Dr. Atkins' Age-Defying Diet

Dump the food pyramid that the American Dietetics Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Cancer Society all implore you to follow for the sake of your health. Take antioxidant supplements (but skip most of the foods that naturally contain these nutrients). Eat a high-protein diet that has received the thumbs-down from major medical and nutrition experts and associations and has been deemed especially dangerous for women, as it depletes the body's calcium stores. If you believe that Dr. Atkins somehow knows better than all those experts and organizations, here's his latest--a plan to defy aging through eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, taking lots of supplements, optimizing your hormones, detoxifying your body through chelation therapy, exercising, and taking brain-boosters like ginkgo biloba. Free radicals, insulin resistance, sugar--these are the reasons we age, get sick, and get fat, insists Atkins, not dietary fat. Eggs are good for you. The cholesterol you eat does not affect the cholesterol in your blood, he says. He scoffs at "the unholy alliance among the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, American Diabetes Association, and U.S. government in its many manifestations (FDA, Department of Agriculture, NIH, et al.)." One wonders why Atkins thinks all these medical organizations would band together to promote an unhealthy diet and not herald Atkins as a genius if, indeed, he had the answer.