no specific proof about this saying. As the conclusion, Atkins plan aims to resolve these issues by adding supplements to its food list which may not be the right answer for fighting cancer.