While I can appreciate your attempt to educate people about how to live a healthier lifestyle, it is very disappointing to see you describing the healthy low-carb lifestyle as a "fad" diet that is "impossible to stay on" and even "dangerous." Such hyperbole about a legitimate, science-based way of eating is doing your readers a great disservice.

While it is true diets like South Beach and even more so the Atkins diet call for consuming less carbohydrates in your diet, there's a reason and purpose behind it. For many, sugars and carbs (which turn to sugar in the body) play a direct role in creating an excessive amount of the insulin hormone in the body. Insulin is what regulates blood sugar levels, but too much of it can lead to stored fat.

In January 2004, I weighed 410 pounds because my insulin was off the charts. My diet consisted of primarily sugar-based sodas and drinks as well as starchy carbs that were making me fatter and fatter each year. By simply implementing a carbohydrate-restricted nutritional approach into my regular routine, I was able to shed 180 pounds that year and it changed my life forever!

As great as the weight loss was, the improvements in my health have been that much better...dropped 20 inches off my waist, went from 5XL shirts to XL, came off of three prescription meds for breathing, cholesterol, and blood pressure, and my quality of life improved dramatically. When I say low-carb changed my life, it's not just some whimsical comment without any meaning. It turned everything about what was happening to me into this amazing experience that I'll never forget.

Here it is five years later and I'm STILL livin' la vida low-carb with no signs of being in any kind of health danger from eating this way. It is an extremely healthy way to eat and more and more research is proving this each and every day. I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of a book entitled GOOD CALORIES, BAD CALORIES by Gary Taubes to learn more about the history behind carbohydrates and why they are the primary reason for obesity and disease today.

I regularly write about healthy low-carb living at my http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog web site and would recommend you check it out if you want to see real people living and thriving on a low-carb diet. Check out this post I wrote earlier this week celebrating my 5-year anniversary of starting on the Atkins diet:

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/?p=3205

I would hope in the future you give better consideration to the topics you write about to make sure all the facts are in order first so you don't embarrass yourself with ignorance. A little due diligence on the subject would have prevented this from ever happening in the first place. THANKS for allowing me to share comments.

Jimmy Moore, author of "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb"
http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com
livinlowcarbman@charter.net