The high-protein, no-carb Atkins Diet is the most popular for many years, but now doctors have said it leads to long-term damage. ITV News Online sets out the arguments.

What is the Atkins diet?
People on this diet can eat foods such as cheese, steak and sausages - which are high in protein and fat - but not those that are high in carbohydrate, such as pasta, bread, potatoes or cereals.

And the diet bans fruit - which most experts say is one of the best things you can eat.

Carbohydrate provides energy but the diet's creator, the late Dr Robert Atkins, believed that if carbohydrate intake is restricted, a body will get its energy by burning fat instead, which will result in weight loss.

His ground-breaking book, Diet Revolution, was published in 1972 and has sold more than 12 million copies.

Dr Atkins died in April, aged 72, after slipping on ice outside his New York office and hitting his head.

But his theory has won millions of converts - including celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Geri Halliwell.

What are the arguments in favour?
It's more attractive than many other diets, so it is easier to stick with. Cooked breakfasts are OK with Atkins.
It fits in with a modern lifestyle.
It allows you to eat as much as you like of many popular foods, including meat, butter and cream.
Many people who have tried it have found they have lost weight.
Some scientific work backs this up:
Two recent studies published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine have concluded Atkins works and is safe.

One took 132 obese people who were typically around 50lb (22kg) overweight.

Half were told to follow the Atkins diet and the others given eating plans for a 1200-1500 calorie diet for women and 1500-1800 for men, made up of 60 per cent carbohydrates.

At three months, those on the Atkins diet lost an average of 17.6lb while the conventional dieters lost around 8.3lb.

After six months, those on the high-fat plan had lost an average of 21.2lb compared to 11.5lb lost by those on the normal diet.

At 12 months, the Atkins group was down an average of 15.9lb versus 9.7lb among the conventional dieters.

However this was not considered statistically significant, partly because almost half of the trial participants had dropped out of the study before 12 months.

Overall, the Atkins dieters had higher levels of good cholesterol, and lower amounts of triglycerides, which are harmful fatty substances in the blood, than the conventional group.

They also found the Atkins group had increased amounts of "good cholesterol", than those on the standard diet.

But the authors stepped back from a full endorsement. They cautioned against people discarding low-fat eating plans, given that these had been been shown to cut the risk of heart attacks.

And they also called for more research to find out why people lost more weight on the Atkins diet and to assess its long-term effectiveness.

What are the arguments against?
The Atkins Diet's side-effects include bad breath and new converts report feeling weary after they start the diet.
An 'easy' diet means that people neglect to improve their health in other ways, such as regular exercise.
The link between fatty foods and heart disease and kidney problems is long established.
Fibre, found in carbohydrate food, helps the body eliminate toxins and is associated with reduced levels of cholesterol.
A study published in the Lancet last month found women who eat 90 grams of fat a day are twice as likely to develop breast cancer as women who eat 40 grams.
Medical experts have raised serious concerns about the diet's longterm safety.
Dr David Ashton from the Healthier Weight Centre in Birmingham says: "The problem with the Atkins diet is that the consumption of saturated fat is so strongly associated with the development of heart and other diseases that we need much more scientific evidence before we could possibly think of recommending such a diet for large numbers of people."

Dr Lesley Walker, from Cancer Research, says the organisation "strongly recommends" that people wanting to reduce their risk of cancer should adopt a diet rich in fruit and vegetables.

In his view: "The Atkins diet is literally the polar opposite of that."

Nutritionist Amanda Ursell believes: "Dr Atkins theory is very interesting, I think increasing protein is very interesting and can be a useful way for some people to control their food intake.

"But I think going down to 20 grams of carbs a day is very low, considering that most people eat 300 grams or more a day."

: "I would love to be able to tell people that eating pork rinds and bacon and sausage are good for your heart, but they're not," says Dr Dean Ornish.

And the influential Medical Research Council has added its voice to the criticism.

Dr Susan Jebb, from the Council's Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge says it would be "negligent" to recommend the diet to anyone overweight.

She believes the claims made for the diet are based on "pseudo-science".

Dr Atkins responds to his critics
In his last British TV interview before his death last April, Dr Atkins met Jonathan Maitland of ITV's Tonight programme to answer his critics.

Dr Atkins: "The diet should be taught in mainstream medicine - it should be the diet of choice to control obesity and diabetes and these are two epidemics because they have been pushing a low fat diet/ high carbohydrate diet.

"Over the past 25 years, we have decreased the percentage of fat from 40 to 32 per cent but at the same time there was a massive increase in refined carbohydrates.

"In those 25 years, 30lbs of sugar per person were increased and 64lb of grain increased - these are refined carbohydrates.

"These are responsible in my view - and in that of an awful lot of other people - for the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

Jonathan Maitland: "What can and can't you eat?"

Dr Atkins: "Fat is there for a purpose - an alternate energy source.

"But when there is no carbohydrate then we burn fat. It is why the diet is easy to follow. It doesn't restrict portions and is a very enjoyable eating system.

"Once you get to your ideal weight, you don't want to get off the eating programme that we have taught them."

Maitland: "Is your diet safe in the long-term?"

Dr Atkins: "I have a lot of people who are remarkably healthy - they have lower cholesterol than it was before."

Maitland: "What do you say to people who say that this diet just isn't sensible - high in fat, causes heart disease and cancer?"

Dr Atkins: "All the research done on diets show that a diet high in fat and high in carbohydrate is not safe but it is absolutely false to say that a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate is not safe.

Maitland: "Have there been any proper long-term independent studies saying that your diet is safe?"

Dr Atkins: "Well, I'm glad you asked that because yes a study should be done, yes a study should be done - it'll have to be funded by the government because long-term studies are very expensive to do and there hasn't been anybody able to fund it up to this point.

Maitland: "How can a diet that eliminates fruit be good for you?"

Dr Atkins: "I don't know where fruit got such a good reputation. People must not link fruit and veg in the same category. Veg is much healthier than fruit.

Maitland: "But you must be the only person in the world saying this. You say there is no evidence but there has been study after study - countless studies showing that people who have a diet high in fruit and veg have less heart disease, less fat, less risk of strokes.

Dr Atkins: "Yes, from a diet of junk food it is an improvement but they don't know what a massive improvement is until they start to restrict carbohydrate."

http://www.itv.com/news/Specialatkins.html