Tuesday on PBS, Frontline takes a look at the Diet Wars raging today.

Americans spend $40 billion a year on books, products, and programs designed to do one thing: help us lose weight. From Atkins to Ornish and Weight Watchers to South Beach, today's dieters have a dizzying array of weight loss programs from which to choose — yet the underlying principles of these diets are often contradictory.

In "Diet Wars," FRONTLINE examines the great diet debate. Viewers follow FRONTLINE correspondent Steve Talbot, whose discovery that those "few extra pounds" have put him perilously close to the clinical definition of obesity prompts him to evaluate the myriad diets now available to overweight Americans.

Interviewees include Arthur Agaston, author of the South Beach Diet and Science journalist Gary Taubes who wrote the controversial July 7, 2002 New York Times Magazine article, "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" which turned the spotlight onto high-fat, low carbohydrate diets and was later vilified for the same.

I'm kinda fortunate in having a high enough metabolism that keeps my weight under control, but my BMI is borderline. I follow a low-carb style lifestyle, minimizing sugar. My dad used to warn, perhaps presciently, of the five white enemies - sugar, salt, milk, refined flour and white rice. He was able to bring my childhood bronchitis/asthma under control through naturopathy when doctors of the time had given no choice other than a permanent antibiotic regimen.

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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