Atkins and South Beach Diet Fit New Guidelines?

According to this AP article, proponents of Atkins and the South Beach Diet consider the new US dietary guidelines to fit with their respective diets.

Putting Atkins and the South Beach in the same sentence is misleading. They are quite different diets (despite having similar induction phases). As Dr. Agatston (author of the South Beach Diet) says:

"The public has been so confused, with the initial lowfat message, and the plain low-carb message," he said. "Now they really should be getting a single message of good carbs, good fats, lean protein and fiber."

It's difficult to see how Atkins corresponds to the new US dietary guidelines.

The article reports the typical line about the induction phases of Atkins and South Beach:

Low-carbohydrate diets are notorious for those first two weeks, which are designed to curb food cravings by stabilizing blood sugar.

I've always felt these 'induction' phases were more about the feel-good factor of instantly losing lots of pounds of water (which typically happens when dropping carbs out of your diet). A good marketing point - but I'm not sure if there is any hard science about 'stabilizing' blood sugar by not eating carbohydrates.

It's also worth pointing out that the South Beach Diet is a reasonably good balanced diet. It's one of the better diets to come along in the last few years.

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