It's the most famous, most glamorous and most controversial eating programme in the world.

The Atkins diet has convinced more than three million Britons eating fat is the way to get thin.

But Sidney Harris is making his own one-man stand against the so-called diet revolution with his book The Truth About Food - the Anti-Atkins Diet.

Mr Harris, from Hove, believes the Atkins diet forms a three-pronged attack on the body.

He says: "Medically, it is a form of self-cannibalism. It is completely at odds with medical research of the last 60 years. But it doesn't stop thousands of people taking it up every day.

"The two quickest ways to lose weight are the Atkins diet in the first two weeks or food poisoning. Neither of them is good for you."

Mr Harris said the effects of Atkins, which combines a high animal protein diet with very low carbohydrate intake, made "emotional zombies" out of people, particularly young, image-obsessed girls.

He said: "The global popularity of the diet could be put down to a handful of nubile Hollywood starlets who endorsed the diet on the strength of its fast initial weight loss.

"That amounts to dropping one dress size, which overshadows the advice of the medical establishment.

"People are desperate to lose weight. Eight out of ten Britons believe the Atkins diet might be bad for their health but still go on it."

Mr Harris said the range of diets available was mind-boggling: "There are diets based on your astrological sign, your blood group, the shape of your head."

Revamping of diets was common practice too - high fibre, low fat, low carbohydrate, food combining, once-a-week detox, banana and milk, cabbage soup or counting calories until you developed a compulsive behaviour disorder.

He said: "Girls go from diet to diet and they latch on to the Atkins one and it has an effect on them as there is usually very little of them. Then the dieting gets into their minds."

Mr Harris is not a doctor and has no particular axe to grind. A former bookshop owner, he decided to draw together all the information he could find about the Atkins diet.

He said: "Dieting is an obsession and the celebrity influence is so strong. It is in every magazine, newspaper and TV programme. You try to buy a magazine for someone with an eating disorder and it is impossible to find one without some kind of diet advertised on the front."

Mr Harris began to research and write his anti-Atkins book two years ago but then put it to one side.

He said: "I didn't expect the craze to last this long. But as time went on, I felt the urge to do something to try to redress the balance.

"The Atkins people are not going to like it but I'm not worried about being sued. The book is based on evidence. Everything in it is factual."

Mr Harris' interest in a healthy diet stretches back to his early working life when he ran a fruit and vegetable import business in Covent Garden.

Now 59 and happily "a good stone overweight", he said: "I've always been interested in food. The simpler it is, the more real the food. Manufacturers can't improve on the original. They just make it 20 or 30 times the price and deplete its food value."

Where "revolutionary" diets failed was in overlooking the evolutionary diet, which has worked since the dawn of man.

He said: "All we need to do to reach and maintain our optimum weight is to exercise moderately and enjoy real food in human proportions."

Mr Harris said Dr Robert Atkins had no independent clinical trials to back up his methods, just impressive-looking results from his own files.

However, there was proof in the post-war years that rationing meat and dairy foods meant weight loss and an increase in life expectancy of seven years. Dieters should forget about quick fixes.

He said: "In losing weight, time must not be your enemy. It takes three months of sensible eating and moderate exercise to lose approximately a stone. If you lose one-and-a-half pounds in weight per week while eating a diet that makes you healthier and stronger, you are on the right track."

There were raised eyebrows around the world when, after Dr Atkins died last year, it was revealed he was clinically obese and had a history of heart attacks.

Mr Harris said: "He was 70 and he died. I think he wholeheartedly believed in his diet. He made a fortune but, in the long run, I think it was irresponsible."

Mr Harris's book is littered with philosophical quotes like "If you were to give every individual the right amount of nourishment, not too little, not too much, we will have found the safest way to health" (Hippocrates) or anti-Atkins quotes like "Disciples of the Atkins diet are gambling with their future health".

The book has a foreword by Lewes GP Dr Alan Stewart, a nutritionist who says the book offers a commonsense approach to making responsible and thoughtful diet decisions.

He said: "Sidney Harris appeals to those who are growing tired of short-lived dietary affairs and wish to develop a more mature and responsible relationship with food that will allow them to control their health.

"Read it and you should take away something for both body and mind."

The Truth About Food - The Anti-Atkins Diet is published by As-Is, price £6.95.