Diets and obesity

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7433.234-a

BMJ 2004;328:234 (24 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7433.234-a

reviews

Website of the week

Diets and obesity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The BBC Horizon programme reviewed in this week's BMJ againraised questions about the ever popular Atkins diet. Does itwork? If so, how does it work? And what are the risks?

The website of Atkins Nutritionals (http://atkins.com/) offersan overview of the science behind the diet—with summariesof articles from peer reviewed journals taken from PubMed—aswell as providing many controlled carb recipes. There is alsoa carbohydrate gram counter, to help dieters find the net carbsin many of their "favourite everyday foods."

An opposite viewpoint comes from the Physicians Committee forResponsible Medicine, a US based advocate for preventive medicine,especially good nutrition. The committee's Atkins Diet Alert(www.atkinsdietalert.org) provides information "for physiciansand laypeople with questions and concerns about high-proteinAtkins-type diets." There is a wealth of information here—someof it targeted at doctors—including brief reviews, expertopinions, and even some "Survivor . . . [Full text of this article]

Vittal Katikireddi, final year medical student

University of Edinburgh, and BMJ Clegg scholar vkatikireddi@bmj.com