http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/conten...ract/133/7/2244

any comments appreciated

1) We are not rats.
2) The natural diet of rats is not high in protein or fat, it's high in carbs(grains, fruits and vegetable matter). Although rats will eat protein if they can scavange it, by the time they can scavange, all the best parts (the fat and organs) are likely alreay eaten by other predators.
3) The natural diet of humans IS high in protein and fat.

It shouldn't come as a great surprise that if you take a rodent and feed it a diet that is not natural to it, it will get sick. This is similar to the study where they fed lots of protein to rabbits and when they got sick, presented it a "proof" that a similar diet is bad for humans.

Women's Health in Primary Care (www.womenshealthpc.com), July 2003: ran in its "the last word" column, "Is the Atkins Diet Heart-Healthy?" Basic answer, from Gary D. Foster, PhD, who lead one of the recent trials at the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is "As far as we can tell so far, Yes."

Of course he hedges, and says more tests are necessary; that's the way research scientists talk.

Q: Is the nutritional profile of this diet a concern?

A: There are not enough data to make claims about safety in the long term. We have only short-term data, up to one year. I think, more importantly, we have yet to look at bone and kidney and other markers of safety. I think saturated fat is less of a concern, at least in the short term. I expected the big problem to be an increase in cholesterol, and that didn't turn out to be true. So I'm more open-minded about the diet's effects on other outcomes.