I will definitely look at some of the other pieces on here that ask for feedback - but I am a newbie, so I don't know how much input I will have.
This is an article about nutrition and diet, specificall yon the end of the Atkins diet and the glycemic index. I see it as a feature length article for a website or a print health mag.

To carb or not to carb?

It can be easy to see why we are confused about what foods we should avoid, and more importantly, what foods we should eat to maintain a healthy weight. After years of applauding us for choosing salad dressings without oil, eating egg white omelets, and buying rice cakes and fat-free cookies by the cartful, many nutrition experts made a huge u-turn. Carbohydrates, also known by the alias “carbs�, became public enemy number one instead of fat. After the slow collapse of the low carb revolution, many of us have been left wondering what comes next.
Dr. Robert Atkins was a cardiologist turned diet guru who preached a low sugar, low carbohydrate diet as the key to healthy weight. He introduced the concept of losing weight through carbohydrate starvation, ketosis, in his 1972 book “Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution�. The concept was so different from the chorus of experts saying to avoid fat that his low carb regimen remained a fringe movement for decades. But slowly, as more and more people continued growing obese on low-fat diets, and others who had never considered giving up bacon were willing to try to give up bread, the popularity of the “going on Atkins� increased. Clinical studies astonished critics like Dr. Dean Ornish, another cardiologist and a prominent proponent of a vegetarian, low fat diet. Much of this research had results showing that heart disease risk factors such as cholesterol and triglycerides actually improved while subjects followed the low carbohydrate regimen. But, most importantly, people lost weight.
However, like any eating program that demands a dramatic change from an individual’s familiar food choices, people found even the Atkins diet hard to follow for extended lengths of time. A lifetime of limited fruit, bread, chips and pasta was not appealing to many. Just as mainstream restaurants were introducing Atkins friendly choices to their menus, and even gas stations were adding “low carb� displays next to the slushie machines, the popularity of the diet waned. Dr. Atkins died from complications due to a fall in 2003, and his company filed for bankruptcy in August of last year.
The nation was left confused. Experts were still arguing about the harms and benefits of both low fat and low carbohydrate diets. Health magazines often have conflicting recommendations in the same issue – one writer will recommend egg white omelets, and another twelve pages in will write a feature on beneficial fats praising omega 3 fatty acids, and list egg yolks as a good source. Personality based diet programs such as the Maker’s Diet and the South Beach Diet have made splashes on the best seller lists, but both involved drastic changes in diet and specific menus for meal planning.
When I had the chance to see Dr. Atkins lecture at a convention in the late 1990’s, I found him to be an intelligent and engaging speaker. When I had the opportunity to talk to him individually, he made it clear that he did not advocate a long term diet of severely limited carbohydrates, and he soon released a book with long term recommendations that were less restrictive. However, his main diet was based on three important concepts. First, insulin triggers the body to store fat. Of the major macronutrients found in our diets - fat, protein, water, and carbohydrates, only carbohydrates can trigger insulin release. Not all carbohydrates are metabolized the same way in the body, but only carbohydrates can significantly change blood sugar levels and insulin levels. This led to the second concept that irregularities in blood sugar led to hunger. It is easier to eat less and feel fuller (satiated) when our blood sugar is lower and more stable. This can be accomplished by avoiding certain carbohydrates. Unfortunately, the simple carbohydrates versus complex carbohydrates rule did not accurately predict how which carbohydrates would affect blood sugar. His third, privately held concept, was that the American public was not prepared to make complicated judgment calls on what carbohydrates were better than others, and needed a simple edict: “No carbs!� However, as easy as sweeping pronouncements are to make, saying “No carbs!� ends up being about as effective as “No fat!� or “Just say no!� in the long term. Most people need something with more substance than a commandment.
Also, many people need to be able to keep some semblance of their existing eating habits in order to stay on a program for the long term. It is hard to cut out an entire macronutrient group without completely overhauling your complete shopping list. Also, when you drastically change your diet by cutting out all carbohydrates, one night’s jumbo pizza feels like an utter failure. This discouragement may lead someone to quit altogether. There is only one rule, and once it’s broken, the dieter has failed conceptually, even if just temporarily.
Unfortunately, today’s dieters are confused what to even strive for and cheat with. Are carbs bad or good? What about fat? If even the experts cannot agree what is the best ruler by which to measure our food, how are we supposed to choose what to eat?
Although there may seem to be a great deal of confusion about carbohydrates in the mass media, there has been some consensus in the scientific community. Significant new research on blood sugar and weight control has focused on the concept of the glycemic index. This index is a way of comparing what effect different carbohydrates have on typical insulin and blood sugar responses. Every food is given a score, and the most commonly used scale is from zero (no reaction) to one hundred (equal to 50 grams of table sugar). These scores are based on tests involving a feeding a set amount of the food to a group of fasting test subjects. In previous fasting blood sugar tests, these subjects’ reactions have been calibrated. Their reactions are compared with equal amounts of a food with a known glycemic index like table sugar or white bread, just like a thermometer is calibrated with boiling water, which has a known temperature. Then, these subjects’ future glycemic responses can be read like a piece of scientific equipment, and the scientists can average these to score different foods.
Since all glycemic index scores are based on the same amount of the carbohydrate, these can be modified further for different serving sizes, which is called glycemic load. These two numbers almost always correlate pretty similarly, with a few exceptions such as watermelon, which has a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load. A glycemic index of 55 is considered low, and a glycemic load of 10 is considered low. Low glycemic diets have been linked to more satiety (less hunger after meals), better blood sugar, improved cholesterol and triglycerides, and successful weight management in many animal and human studies. No math is necessary. Combinations of foods with other foods or with proteins and fats do not seem to change their effect on blood sugar. The higher the glycemic score, the more it is likely to trigger a glycemic reaction, including higher blood sugar and insulin response.
For years, experts guessed which carbohydrates had more of an effect on blood sugar. Some concepts were commonly accepted, such as the idea that fiber carbohydrates have little to no effect on blood sugar, and straight table sugar did have a dramatic effect on blood sugar. These have been confirmed by glycemic testing. However, many regularly repeated recommendations, like avoiding grapes and praising rice cakes, were based on a concept of sweetness of taste and had no scientific basis. These two assumptions, and many others, have been contradicted by glycemic testing. Also, the theory that simple sugars including table sugar and fruit sugar were more quickly absorbed and therefore more glycemic than complex sugars such as the ones in potatoes and bread did not work for many diabetics when testing their own blood sugar.
Dr. David Jenkins of University of Toronto was the first to recommend standardizing and categorizing these blood sugar reactions into a score in his 1981 article “Glycemic index of foods: a physiological basis for carbohydrate exchange� published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. His work has spawned glycemic testing all over the world, especially in Australia and Canada.
The glycemic index such a great tool for people trying to control their blood sugar and their weight because so many foods have been tested, including many processed foods, and foods from various cultures and diets. While this is not the only standard by which to choose foods to eat, it is a good way of determining which carbohydrate heavy foods are better choices for blood sugar control, and therefore weight management.
The lists are always evolving as researchers test more foods. Some foods have been tested repeatedly, and have been found to have a range of scores. This is most common among foods that have different varieties, cooking styles and growing conditions. For example, a ripe banana with brown flecks from the USA has a glycemic index of 48, while an all yellow banana (no flecks) also from the USA has a score of 51. Only the raw banana from South Africa has a high score of 70. Contrary to much conventional advice, most bananas, including the overripe ones, are not glycemic. There are so many foods rated from all categories it is easy to find foods compatible with various diets and tastes. There are types of rice with lower glycemic scores, and types of pasta. Longer grain boiled rice seems to get consistently lower scores, and many Uncle Ben’s varieties have been tested. Shorter grain rice like Arborio rice, the type used for risotto, glutinous rice and rice cooked in a rice cooker seem to be higher glycemic.
There are many sources for glycemic index and glycemic load scores. One of the lead researchers at University of Sydney, Dr. Jennie Brand Miller, has published a new edition of her book “The Glucose Revolution�, which contains extensive glycemic lists. The university also has many other books to support using the glycemic index, including “The New Glucose Revolution:
Shopper's Guide to GI Values 2006 Diabetes.� Nutrition writer David Mendosa maintains a website on diabetes and glycemic testing at www.mendosa.com. He has various lists, including some shorter ones of common foods. My new favorite website is the searchable database ay www.glycemicindex.com. You can search by food or keyword, and can also search for foods under a certain score.
Using the glycemic index may be a little more time consuming in the beginning than just checking the nutrition label for grams of carbohydrate. However, the glycemic scores of foods make it possible for someone to significantly modify their blood sugar and insulin responses to meals while not having to dramatically alter most diets. Boiled white potatoes would have to be substituted, and many breads, but most fruits, beans and vegetables are fine. It is easier to switch from a high glycemic type of bread, like white wheat bread, to a lesser glycemic variety, such as pumpernickel or sourdough, than it is to give up bread all together. This increased flexibility can definitely enable a long term eating plan that works for a lifetime instead of a temporary extreme fad diet.