Dukan diet from France sounds a bit like the Atkins diet

The Dukan diet (think “protein”) is making a splash on this side of the pond after apparently taking France by storm. As Americans are always looking to the French -- though they won’t admit it -- on how to live and look better, let’s take a look.
At first glance, the diet seems both familiar and strange. The Dukan diet, as with the more established Atkins diet, emphasizes a high-protein, low-carb approach in the beginning. The former was created by French physician Pierre Dukan; the other by American physician Robert Atkins.
The diet includes four steps, or phases, and you are warned not to take them out of order. Here are the Dukan Diet phases in a nutshell:
--Attack phase: Eating only pure proteins in lean meats, lean cured meats, seafood, eggs, fat-free dairy products;
--Weight loss phase: Add vegetables to the protein choices;
--Stabilization phase: Add fruit, bread, cheese and even pasta; and
-- Eat whatever you want, whenever you want. You’ll never be fat again.
Of course there are books and other materials about this diet to buy. Here’s an excerpt

“An overweight person who wants to lose weight needs a fast-acting diet that brings immediate results, fast enough to strengthen and maintain their motivation, and they also need precise goals to achieve, set by an outside instructor, with a series of various levels and crossing points to aim for so they can see their efforts and compare them with the results expected.”
There are lots of other components to this diet as well, including exercise. Note that one of the “forbidden” items on this diet is olive oil – a staple in the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet.
Of note, the website says “5 million French people can’t be wrong.” We won’t bring up their penchant for Jerry Lewis movies.