I heard of Atkins of course but frankly I consider his philosophy humbug.
Every form of "diet", which tells you that you have to forgo important components of nutrition, is a swindle in my eyes. It seems that the Atkins Diet has come out of fashion again anyway. The company he founded, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., had to go into administration in 2005. Since then the company concentrates on producing convenience food, I read.
There seems to be a strange controversy about the circumstances he died under, too. When Atkins died in 2003, his weight obviously was 116 kg. His fans, however, say that he only weighed 88 kg, when he arrived in hospital and that he gained 28 kilogramms in only 9 days due to the hospital food, while every other sick person in the world loses weight in hospital :lol: Besides, 28 kilos in 9 days would put pig farmers to shame. It's the kind of story legends and fairytales come from
I used to attend the Weight Watchers for 4 years, you know, and you can say what you want about them but at least they make the effort of scientific research, before they let their methods loose on mankind.
Diets have been tested by independent organizations for their effectiveness and harmfulness here and Weight Watchers was the only one, which earned the assassment
"absolutely recommendable". Most of the others, including the Atkins Diet, were close to getting a
"dangerous, avoid it". I know it was a big hit in the USA but it never really struck in other places of the world, you know...
Current reasarch admits, though, that you indeed do lose weight by the Atkins Diet -- only not because you leave away the carbohydrates but because leaving away the carbs has the side effect of making you feel full earlier, resulting in simply eating less food, a.k.a. reducing calories.
And there are also studies about people doing the Atkins Diet having less heart problems. However, those studies do not answer the question, whether the reduction in heart problems came from the diet or simply from losing weight (!)
So why not simply reducing calories in the first place? It's been tested for decades, it works, and it hasn't got any unknown or dangerous side effects on your body
I have become sort of an expert in nutrition over the years, being overweight and having diabetes, and believe me: The secret of healthy eating is not leaving stuff away and replacing it with pills to compensate for what you left away.
The secret of healthy nutrition is also not to run after every new fashion or fancy diets, that the yellow press and talk shows on TV celebrate, but to keep the right balance between all food groups and -- when you want to lose weight -- simply eat less.