A big problem with Atkins' chapter on vitamins in the New Diet Revolution
is that he just sort of gives you this shotgun blast describing everything
he uses in his practice, generalizes vaguely about what everything's for,
and that's that.  You're left with this awful impression that you're going
to have to down dozens of pills a day, but really that only applies to
severe medical problems.  You shouldn't need all that if your only goal is
weight loss or moderate improvements of moderate problems.  It's when you
come to the diet with severe hypertension, skyrocketing cholesterol,
fluctuating blood sugar levels bordering on diabetes, maybe already had a
heart attack or two, etc. that you're probably going to be on a boatload of
supplements.  And as those supplements are a substitute for -drugs- they
probably aren't as extreme as they sound at first glance.

For example, Atkins will tell you that you probably need to take about a
dozen garlic pills a day--or if you prefer, just eat lots of fresh garlic
on your food, and you won't have to.  ;-)

The average Atkins dieter who is just looking to lose weight should need no
more than a couple of high-quality supplements.  You should only start
delving into things like the Co-Q10, megadoses of vitamin E or B,
carnitine, glutamine, and so on and so forth if you are having serious
frustration with your results or are still experiencing high blood
pressure, bad cholesterol, etc. despite the diet.

At this point, I still consider myself basically an Atkins dieter, and I
take exactly three vitamin supplements per day: two high-quality
multivitamins (Solgar Multi II Caps, one in the morning, one in the
evening)  and a GTF chromium supplement.  I also take 100 mg. of niacin and
some melatonin nightly to help my lifelong insomnia (a problem that appears
to have nothing to do with my diet).  I probably spend about 75 cents per
day on supplements for myself, but I haven't counted.

-In theory- if you are eating an almost all-meat diet, and you are cooking
the meat as rare as you can stand it, you should not -need- any
supplements.  My own theory is that you will probably have somewhat better
health with a good high-quality multivitamin/multimineral supplement, but
you shouldn't need them and can probably do without them and regardless if
you're taking 20 pills a day you're probably going way overboard (unless,
like some folks, your body's got problems severe enough to need all that).

>Btw Dean, I want to take this opportunity to tell
>you that I think all of your posts are highly
>informative, thought-provoking and enjoyable,
>and I always look forward to them.

<blush> Why thank you, Vickie.  Some folks tend to think I'm an overblown,
pompous fool who doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.  I tend to
think they're more right than I'd like to admit, but I'm glad someone
enjoys my ramblings.  :-)