Italians eat their share of carbs for sure, and Italy has no where near the obesity problem the US does.
I haven't read Atkins book, but I have visited his website and read some stuff there. And it's definitely not for me. Phil Kaplan provides a very detailed analysis of Atkins diet debate at the following site; worth the read if you're interested.
http://www.philkaplan.com/thefitnesstruth/atkinsrevisited.htm
From what I know of the Atkins diet, I bet that a 10 or 20 yr study of it would produce evidence of it increasing your risk of colon cancer by a good percentage.
And the heavy use of sucralose in their product line is not to my liking, as it is linked (http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/) to all sorts of problems. Granted the dose that was linked to potential problems was large, and the experimentation took place with rodents, I still don't want to take in a substance daily that has the possiblity of mutating my thymus gland.
I'll take Aristotle's advise on moderation over Atkins advise on specialization, any day.
Boy that was in depth! You need to start your own diet program!