Pasta-holic or fat fiend, a diet for all

So which diet is right for you?

The answer is one thing the low-carb and low-fat camps can agree on: whichever is easier for you to maintain.

"The preponderance of the evidence is whatever you can stick to," said Dr. Howard Eisenson, a family practitioner who runs the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, which prescribes mainly low-fat diets.

Dr. Eric Westman, a co-author of the "The New Atkins for a New You," agrees: "For long-term success, it has to be a diet that is palatable for a given individual."

In other words, a bread-and-pasta addict will struggle on a low-carb diet, and a bacon-and-eggs-for-breakfast person will struggle on a low-fat diet. Controlling portions and calories is key to any weight-loss regimen.

While the only option years ago would have been a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet is shedding some of its stigma. "It's now a respectable option," Eisenson said.

Dr. Robert Eckel, an endocrinologist and spokesman for the American Heart Association, doesn't agree that Dr. Robert Atkins' low-carb diet has achieved any respectability. He would never recommend it to his patients, saying: "I don't agree that the use of the Atkins' diet long term is a good idea for heart health."

Westman adds one caveat: Research shows that a low-carb diet is best for people who are both obese and insulin resistant, a condition that forces their bodies to produce more insulin than normal and that can lead to diabetes. In 2005, a University of Colorado researcher studied 44 obese women who were randomly assigned to either a low-carb or low-fat diet. The women who were insulin resistant did better on a low-carb diet.

"There is hope that by genetic testing we will one day be able to match individuals to diets in a rational manner," Westman said.