Low-carb craze may not be dead yet

• For 2 1/2 years, he had followed the Atkins diet religiously, shedding the 10 pounds he set out to lose and keeping it off, without any of the cravings or fatigue or headaches others had reported.
• I thought it was a wonderful diet - all the way up until I realized that it had given me heart disease and almost killed me," says Gorran, 54.
• Doctors and other critics say the once wildly popular low-carbohydrate diet can produce dangerous cholesterol levels in those who are "fat-sensitive" - and that, for everyone, high levels of saturated fat and protein can increase the risk of gout, kidney and liver disease, osteoporosis and breast and colon cancer.
• So it's no surprise that when Atkins filed for Chapter 11 - blaming $300 million in debt, dwindling demand and a glut of low-carb competition - doctors and dietitians were quick to pronounce the fad dead.
• Major food manufacturers and restaurants were jumping aboard the bandwagon with predictions that low-carb fare would soon mushroom into a $15-billion to $25-billion-a-year industry.
• "In the long run, people are not going to give up carbohydrates.
• If they manage to stay on (Atkins) long enough to achieve their target weight, they tend to feel like they've reached an end point, and they'll go back to eating normally.
• Instead, Fraser turned to the advice of Dr. Robert Atkins, the now-deceased cardiologist whose diet plan was experiencing a renaissance after an initial splash in the 1970s.
• Amy Lanou, senior nutrition scientist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is handling Gorran's suit against Atkins Nutritionals, says there are several problems.
• First and foremost, people will react differently to the same diet.