Nutri-Nut-

You may also wish to look up an associated press article by Daniel Q. Haney, "Is Atkins Right?". The article is a discussion of some short term studies done by mainstream researchers that yielded suprising (at least suprising to them) results. There is an interesting quote by the same physician that the article calls the "senior author" of the AMA's statement you refer to. He states, "There are many principles in the Atkins diet that go against what we know. It keeps people away from staples of the diet that we know are associated with less heart disease."

I am begining to question what it is that he knows. It is the case that these "staples of the diet" are simply associated with "less heart diease" because they are combined with fat restriction plans? Is it, in fact, when the "staples of the diet" are COMBINED with high fat consumption that contributes to heart diease? In other words, you must mitigate the damage done by these "staples" with fat restriction. Does he really know if fat consumption ALONE, in the absense of the so-called staples, is associated with heart disease?

Dr. Gary Foster, an obesity researcher with the University of Pennsylvania, states, "I'm a part of the obseity establishment. I've spent my life researching ways to treat obesity and 100 percent of them have been low-fat and high-carb. Now, I'm beginning to think, it isn't as it has appeared." Thankfully, there are true scientists out there like Dr.Foster and his colleagues, Drs. Samuel Klien James Hill, the current and past presidents of the North American Association for the Study of obesity, who the article refers to as the "premier professional group", who are willing to look at the evidence and change their thinking if necessary. Dr. Foster even admitted that he and his collegues has set out to "show it dosen't work" but that "the consistency of the results across the studies is compelling in a way that makes us think we should investigate further."

I am much more impressed with a physician who is willing to examen his or her assumption in the face of imperical evidence than one who clings to tradition.