'American Diet' v. Atkins Diet
(PhysOrg.com) -- If people can learn anything from rats, what to eat might be one of the most useful lessons. University of South Florida Professor David Diamond, in the Departments of Psychology, Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, and a career scientist at the Tampa VA Hospital, investigated the effects of a typical American diet, which is high in fat and sugar, compared to an Atkins-type diet, which is high in animal and vegetable fat but low in sugar, on the physiology and behavior of rats. Lesson learned: choosing between the so-called American diet and the Atkins diet can make a difference in managing weight and one`s response to stress. They found that rats fed the American diet exhibited greater anxiety and gained more weight than rats which were fed either the Atkins diet or a control diet, which was low in both fat and sugar.