The Atkins, eat-lots-of-meat diet is about as unhealthy as they come. But you'd never know it from media coverage.
You may have seen recent news articles claiming that a study out of Israel found that the Atkins diet is more effective for losing weight and improving cholesterol levels than a low-fat diet. Unfortunately, the headlines completely misrepresented the study. First, the "low-fat" diet that was compared to the high-protein one in this study was a full 30 percent fat, which is not low-fat as the phrase is used by any of the top nutritionists and scientists who are effectively using low-fat diets to help people lose weight, keep it off and improve their health. Second, the study organizers encourage people to eat vegetarian protein sources, not the animal products encouraged by Atkins and South Beach. I don't know about you, but it seems amiss to me for the media to portray this as a pro-Atkins study, since most of us consider Atkins to be meat-based. Shouldn't the media help us to better understand the science? (By the way, the foundation of the guy who originated the Atkins Diet provided most of the funding for the study. That's always a red flag for possibly biased science.)
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/92822/the_danger_of_meat-heavy_diets/Excellent article with great links.