Quote from nitro:
One of the things I learned from the above book was that what you want is sugar from foods that have complex chemical bonds to it. This way, the sugar level in the body rises slowly as the enzymes break down the food, and therefore the body does not need to release huge amounts of insulin which causes havoc on your body. Veggies have complex bonds to sugars. [Most] Everything else has simple bonds to sugar.
One huge exception: Fructose (the simple sugar in fruit and soft drinks) has a very low glycemic index (is metabolized slowly). However, consuming lots of fructose will make you fat just like other carbs. Our chimp-like ancestors were apparently adapted to eating lots of fruit when it became available and storing it as fat. Also, the "fruit" they were eating was more like berries (more fiber, less fructose), not our "super-sized" man-made apples, oranges, etc. Eating an apple is actually metabolically very similar to drinking a coke (we've been "super-sizing" sugar-containing foods long before fast food became popular).
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Forget Atkins (his "induction" phase is nuts, and you don't need to be paying anyone to help you with this diet change). Just keep your carb/protein ratio less than 2:1 (based on the most recent scientific studies), but not lower than 1:1 (you can subtract fiber and sugar alcohols from the carb.s). There are about 7 distinct health benefits you get from doing this, with weight loss being just one.
BTW, it's also misleading (as some have done here) to argue that weight is just a matter of calories in vs. out, since that ignores the fact that it is much more difficult psychologically to do this when eating a high-carb diet.
IMO, the low-carb diet is so EASY to do (more meat, nuts, cheese, etc.), and its benefits are so immediate and obvious, that it will become the norm rather quickly w/o the need for "diet revolutionaries" like Atkins.
