Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

For years I've argued that the Atkins Diet is nowhere near as "dangerous" as critics claim, and dozens of studies have since backed me up. Yet many people continue to worry about the effect of the strict Atkins diet on cholesterol. And many who have noticed how effective an Atkins-like diet can be for weight loss have been reluctant to try it because they associate the diet with a high meat intake (incorrectly, but that's another column).

Worry no more, because a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine received a flurry of media attention, and the subject? A variation of low-carbohydrate dieting which the researchers dubbed "Eco-Atkins."

The researchers start by stating that the Atkins plan has been shown to be effective not only for weight loss, but for reducing insulin resistance, lowering triglyceride concentrations and raising HDL (so-called "good" cholesterol). (They cite numerous published studies which have demonstrated every one of those effects.) That's a pretty impressive resume, and one might be forgiven for asking, "and the problem is?"

Well, the problem, according to the researchers, is that low-carb diets (at least the standard kind that are more permissive of animal products like meat), have not consistently been shown to lower LDL cholesterol. So they wanted to see if they could design a low-carbohydrate diet that retained the proven weight-loss benefits of standard low-carb plans like Atkins but at the same time helped people improve their cholesterol.

And presto bingo, they did exactly that. Hence, the "Eco-Atkins" diet.

"Eco-Atkins" answers the question "can vegans do Atkins?" with a resounding "yes." The researchers actually put together a vegan diet (which contains not a single animal product or by-product, including eggs) which met their definition of low-carb and high-protein. Protein (31 percent of total calories) came mainly from gluten, soy and nuts, with typical foods being soy burgers, veggie bacon and breakfast links. Most of the fat (43 percent of total calories) came from nuts, vegetable oils, soy products and avocado. The rest of the calories on the "Eco-Atkins" (vegan low-carb) diet were carbohydrates (26 percent of total calories), mostly from fruits and vegetables and some cereals -- common starchy items like bread, rice, potatoes and baked goods were eliminated.

Participants on the "Eco-Atkins" diet not only lost weight, but their LDL cholesterol (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) dropped like a rock.

So if you've been hesitant to try a higher protein, lower carb diet for weight loss because you've been fearful of its effect on your cholesterol, there's no more reason to fear. The "Eco-Atkins" diet shows you can follow an Atkins-type diet even as a vegan, let alone as a vegetarian.