[Maven]

The Atkins controversy deals with excessive protein intake which produces strain on your renal system.

What excessive protein? If you're doing it right, about 22-25% of your daily calories come from protein, with about 3-5% from carbs and the balance in fat. Atkins is not a high protein way of eating - it's a high fat one (preferably 50% or more of fat calories in the monosaturated group and almost none in the hydrogenated/transfats/polyunsaturated group).

Plus, any meat-intensive menu is going to raise your cholesterol level significantly.

Low carbing doesn't raise cholesterol levels. In fact, it tends to lower them. Last test I had showed an overall cholesteral level of 142 with triglycerides of 46, normal LDL and slightly low HDL (for which I've increased the amount of monosaturated fats consumed).

BTW, my wife is a medical professional who told me the docs, with whom she works, despise the Atkins diet because of the health problems they're seeing.

Tell your wife she has my deepest sympathies that the doctors with whom she works are so unenlightened. A doctor put me on low carb in 1998, and every doctor I've seen since has been supportive.

Maven

[wheelgunguru]

Tell your wife she has my deepest sympathies that the doctors with whom she works are so unenlightened.

Don't feel sorry for her. She's 5'7, 125 pounds. She's never had a weight problem.