I've read that high-protein diets are back in fashion and that a new version of Atkins has been launched that allows more carbohydrate. Is it worth following?

This is a bit of a nutritional hot potato. The old-style Atkins diet certainly came in for a lot of criticism. Much of this was to do with the idea that you could live on greasy sausage and bacon-filled fry-ups, have sugar-free jelly smothered in double cream and shed the pounds.

Doctors worried that such eating habits would increase bad cholesterol in the blood and raise the risk of heart disease. Another worry was that, by having only small amounts of carbohydrate, followers lost out on fibre, vitamins and minerals found in foods such as wholegrain cereals and fruit. There was also a concern that the large quantities of protein consumed could put a strain on the kidneys if you had a underlying weakness in these organs.

The “new” style of this diet still requires you to drastically limit your carbohydrates in the first two weeks. You can have only 20g of carbohydrate a day which comes from things such as small servings of spinach, asparagus and a little green salad.

However, the carbohydrate allowance increases up to 60g daily during the rest of your weight-loss phase (you could get this, for example, in a bowl of pasta and an apple) and once you have lost all your weight, you can maintain it by having up to 120g of carbohydrate each day.

In practice, in the long term this means that you can, for example, have a modest porridge for breakfast, a sandwich using two average-size slices of bread for lunch and a serving of new potatoes at dinner along with an apple, nectarine and banana and a couple of servings of vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage (and obviously protein-rich foods such as lean meat, fish, eggs and so on at each meal).

I do not feel that this maintenance stage is arduous or unhealthy. A recent two-year study revealed that people following a low-carbohydrate regime not only lost more weight (just over 10lb) than those on a traditional low-fat, calorie-restricted plan (who lost 6.5lb), but did not appear to suffer any ill-health effects over this time.

I would still advise anyone wanting to follow any part of a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet to first check with their GP that they are in a fit state to do so. I would also recommend regular check-ups to ensure that your liver, kidneys and cholesterol levels are OK.

It also emerged that a third group of people who ate a Mediterranean-style, calorie-restricted diet (rich in vegetables and fruit and containing olive oil) lost 10lb; just fractionally less than the low carbohydrate, high-protein group.

I prefer the Mediterranean-style option. Not least because scientists from Tufts University in Boston say that protein-rich foods are acid-producing. As we get older our bodies tend to show a mild but slow increase in “acidosis”, which in turn appears to trigger a muscle-wasting response. Having a continuous high-protein intake may exacerbate this process, while eating lots of fruits and vegetables that are alkali-forming appears to help to counteract this problem.

If you have any nutrition questions for Amanda, e-mail her at amandaursell@thetimes.co.uk

How high-protein diets work

High-protein foods are more likely to suppress appetite and thus food intake than foods such as bread, pasta and fats.

Protein also appears to take more energy to digest than carbohydrate or fatty foods.

Eating from any restricted repertoire of foods tends to make you eat less through sheer boredom.

If you want to try a high-protein diet, www.golower.co.uk delivers low-carb meals to your door.

See your GP first and ask to be monitored.