In this post, I said that the Atkins Diet was ok because it was something people were willing and able to do and that qualifies it as better than nothing.  Well, I had previously held that the Atkins Diet was bad for America, bad for people in general and immoral to even be sold as something remotely healthy.  I have returned to holding that opinion.  While it is good to be realistic about what the average person is going to be able to do to lose weight or improve their health, it is just plain wrong to recommend something that is terribly unhealthy and tell them it is good for you! 

In a nutshell, people lose weight on the Atkins Diet because their body recognizes a lack of carbohydrates and then turns to fats and protein for energy.  If you have sufficient fat in your diet, your body will prefer to change fat to glucose for use as energy.  Then there's all this ketosis stuff that I won't go into.  However, if you do not eat enough fat, your body will turn to protein, which potentially includes the protein from the muscle in your heart...  People died many years ago before we figured this out.  So, when people start dying from the Atkins diet, we'll figure a little more out.  We would then have an obligation to sue Dr. Atkins except that he is dead. 

Oh, and if that's not enough, Dr. Atkins was a big, fat pig with heart disease.  If a man were standing in front of you, breathing through a respirator, smoking a cigarette, coughing violently as he explains that his lung cancer was not caused by cigarettes, would you then take his advice on health and exercise?

NO. 

If you want to be healthy, use your head.  Its common sense, really.  Exercise.  Sorry, No other way around it.  Eat a balanced diet, avoid refined sugars and simple carbs, eat lots of vitamin rich vegetables, ample protein... blah blah blah.