Yeah, I think people hear "low fat" and think it's the cure. Sheep's right, you gotta balance it with exercise. And now studies are showing that you need some fat, as mentioned above, for brain activity. However, as in the above quote, not watching your fat content often leads to you eating a lot of other things, besides fat, that are bad for you; cheesecake = cholesterol and lots of sugar: large pizza = cholesterol, tons of sodium: buffalo wings = sodium, cholesterol...etc, etc. You see what I'm saying; watching your fat intake also helps curb the intake of other harmful things, so it can have its benefits.
I don't know about the Atkins thing...seems like you get the green light to put a lot of bad things in your body so long as they don't have any carbs in them. My fiancee went on South Beach for a while and for the first two weeks (I think), you could have absolutely no sugar...and that included fruit. I don't know, but I don't know many docs that would agree that you should give up eating fruit. I could be wrong, but seemed weird to me. I just watch what I eat, try to avoid high fructose corn syrup, which is harder than you think...look around, it's in everything. And, I make sure I'm at the gym at a minimum of 3 times a week, and 4-5 times on a good week. I'm currently training for my 3rd marathon and am up to 25-30 miles of running per week/45-50 minutes per day (except on my long run day). Hopefully, someday when I'm 75, I'll look back and thank myself.
