[SamAdams76]

Well the Atkins Diet will work, as will most diets if their guidelines are strictly adhered to. The question is this: Is it good for your long-term health? Is it good to eat lots of cheeseburgers (without the buns), bacon and eggs for the rest of your life while minimizing or even eliminating your consumption of most fruits, breads, rice, etc.?

I wouldn't consider such a diet for myself. I like eating lots of rice, vegetables, breads, fruits and yes, beer and wine. If I'm a few pounds overweight, what the hell. At least I will be eating well, eating the foods I like to eat and I don't have to live like a freak for the rest of my life, removing burgers from buns in restaurants and other such nonsense.

Don't bother arguing with me. I concede that the diet will cause you to lose weight. I just don't think it's a very healthy way to eat. And yes, I've read the book.

[CatoRenasci]

I've dieted a bit off an on over the past 30 years, and the ONLY type of diet I've been successful with is the high protien, low carbohydrate. I lost weight with a pre-Atkins variant in the mid-1960s and kept the weight off for 8 or 9 years before I was in a situation where I ate a more carb rich diet and got fat again. Used Atkins to take the weight off and did pretty well till the huge popularity in the mid-80s of the low fat high carb, which my wife unfortunately still believes in. Just doesn't work, for me at least. Bring on the protein!

[an amused spectator]

I haven't read the book and I'm not advocating the Atkins diet.

I'm pointing out that there are at least two major camps in the War on Fat, and one completely contradicts the assumptions of the other. I conclude that the War on Fat is a fraud launched to extract money for "the good of the chilrun".

I was a very good cook in another life, and I remember when these nutritional phonies told us all to eschew butter in favor of margarine.

That was the last straw for me. I completely ignored their "advice" on butter (more like a diktat) and happily continued using butter. Lo and behold, one day we were all told that margarine and its partially hydrogenated goo might not be such a good thing after all.

Another point in favor of the Atkins people is the sick way the no-fat Nazis view their little dogmas as a quasi-religion. Yechhhhh!

[Senator Pardek]

I wouldn't consider such a diet for myself. I like eating lots of rice, vegetables, breads, fruits and yes, beer and wine. If I'm a few pounds overweight, what the hell. At least I will be eating well, eating the foods I like to eat and I don't have to live like a freak for the rest of my life, removing burgers from buns in restaurants and other such nonsense.

Bless you, sir.

[Bella_Bru]

I'd really miss beer. But I wonder, for those who have used this and other low carb diets, are you allowed the no-nos in small amounts at all, or will it completely throw off the diet? If you have to completely abstain, I give all of you all the credit in the world!