The BBC today has a story showing that medical thinking is moving toward
the natural way.  Here are some extracts:

14 March, 2004, 10:40 GMT
'Put fat children on Atkins diet'

Fat children should be put on Atkins-style diets to lose weight and
prevent illness, a cancer specialist has said.

Professor Julian Peto, of the Institute of Cancer Research, said high-
protein, low-carbohydrate diets could suppress appetites and keep children
slim. ...He said dietary advice for children was not working and needed
a "rethink".

The problem of obesity is soaring among children in the UK.  In 1998, 9%
of two to four-year-olds were considered obese - almost double the figure
in 1989.

Professor Peto said the Atkins diet ... worked because proteins suppressed
the appetite and people did not eat as much.  "I am sure the Atkins wasn't
developed on this basis but that is why it works. The levels of salt and
fat are anything but healthy but the basis of the diet - which is low
carbohydrate and high protein - is ideal for losing weight."

Some British doctors are already putting obese children on Atkins-style
diets.  Dr Dee Dawson, medical director at Rhodes Farm Clinic, a
residential home for treatment of children with eating disorders, says the
diet is good for children.  "The children who come here are not just
overweight, they are ill, and in danger of

More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3509792.stm

Pity they didn't mention anything about physical activity!

Keith