I am having such a difficult time getting through Dr. Atkins' book. First, it has been terribly copy-edited, which just brings out my mental red pen. I want to make corrections all over the damned book! His chatty style is also really bothering me.

Second, I'm concerned about his constant "harking back" to the 19th century and before. Eight chapters in and he has done this dozens of times, but he has never once even considered the point that pre-industrialisation people were more physically active (through manual labour) and often died younger (from disease or otherwise). It's bothering me. I can figure how he would dismiss those points, but it still feels like shoddy science not to consider them.

I'm also concerned about how much he advocates the new low-carb substitutes: "Advances in scientific understanding have paved the way for alternatives to foods that are high in carbohydrates [he goes on to give a list of high-carb foods]." So he bashes manufactured food - especially refined sugar and flour - in the same chapter as he advocates other manufactured food? How do we know this new, manufactured carb-subsitute is safe? What if we are being led down a "carb substitute" path that will end us up in 70 years with some other dietary epidemic? What about all the evidence showing that artificial sweeteners are incredibly bad for you, and are possibly neurotoxins?

Maybe I just really don't want to like this. :-/