I see posts of people saying their families don't understand the low-carb diets and are giving them grief about it so I got to wondering what made people decide to take a chance on this diet?

As for me, I stayed away from it because I was afraid of the cholesterol level. I had spots on all 4 eyelids that I knew were cholesterol deposits and I didn't want to make that go higher. Frankly, I have been on this diet for less than 2 months now and I can see that they are actually getting smaller.

But, the thing that turned me toward this diet was my sister lending me her copy of one of Dr. Atkins' books. There was something in it that made me totally see the light. It was the section where he talks about people in the old days rarely dying of things like heart disease or diabetes-like illnesses. As a genealogist with years under my belt I knew that was true! I'm sure it happened but from my digging into old death records I had not come across that one myself. Women usually died of child-birth related illnesses if they didn't die from actual childbirth. Men usually died of farming accidents or just plain old age. Lots of deaths resulted from drinking water illnesses. Some died of carbuncles - another name for boils. We all know that thyphoid fever and tuberculosis were most often fatal illnesses back then. Heart disease does not enter my family tree until about 1920 exactly as Dr. Atkins had stated. Another frequent cause of death are the war related cases. It was amazing and that statement just hit home with me.

This has just made me curious about other issues than weight that made people throw media caution to the wind and give this a try?