Just like anything else in life, people criticize what they don't understand. When Atkins was in all the news, there were so many news reports and such that was taunting the "eat all the meat you want" diet. I even saw one that a man said he ate a pound of bacon a day !! Then ofcourse, came all the reports we were all dying off from heart attacks and liver disease. So, that's what most people remember is the rumors and lies.

I explained it to my two sons very much like you did. Every person is different. Some people can eat everything and stay thin. Others drop pounds by cuting out calories or going low fat. I am a carb addict. My body can not keep up with the amount of carbs that I was consuming for so long. So I have cut way down on my carbs, way up on great veggies and the pounds are coming off !

I have even gotten to the point of not saying "Atkins" because of the negitive crap I hear. So I either say "Lower Carb" or just "better choices. I don't even like saying diet since I am making this a life time comittment. I'll eat this way forever. And yes, at some point there will be birthday cake or a little garlic bread, but not til the scale says it's ok to have it. Not a day sooner.

Don't be discouraged by the neysayers. You'll prove them wrong !!!

Just do your thing and ignore them....they probably wouldn't be so rude if you had a food allergy. I find that since I've cut out grains if I do have something I actually feel awful now. when I say that no one ever gives me a hard time!
I think you are threatening the thing they are unwittingly addicted to and don't like the thought of given those beloved things up- it scares them. Like there must be another answer....
We are all different, just don't bite back to avoid the whole debate which is unwinable...

When people questuion what I am eating I just tell them that eating wheat/bread/pasta makes me ill, since writing down whst I eat and how much of it I eat I am more aware of what food does to my body and how it affects it. That has helped a lot, other than that ignore them.

yes, me too i have said exactly the same.

The main problem is the paradigm that calorie intake is the driving force behind obesity, and that its the mind, not the body that is control of intake. Unfortunately the scientific literature out there about low carb dieting was focused too much on how different sources of calories (ie. carbs vs. fat) are partitioned and affect the rate of weight loss, and the conclusion drawn is that there is no inherent metabolic advantage to eating low carb diets. This fits perfectly into the paradigm that Cals IN/OUT rules. What is ignored is how going on a low carb diet and improving the hormonal response causes spontaneous changes in eating behavior. So instead of giving the low carb diet credit, they give the reduced calorie intake credit, but nobody seems to have any idea why low carb diets lead to lower calorie intake other than saying "protein is satiating". But that's not an acceptable explanation because we know fat mass is regulated and there are hormones that regulate eating and energy expenditure like leptin and insulin, and this is where the science starts to get iffy.

This issue is the proven vs. the unproven. It is proven that Cals IN vs. Cals OUT determines weight changes, but what's not proven is how the quality of the diet can affect both your intake and expenditure, because its very complicated and there is a lot of variation.

People refuse to accept that bodies are different. This is not only toward diet relating issues but spreads across a spectrum of issues. I am trying to eat lower carb and it is a struggle for me. The ignorance that we hear is also the same kind aimed at may obese or overweight people. Remember it can never be the food it must be the person. The person can't get it right. I do not tell people that I eat low carb I often tell them the truth that I am having hormone related health issues and my Dr. has put me on a special diet. The fact that I bring my Dr. into it shuts them up. If I didn't use that line everything I eat would be scrutinized. As a obese and perhaps morbidly obese person I am already scrutinized.

Even if we all lose wight by lowering our carbs there will still be someone that criticizes the way we eat and wait for the weight to return. "I love humanity but I sometimes loathe people." I stole the quote and I use it often.