I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and save bandwidth by saying hello and asking a few questions.

I am not currently on any sort of diet, other than a balanced diet of carbs, meats, dairy, and lots of vegetables, and plenty of exercise. I feel in good health, but I am still rather young, 27 years.

The main reason I came here was to maybe get some clarification.

So here's the scenario: I'm doing a persuasive speech for a class I need before I can graduate, (Computer Science major), and I thought I would do a speech on the dangers of low-carb diets such as Atkins. I just spent about an hour here reading the 10 or so pages of a heated discussion from a web troll (dontcha just love em?)

Anywho, In all of my research, I have only found one short study (1 year) done by the New England Journal of Medicine of low-carb, high-protein, high-fat diets versus the classic low-fat, low-calorie, high-carb diets. Other studies are in progress to test over 5 years. The only thing the study mentions was that "low-carbohydrate diet was associated with a greater improvement in some risk factors for coronary heart disease". It also mentions that low-carbers had a higher cholesterol count, both LDL and HDL, than the low-fat dieters.

My biology teacher who has a PhD in biology also mentions that the rapid loss of ketones (from burning fat instead of carbs) can lead to certain problems as well, namely liver and kidney. I have been really hard pressed to find much information on this as well, as it seems to only be a risk for people with diabetes.

I'm starting to think I should ditch my topic and go pro-Atkins, the benefits may outweight the drawbacks. Does anyone know of any long term studies on low-carb diets?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help. Sorry for the long post. My speech is tomorrow and my stupid procrastination habits are biting me in the butt again!