I was simply listing the foods that I eat and I ended the statement with "Basically, these are the foods that the Atkins Diet tells you not to eat." And it is true. The Atkins diet specifically tells you not to eat (or eat very little) breads, pastas, rice, beer, fruits, (most) vegetables and anything else high in carbohydrates.
And your definition of a "fad diet" is not accurate either. All the fad diets have been around for a while, many of them since the 1970s and 80s. People are still going on the "grapefruit diet" after all these years. They call them fad diets because most people do not stick with them. They are short-term solutions only.
Well, I guess I am seeing things differently than you intended. You listed 8 "foods" (combining beer and alcohol as one) and said Atkins basically doesn't allow you to have them (I missed bread in your list when I first read it). Of those 8, Atkins allows and even encourages 4 (half) of them. 4 of 8 does not equal "these aren't allowed" in my book - but I know what you were trying to say.
With respect to the word "Fad," it wasn't my definition. It was the dictionary's. Again, with your explanation, I now know what you were TRYING to say (or at least pretending that you were trying to say :})
In any event, I will agree that I may be nitpicking. However, I nitpick because too often truth is blemished by the small, subtle twists that people make in their statements to convey an unrealistic picture. That is what I thought I saw occuring in the first statement that I took issue with. I get upset when I see Atkins critics immediatley say things like "you can't each vegetables" or "he promotes eating only bacon and cheeseburgers" when this is the furthest thing from the truth.
When talking about health, and knowing that some people won't go beyond this thread and actually do a little research as they should, I find it necessary to try an correct the mischaracterizations and misrepresentations that I see - whether intentional or not.
I am not a die hard Atkins promoter, even though I have found a limited carb diet suits me well. In fact, I have begun to investigate whether what I thought was a reaction to carbs is more realistically food allergies. Fruit, grains and beans do a real number on me. However, reasonable quantities of rice, potatos, corn (weird, because corn is very common allergen, especially for those who react to grains) don't really impact me as much and when eaten with protein, seems to be ok. Alcohol knocks me out (one beer even).
As I've stated in other posts, I feel that different people fare better on different foods. I've witnessed this so I try to suggest that people educate themselves about how the body digests food, creates energy, stores and burns fat, builds muscle etc. and then observe how foods impact them both near-term and over the course of a few days. Only then can someone tell what works for them. Ornish can talk till he is blue in the face but it won't convince me that I should be living on fruits, beans and wheat. Like I said, different fuels for different types of engines. Those who make generalizations without understanding the complex biological processes that take place and where variants in each of our engines can exist are doing themselves and everybody else a disservice.