My mother's friend started Atkins in the early 1970s due to a family history of heart disease. No one in his family lived to the age of fifty. He is now nearly eighty and suffering from the heart disease that ended the lives of his siblings when they were in their forties. Fortunately, he can now benefit from medical advances that weren't around when his siblings had the same heart problems. Some people might use his condition as evidence that Atkins causes heart disease. He thinks that Atkins helped him to delay the inevitable and extend his life by over 30 years so far.
I agree that moderation is key with any diet. The problem is that people don't realize that there is more than just one phase in Atkins. In phase two you slowly increase carbs intake by 5 grams per week. After two weeks of phase one, you can bet I was dying for some fruit so I ate the sweetest strawberries ever grown. I slowly incorporated brown rice and whole wheat bread. Now that I am the weight that I want to be, I eat almost whatever I want in moderation.
I'm not advocating low carb diets for anyone. Just sharing.
