The real genius of the Atkins diet is that it exposes exactly how much our American diet, composed as it is of mostly simple sugars and overly processed shit, is really unhealthy. I don't eat fast food anymore, and haven't been to McDonalds, BK, or any of their ilk for months with one exception. I stopped at McDonald's two weeks ago during my lightning trip North: and I felt sick for hours, the food was so terrible.

American food sucks.

Well, yes, the good part of the Atkins diet is cutting crap foods like processed Mac & Cheese, TV Dinners, Keebler cookies and the like (basically, all over-processed semi-food) out... paired with cutting fast food (except Taco Bell... Taco Bell is like all the benefits of broccoli and cauliflower and fresh salmon rolled together into a cheesy chicken taco), you have a much healthier diet. If that's all you took from the Atkins diet, then you might not be in perfect shape, but you'd be in better shape. The problem is, of course, that you can't cut out all carbohydrates without cutting out very healthy and nutrituous things like grains and you can't cut out all sugars without cutting out other vital things like fresh fruits. So, if you add those things to an Atkins diet, you can't achieve the state of unnatural misery (whatever they call it) where your body is so deprived of sugar and carbs that it burns fat easily, which is where the miraculous weight loss comes from. Consequently, you have to cut down the amount of fat in the diet if you want to maintain or lose weight (whichever you're aiming for), not mention that you ought to cut down on the fat in the diet if you don't want to die of heart disease. So then you're back to something that looks much like the original diet pyramid, with a little red meat and dairy, a lot of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and some pasta, nuts, and white meat. Throw in a little exercise... you've gone from the Atkins diet to what most nutritionists have been telling us since kindergarten.