[Republican Wildcat]

strongly recommends suppliments to take care of antioxidants, etc that may be lost

Proof that's not the way someone is supposed to be eating if you have to take artificial supplements.

[Godzilla]

Not totally, if you read on, some of these items get phased back in on the CWL and maintenance phases of his diet plan. Plus, you have to remember that his premise is that our carbohydrate problems are due to too much processed carbs. More natural, unprocessed the better. That is where one can naturally get the suppliments back naturally. In actuality, if we were eating unprocessed foods, there'd likely to be no problems like being encountered today.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Proof that's not the way someone is supposed to be eating if you have to take artificial supplements."

Well, if you'd read the freaking book rather than relying on what know-nothings (including too many journalists) post on the Web, you'd see that this recommendation is based on Atkins' decades as a cardiologist. He'd see people stagger in with arteries clogged, bodies laden with slabs of fat, and so run-down by yo-yo dieting that they needed an intensive period of hypernutrition to compensate for the twin abuses of dieting and hyperinsulinism. Once you're rolling along, secure in your new healthy eating habits, if you heed his recommendations of eating lots of veggies (preferably organic) and nuts and protein-packed foods like eggs and meat, you can taper off the vitamins. (I add: if you rely on store-bought produce, live in a polluted area, or smoke, it's prudent to continue taking them given the depletion of the soil and the stressful effects of pollutants on the body.)

Having said all that, I'm the first to say that Atkins is not for everybody. He'd say so himself: everyone is different. But if you're dismayed by bad bloodwork results and/or an expanding gut, could be yours is the metabolic type that will respond to eating his way. But it's a life change-- if you go back to your old ways, you will gain it back. That is by no means a criticism of the Atkins approach.