Long-term study shows Atkins diet is best

Despite the best efforts of the nutrition community, the Atkins diet racks up more scientific support[*1] :

Overweight women on the Atkins plan lost more weight over a year than those on the low-carb Zone diet. And they had slightly better blood pressure and cholesterol readings than those on the Zone; the very low-fat, high-carb Ornish diet, and a low-fat, high-carb diet similar to U.S. government guidelines.

Stanford University researcher Christopher Gardner, the lead author, said the study shows that Atkins may be more healthful than critics contend.

. . .
At the end, Atkins women had slightly higher levels of HDL cholesterol, the good kind, and slightly lower blood pressure than those on the other three diets. Gardner said differences in weight loss likely contributed to those results.

As is usual in modern journalism when the conclusion disagrees with the conventional wisdom, the article spends more time trying to discount the findings of the study than it does reporting the study’s findings.