The Active Low-Carber Forums (ALCF) is an on-line support group started in 2000 which currently has more than 86,000 members. Data collected from posts to the forum and from an on-line survey were used to determine the behavior and attitudes of people on low carbohydrate diets. Members were asked to complete a voluntary 27-item questionnaire over the internet. Our major findings are as follows:...

The ketogenic diet (KD) is one of the most effective therapies for drug-resistant epilepsy. The efficacy of the medium-chain triglyceride KD (MCTKD) is as excellent as the classic KD (CKD), which has been documented in several subsequent retrospective, prospective, and randomized studies. MCT oil is more ketogenic than long-chain triglycerides. Therefore, the MCTKD allows more carbohydrate and ...

BACKGROUND Considerable cardiovascular disease and cancer risk among firefighters are attributable to excess adiposity. Robust evidence confirms strong relationships between dietary patterns and the risk of chronic disease. Dietary modification is more likely to be effective when the strategy is appealing and addresses knowledge gaps. OBJECTIVE To assess career firefighters' diet practices an...

BACKGROUND Information on the micronutrient quality of alternative weight-loss diets is limited, despite the significant public health relevance. OBJECTIVE Micronutrient intake was compared between overweight or obese women randomly assigned to 4 popular diets that varied primarily in macronutrient distribution. DESIGN Dietary data were collected from women in the Atkins (n = 73), Zone (n =...

This article consists of a critique of the writings of Peter Atkins. The topics discussed include the quantum mechanical explanation of the periodic system, the aufbau principle and the order of occupation of orbitals by electrons. It is also argued that Atkins fails to appreciate the philosophical significance of the more general version of the Pauli Exclusion Principle and that this omission ...

Tribute to Beryl T. (Sue) Atkins

In this chapter we apply the concepts of statistical thermodynamics to the calculation of chemically significant quantities. First, we establish the relations between thermodynamic functions and partition functions. Next, we show that the molecular partition function can be factorized into contributions from each mode of motion and establish the formulas for the partition functions for translat...