That's certainly a valid concern. I find myself wondering how many low carbers will hear the "reduce your saturated fat to 20% or less" message and switch to very unhealthy fats such as margarine in an effort to comply without doing any research on what healthy fats are and in the process cause themselves far more damage than a saturated fat intake higher than 20% ever would have (none when combined with low carb!). Face it; how many people actually look into the science behind low carb and fat intake for themselves or even read that portion of the book?
I also wonder how many will simply quit low carb completely and go back to a low fat/high carb plan due to interpreting what AN has said as "fats are bad" instead of "lower your saturated fat intake". For that matter, this may very well have the unintended effect of driving more of their customers in the direction of South Beach since their plan as it is currently written gives no practical guidelines for how one goes about limiting their saturated fat intake on low carb and South Beach does. That's not necessarily a bad thing since South Beach is also a carb restricted plan, but it's not the effect that I think they were looking for with this.



I can imagine that you didn't like and/or appreciate that. However, think about how millions of Atkins followers are going to feel when they are now reprimanded by their friends, family, co-workers and doctors regarding their saturated fat intake unnecessarily. Think they're going to feel confused and/or betrayed? I do.
As far as having egg on our faces; that might be true if AN was actually correct in their recommendation since "having egg on your face" implies that you were wrong and are now having to eat a healthy (low carb) serving of crow. There's nothing wrong with recommending a balance of healthy fats, but to single out saturated fat as somehow deserving of being limited without the science to back them up causes them to lose a great deal of credibility in my eyes.