On the religious aspect, you're very welcome. Always happy to answer questions on that topic, as I have a pretty relaxed view about faith/belief anyway, so tend not to take it too seriously.
The Atkins thing is really straightforward to sum up. It's about what you're not eating (i.e. carbs), rather than what you are. By reducing your carb intake to very low levels, your body switches from predominantly burning carbs to produce energy to burning your existing fat instead.
There's tons of common myths about Atkins that seem to be considered as fact, with eating lots of fat and fry ups being one of the most frequent. In reality though, it's just about cutting out a lot of the carbs that we've become absolutely dependent on (bread being a chief example. A good example would be to imagine a normal meal (meat, veg, potatoes) and instead of having potatoes, you might have a bit more veg instead.
Fruit and veg you can absolutely have liberally. As for meat and protein, these are unrestricted from a diet perspective, but common sense has to apply. A nice piece of steam-cooked salmon is always going to be better for you that fried sausages and bacon. Done right, Atkins shouldn't do a person any harm at all. Like all things though, the minority will misinterpret the guidance and assume that a full english for breakfast, lunch and dinner will keep them in tip top shape.
I've been hashing this all out for a book I'm trying to write and find it just so interesting.
