I actually copied your Doctor bashing post and will try to use it in verbal spats, but probably won't do it as succinctly as you wrote it. I laughed aa I read the very first line (Count Chocula!).
I also agree that many autoimmune diseases could very well be related to high carb consumption. My own experience may prove it for myself. I was heading down a road that entailed memory loss, increasing allergies (never had them before), chronic fatigue, insomnia - you name it. I had several aborted attempts to exercise and diet myself back to health, but the exercise exacerbated the problems (adrenal fatigue set in). I knew this was all related to carbs and it was bread and pasta that did it as much or more than simple sugars. Fruit juice was the worst though. In fact, a carb binge at night would give me a literal hangover the next morning (worse than an alcohol hangover as best I can remember).
Only when I learned about the sugar connection did I get a grip on my problem. I first read The Zone and gave that a shot. It all made sense and I saw myself in Sears' book, but it wasn't enough. Sears had said ketosis was bad (using a factually incorrect explanation I believe) and because Sears originally opened my eyes to insulin resistance and the problem with carbs, I would have accepted this. However, if I ate a Zone bar, I had intense cravings for more of them! So I kept delving deeper.
I graduated to Atkins where I learned about ketosis and the possible benefits. It was the easiest and most successful "food experiment" I ever performed. I lost weight and most of the other problems began to clear up.
I was so enamored that I began to do even more research. I read "Potatos Not Prozac" for a different perspective, as well as Lyle McDonald's "The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner," a much more academic work than Atkins which was primarily focused on the body builder. This is what turned me on to the Target Ketogenic Diet idea. The carbs allow for retention of muscle glycogen to keep workout strength up, while your liver glycogen remains depleted enough to maintain a fat burning ketogenic state.
For what it's worth, Lyle has stated since he wrote his book that there really isn't a magical "metabolic advantage" to ketosis like Atkins claims. He also feels that over the long haul, weight loss truly is a calories in / calories out proposition. However, he HAS shown that ketosis is muscle sparing and HAS suggested that the best weight loss diet is the one that is most easily adhered to.
In your last post, you listed the litany of myths regarding Atkins. This is what always bothers me the most. I am more intrigued than bothered by the people that cite them. What causes people to either lie, exaggerate or vehemently denounce Atkins if their basis for doing so is logically or factually incorrect? We know Atkins/Ketosis blunts hunger while other diets promote hunger. Atkins says to stay away from bacon and other meats with heavy nitrates. Atkins tells you to eat vegetables. He readily admits that a lot of water is lost in the beginning on his diet, but the fat loss still takes place as well. No studies have shown there to be kidney problems with a ketogenic diet. Etc. etc. The naysayers will continue to repeat the lie as fact with zero substantiation and we will continue to counter the lies. The truth is getting out though, as the orginal article here truly shows us.
Those who are threatened by a new concept that counters their long-held beliefs will continue to repeat the lies to protect their egos, but over time they will be viewed like the folks who continued to insist the earth was flat or the sun revolved around the earth because that is what all the former, dying "experts" said. Atkins may very well be like Columbus or Galileo (or whoever showed the old myths to be false). He may not have invented the concept, but he popularized it so he will bear the brunt of the early ridicule.
Those who aren't protecting their vested academic or professional interest (like some on this thread) will use the "experts" cited above, but only to continue validating for themselves that their chosen path made the most sense. What they can't see is that it very well may have for them, but doesn't for somebody with insulin resistance or extreme metabolic resistance to lipolysis. They need to recognize that telling an obese person to merely "suck it up and eat less" may be like telling someone with a severed spinal cord to quit their belly-aching and "get up and walk." Luckily, for the obese person, there may be a cure in cutting carbs. Some who are already fit will try to deny that cure, because it threatens their own level of success.
Must be Fudge Graham! Mmmmmm...