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Absolutely true. Taken to an extreme and done over many months the Atkins diet can make you very sick. If you plan on doing it I recommend you work with your physician so he/she can monitor your progress.
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I think you're both talking about the Atkins Induction phase, which lasts two weeks. The Ongoing Weight Loss, Pre Maintenance, and Maintenance phases of Atkins are all healthy diets and I think the only thing a typical nutritionist would object to in the diet would be too much animal fat, which Atkins doesn't have a problem with.
Any diet taken to an extreme over many months is unhealthy, but then you're not following the diet (unless you're on the Anorexic Diet Plan or something).
There are no studies that show the atkins diet is unhealthy. None. There is one recent study that shows that compared to the AHA's Step One diet, most people don't follow either Atkins or Step One over a six month period, but that people who did follow atkins were healthier than people who did follow Step One. That's the most negative thing I can find in terms of negative medical evidence for atkins.
It's really frustrating to me that people don't do research into the Atkins diet and just assume it's a fad diet. It's not. It's a way to learn a new way of eating for the rest of your life, and the book is very clear on that right from the beginning. I've lost over 30 pounds, kept it off for years, and improved by blood cholesterol from 210 to 150 while on Atkins.