[Deliciously_Saucy]

no long term studies have been done on an Atkins specific diet

And that's in Atkins favour..? We don't just release medication onto the market with known concerns due to previous knowledge of the harmful chemicals in said drug and say well hey, we can't say this particular medication is dangerous or harmful because there haven't been any long-term studies done with the patients on it.

Just because there haven't been any specific long-term studies complied on the Atkins diet (to my current knowledge) that doesn't mean we can't look at the specifics of the diet (high saturated fat/protein), look at the research done on those and apply them to Atkins.

If I said mixing heroin with the blood of an AIDS victim was a safe way of taking the drug with no side-effects would you still carry the same notion of because no long term studies have been done on this mix we can't say whether it's dangerous...?

you posted nothing of relevance

I posted specific dangers on the individual methods employed by the Atkins diet (the dangers of high fat consumption, the dangers of high protein consumption, not eating a broad enough range of foods, etc) it was all relevant; are you daft or just backed into a corner?

So far the concerns about Atkins are just that, concerns

oh plx, concerns are there for a reason, reasons such as the FACT that this diet uses methods that are known to be serious health risks in order to lose weight. When professionals have "concerns" it's due to something serious, not trivial.

(Atkins) doesn't follow the standard view of the way the body metabolizes food.

No, it uses an unfounded, unproven theory with no supporting empirical evidence, god, it reminds me of what Scientologist believes in. It's the job of the theorist to prove his idea, it's not the job of others to disprove it.