Lately, there have been many posts regarding Atkins products. These posts usually fall into two categories:
1. "I had a clean induction, but the scale won't budge. What am I doing wrong?!" When we ask for a typical menu, what we often see are Atkins bars and/or Atkins shakes.
2. Can I have Atkins bars/shakes in induction?
As one could read on the old website of the Atkins company, bars and shakes are known stallers for many people. In fact, while Dr. Atkins wrote on page 123 of his 2002 edition of DANDR
Quote:
4. Eat absolutely no fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter. Do not eat nuts or seeds in the first two weeks. [...]
5. Eat nothing that is not on the acceptable foods list. And that means absolutely nothing! [...]
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none of the products promoted by Atkins Nutritional respects these rules. In fact, not only are they not "legal" for induction, but most are not "legal" for the first 5 (!) rungs of OWL.
Although it is better to go for a bar than for a brownie if these were your only food options, such limited choices are rarely the reason for eating bars or drinking shakes. Instead of buying an Atkins bar, you can buy cheese sticks; in fact, for the same money, you can buy (at least) twice as many cheese sticks! Or you can buy sugar free beef jerky. Many stores are even selling boiled eggs, so instead of stopping for a bar, you can stop for an egg.
The excuse I often hear from people substituting their breakfast with a bar or a shake is time -- "I don't have time to cook something in the morning or to prepare a salad. Atkins bars are so convenient!" While planning is essential on Atkins, let's say you really had no time to plan your breakfast. However, any person doing Atkins has 2 eggs, some cream, a little cheese and butter in the fridge. Preparing microwaved scrambled eggs, just to give an example, takes max 2 minutes... you can dress and make yourself pretty while the eggs are in the microwave and while they are cooling... and then eat them on the spot or take them with you at work. It's very easy to find excuses, but it's just as easy to prepare a healthy,
legal breakfast.
I have posted below a list of the Atkins products and linked each of them to an image of its nutritional label. The products are the ones found on
www.atkins.com. It should be clear, if one looks at the ingredients, why these products are not allowed for the induction phase of Atkins.