At least in terms of changing peoples' dietary habits--we don't know yet what the long-term health effects will be.

The preaching of Atkins and the other proponents of lower-carbohydrate diets is starting to have an effect. National meat consumption is up, and high-glycemic carb purchases are down. And the carb vendors don't like it.

...by teaching people to severely limit the use of flour-based products, Atkins is eating into sales of some bread and cereal products in the United States.

"Our industry has to do something, and soon. It is starting to become a mainstream belief that carbohydrates are bad," said Judi Adams, director of the Wheat Foods Council, a consortium of industry players that includes ConAgra, General Mills and Kellogg Co.

"This Atkins diet -- or, I call it Fatkins diet -- is going out unchallenged. People are starting to believe it," Adams said.

Maybe because, for many people, it works?

Well, for me it works (in reverse). If I don't get animal fats, I end up struggling to stay at 95 lbs (my lower limit).
If I wanted to lose weight, I'd most certainly go on a high-carb and low-fat diet.
But I'm one of those oddballs who stays skinny by default, and their aren't many of us.

their=there...
I need to learn to preview....

Carbs are popular with snack vendors because they are cheap.

I ran a mailing list for a while for users of this diet, with a number of medical professionals on board. Results were fairly predictable: a certain percentage did poorly on this diet, another percentage did exceedingly well. People's cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes often improved very remarkably. Sometimes it did not.

We know for a fact that people can live years and years this way, based on the simple reality that the Inuit have done it for countless generations.

Yes, it works. And I never had a better lesson in how hysterical and wrong the medical establishment can be than when I was running that mailing list, during the height of the era where fat was being blamed for every bad thing in American health. It's better now, and nice to see. But I'll never, ever look at science the same way again.