The Atkins Nutritional Approach, popularly known as the Atkins Diet or just Atkins, is the most marketed and well-known low-carbohydrate diet. It was adapted by Dr. Robert Atkins in the 1960s from a diet he read in the Journal of the American Medical Association and utilized to resolve his own overweight condition following medical school and graduate medical training. After successfully treating over ten thousand patients, he popularized the Atkins diet in a series of books, starting with Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in 1972. In his revised book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Atkins updated some of his ideas, but remained faithful to the original concepts.The Atkins franchise, a business formed to provide products to those individuals on the diet, has been highly successful due to the popularity of the diet, and is considered the iconic and driving entity of the larger "low-carb craze". However, various factors have led to its dwindling success and the company founded by Dr. Atkins in 1989, Atkins Nutritionals of Ronkonkoma, New York, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July of 2005, two years after the death of Dr. Atkins. The company re-emerged in January 2006, and the Atkins logo is still highly visible through licensed-proprietary branding for food products and related merchandise.

Now, I eat pretty badly. I'm on the SNIKTA diet, which is the Atkins diet in reverse: 100% carbs. Three bowls of sugared cereal for breakfast, cookies for lunch, and a hoagie roll for dinner. You know what's the bread of life? Bread. That's why they call it that. So if anyone's colon needed cleansing, it was mine....

It's hard to keep a bad diet down. Doctors at Stanford University Medical School published a year-long study last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association comparing four popular diets, from low-carb to low-fat. Once again, the Atkins diet won.

Welcome back Dr. Atkins. After years of getting the brunt of bad publicity, a recent study revealed the Atkins Nutritional Approach to be the most effective diet. Goodbye carbs. Hello steak, butter and lobster. Discover why this popular plan is on the rebound.

Many diet programs have serious flaws that can sabotage your best efforts. This article goes into some detail about the good and bad things about the Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters and Zone Diet plans. If you're considering any of them, read this first.

The article outlines the differences between the two diets, including good carbs , bad carbs.The differences I found interesting were that one (Atkins) focuses on a low-carbohydrate diet,while the other (south beach) defines the differences between good and bad carbs.