Once again, an Atkins-type diet beat a more Ornish-type diet (see article
links below). Here's some things I noticed after skimming these articles...

Last time Ornish essentially admitted Atkins won but said the differences
were small and that people wouldn't be able to stick to Atkins for more than
a year, claiming that his diet was therefore the more practical choice. This
time the participants did stick to Atkins for 2 years, but Ornish says the
study was fatally flawed and that low HDL may actually be better than high
HDL. Ornish also downplays the importance of weight loss for health (not
surprising given his own visible weight gain). Ornish concludes by saying
that a "healthy" low-fat diet should be "served with love." <sarcasm> Yeah,
real scientific, Dean. </sarcasm> Ornish brags about having been "a lead
investigator on numerous peer-reviewed studies" and criticizes this study
for not being sufficiently scientific, but I'm guessing that some scientists
may have problems with Ornish's implications that high HDL is a bad sign and
weight loss is not that important, as well as his talk of a diet "served
with love."

On the bright side, Ornish admits that refined carbohydrates are unhealthy
and adopts a more conciliatory tone than last time: "It's time to call a
truce in the diet wars." Of course, people do tend to call for a truce when
they're losing a war, but it's still a welcome change. Unfortunately, Ornish
falsely claims that a "convergence" is emerging around his misguided views
that an "An optimal diet is one that is low in fat," contains plenty of bran
from whole grains and includes "soy products." In other words, "You claim
you support a low carb diet, but you actually like my extremely low-fat,
high-carb diet," or "I know what you support better than you do." Ornish
mentions again that fatty fish like salmon are healthy food, which
contradicts nearly everything else he says.

Atkins-type diets are not optimal (and I know of at least one person who
reportedly developed gout while on an Atkins diet), but they certainly
appear less unhealthy for most people than the extreme Ornish guru-diet fad.

Low-carb beats low-fat in diet duel 
Those eating fewer carbs also had lower cholesterol, surprising study finds
The Associated Press
updated 6:48 p.m. ET, Wed., July. 16, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25708495

The Never-Ending Diet Wars
A new study reports that the Atkins diet can be just as healthy as a low-fat
diet. But don't start buying bacon yet. This research has some serious
flaws.
Dean Ornish M.D.
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 6:29 PM ET Jul 16, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/146641