Atkins Facts-Atkins Nightmare Diet

The company behind Atkins diet products is preparing to pull the plug on its UK operation, it emerged today.

Administrators are expected to be appointed either today or tomorrow after the business was hit by disappointing sales.

The decision could leave firms dealing with Atkins Nutritionals UK, including manufacturers of its products, being owed huge sums of money for unpaid bills.

Jeremy Willmont, from chartered accountants Moore Stephens, is expected to be appointed administrator to hopefully find a buyer for the business.

They are taking steps to place the company into liquidation, he confirmed.

They are in the process of making an approach to the High Court for an administrator to be appointed.

I am not sure whether that will happen today or not but everyone is hoping it will be.

No-one at the companys head office in Slough, Berkshire, was initially available for comment.

Product sales have been bad for some time but they have been putting a bit of a spin on it, said a member of staff.

But it has caught up with them now and they have gone belly-up in the UK and Europe.

The trouble was they tried to grow too quickly but their sales never reached the levels they expected and competitors have done a much better job.

They asked the parent company in the US to cover their debts but they said they cant.

We are more than a little bit angry because we have worked with them for two years and thought we had a close relationship.

There will be lots of other people affected as well.

Many of their manufacturers and suppliers will be owed hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Atkins Nutritionals sells more than 20 products for followers of the controversial Atkins eating plan.

There have been reports that interest in the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet has waned in recent months.

A report published by market analysts Mintel in October last year highlighted the high drop out rate of low-carb diets.

Just 2.8pct. of those questioned by Mintel were currently on a low-carbohydrate regime, such as the Atkins Diet.

Another 10pct. said they had followed one of the diets but had given up, with only 1pct. willing to try it again.

James McCoy, senior consumer analyst at Mintel, said. While many consumers may have been attracted to the promise of rapid and significant weight loss, they appear to have found it a difficult diet to stick to in the long-term.

A number of dieters have not found this diet worked for them, it may be a question that they did not fully understand or trust the diet.

Tamara Richardson, senior vice president international for Atkins Nutritionals, claimed the decision to bring in administrators did not mean the end of the company.

We owe people and people owe us, she said. We felt the decision we have taken is the responsible thing to do.

We hope there may be a way through this so that the brand will continue to be available to consumers.

Ms Richardson, who confirmed the UK arm had amassed big debts, said it had faced tough competition from rival low-carb brands.

Even with the market share we have, we have still been hit by the competition that entered the UK market, particularly own-brand products.

Atkins Diet is Massive Health Risk Says Expert

August 12, 2000
The Evening Standard London
by Mark Prigg

THE Atkins diet is today denounced by a leading scientist as a pseudo science posing a massive health risk.

Described as nutritionally incomplete, the diet, believed to have around two million followers in Britain, was singled out as the worst of the fad diets.

Nutritionist Dr Susan Jebb said. Fad diets in general prey on the overweight, offering quick fixes and psychological tricks.

However, I see no medical benefit at all in them, and in particular from the Atkins diet.

Obesity is a massive problem in the UK, but this is not the way to solve it. There is no scientific evidence that the Atkins regime is good for us. Of course in the short term it works, but in the short term any diet that reduces calorific intake will work.

Dr Jebb, head of nutrition at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research Centre, was addressing a summer briefing at the Royal Institute designed to curb the huge public interest in fad diets and highlight their associated health risks.

The Atkins diet is a massive health risk for people - its simply medically very unsound, she added.

She pointed out that many carbohydrates, outlawed by fad diets, are extremely good for the body. The gut, in particular, needs a lot of carbohydrate and fibre, which is cut out of these diets, she added. That can impair its ability to work well, and people are putting themselves at risk if they dont eat a lot of fibre and some carbohydrate.

Dr Jebb believes one of the problems with all fad diets is that it is not usually the morbidly obese following them. She said. Its usually the slightly overweight doing these diets, and thats a real problem.

They run the risk of losing muscle instead of fat, which can be extremely dangerous. I also feel strongly that these diets are giving people false hope. We put on weight over a long period, so we have to lose it over a long time as well.

There is no way to lose a stone in a few weeks without putting your health at risk.

You have to do this over time, when you notice you are gaining weight.

Your first goal should always be not to gain any more weight, rather than deciding you instantly need to shed all your excess weight.

A lack of vitamins and minerals was also raised, with the restrictive fad diets often resulting in a small selection of food being allowed.

Dr Jebb said. People tend to restrict themselves far more than normal on these diets, and that isnt good. A variety of foods is essential for us to function healthily.

Fad diets were also described as dangerous by leading psychologist Dr Jane Ogden, a reader in health psychology at Kings College in London.

She believes fad diets prey on our wishes to be told what to do. The problem with most medical advice is that its a bit wishy-washy, she said.

People are told to cut down on this, eat healthily and it doesnt really mean anything to them.

What fad diets do is tell them in black and white what they can and cant do, and people identify with that. Its almost as if they have someone to blame for their craving, making it easier to deal with as its not their fault.

Dr Ogden also believes most people struggle with conventional diets because they are boring. An awful lot of work goes into something like the Atkins diet to make the menus interesting, she added.

Diet food, in general, tends to be quite unpalatable to us. There is also the feeling we are missing out on a lot, especially treats.

With over 45 million copies of the Atkins diet sold, many questions remain concerning the safety and effectiveness of the popular weight loss lifestyle.

In a Rapid Review article in the medical journal Lancet, Dr. Arne Astrup of RVA University in Copenhagen, Denmark, said there is no evidence that Atkins-style diets help people stay slim.

Three recent randomized trials looked at the long term effects of low-carbohydrate diets, and for the most part, all subjects on a low-carbohydrate diet did lose more weight over a six month period, compared to subjects on a low-fat diet. However, by 12 months, no difference was noted.

Safety

Astrup reports some heart risk factors improved in subjects on a low-carbohydrate diet, however, Astrup noted the Atkins diet is not healthy because it restricts whole-grains, fruit, and vegetables.

The absence of these foods might increase the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, wrote Astrup.

Side-effects from the Atkins diet include muscle cramps, diarrhea, general weakness, and rashes.

Dr. Astrup also indicated long term studies of up to 2 years are needed to assess the effectiveness of the low-carbohydrate diets.

He recommends people who want to lose weight and keep it off, increase physical activity and eat a diet low in fat and reduced calories.

THE Atkins diet bubble has finally burst, with thousands of slimmers abandoning the controversial low-carb eating plan.

Sales of the diet book, written by New York GP Robert Atkins, who was reportedly obese when he died last year, have plummeted worldwide.

Atkins Ignores More Important Risk Factors which Worsen on Atkins According to your website, Dr. Atkins does not believe that cholesterol elevations are as important a risk factor as... homocysteine and C-reactive protein.1071 It is interesting to note, then, that even research he funded shows that both these risk factors worsen on the Atkins Diet.

Homocysteine
A byproduct of defective protein metabolism, one can read on your website, elevated homocysteine levels are a powerful marker of heart disease and stroke risk.1072 Homocysteine has also linked to birth defects,1073 fatal blood clots,1074 depression1075 osteoporosis,1076 and Alzheimers Disease.1077

One can also read on your website that The Atkins Nutritional Approachtm, in fact, is ideal for moderating homocysteine levels...1078 However, of the 34 studies you cite as supporting the Atkins Diet, only one study measured homocysteine levels, and in that study Atkins followers suffered a highly significant worsening of their homocysteine levels.1079

The American Heart Association has recommended a homocysteine level under 10 mcmol/L.1080 The Atkins website agrees. Above 10 mcmol/L indicates an increasing risk of cardiovascular disease...1081 Atkins notes high homocysteine may also be related to cancer.1082

So what happened to people put on your diet In just 6 weeks, their homocysteine levels rose from 9.5 to 10.6. In their conclusion, the researchers deemed this elevation concerning.1083

In the year-long study that compared your diet to a low fat vegetarian vegan diet, homocysteine levels again tended to rise on the Atkins Diet,1084 yet fall on the vegan diet.1085 In an article entitled Vegan Diet-Based Lifestyle Program Rapidly Lowers Homocysteine Levels, after just one week on a vegan diet, those with elevated homocysteine levels had their levels drop from an average of 11.3 down to 9.2, a highly significant drop of 19pct. in just a single week.1086

Homocysteine, a neurotoxic and vasculotoxic compound linked to dementia, miscarriages and stroke, and which Atkins himself deemed a more important risk factor than cholesterol, became further elevated in both of the two studies which measured homocysteine levels on the Atkins Diet.1087,1088

C-Reactive Protein
Atkins also felt that C-reactive protein CRP was a more important risk factor than elevated cholesterol levels.1089 Chronically inflamed blood vessels are widely regarded as part of the atherosclerotic disease process, reads your website. Research has found that high levels of... C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, increased the risk of heart disease by four and one-half times.1090 C-Reactive protein has also been associated with stroke risk as well.1091

Like LDL cholesterol, simply losing weight should lower your CRP levels. How much CRP you have circulating in your blood has been found to be strictly related to body fatness.1092 Yet, every single published study supporting Atkins showed that the Atkins Diet was ineffective in lowering CRP.1093,1094,1095 In fact, one of them showed that after just 6 weeks on the Atkins Diet CRP levels tended to more than double despite a loss of body fat.1096

One unpublished meeting abstract on your website did show a decrease in CRP levels on the Atkins Diet,1097 but two others did not.1098,1099. The year-long study that compared your diet to the Ornish Diet, Weight Watchers and The Zone Diet found that C-reactive protein levels were significantly lowered by the Ornish Diet and by Weight Watchers, but not by the Atkins Diet.1100

Just two weeks on a low fat primarily vegetarian diet, however, with exercise, can lower CRP levels 45pct..1101 Two weeks on a phytonutrient rich full-fat vegan diet with no additional exercise dropped CRP levels an average of 30pct., as much as one sees with the use of statin drugs.1102 Meanwhile, your diet evidently causes so much inflammation within the body that CRP levels dont seem to drop at all despite significant weight loss.

Fibrinogen, another inflammatory risk factor associated with heart attack and stroke risk,1103 tends to rise on the Atkins Diet1104 and drop on control low-fat diets.1105 The same thing happens with Lpa.

If LDL is to be considered bad cholesterol, Lpa is really bad cholesterol.1106 The Atkins website agrees that Lpa is a strong risk factor for heart disease and stroke.1107 It also tends to rise on the Atkins Diet1108 and fall on the control vegetarian vegan diet.1109

Even taking into account some of the cardiac risk factors deemed most important by Atkins, the available evidence clearly demonstrates that the Atkins Diet may dramatically increases ones risk for heart disease.

Its no surprise that the American Dietetic Association has called the Atkins Diet a nightmare, or that thousands of doctors and dietitians are speaking out against this irresponsible medicine. It turns out, the Atkins Diet only works when dieters also cut calories. The regimen is a throwback to old low-calorie diets of the 1970s. They promised plenty, but delivered only temporary weight loss.

Low Fat versus Low Carb

Blood flow measurements collected by nuclear cardiologist Richard M. Fleming MD, FICA, FACA, FASNC, of the Fleming Heart and Health Institute, Omaha, Neb. and published in the October 2000 issue of the medical journal Angiology, Journal of Vascular Disease.
In the following images, green areas indicate poor blood flow or heart damage.
Red areas show increased blood flow in healthy areas.--andgt.

The top two images came from a patient who adopted a low-fat diet and thus reversed heart disease and damage. They show blood flow before and after diet modification to a low-fat diet. The image on the right shows significantly increased blood flow.

The bottom two images are those of a patient who went on the Atkins Diet, a popular high-protein diet. Images indicate reasonable blood flow before following the high-protein diet and compromised blood flow and heart damage after adopting the high-protein diet.

THE Atkins diet is more likely to cause bad breath, constipation and headaches than other diets.

And the low-carbohydrate, high-protein regime, favoured by celebrities, offers no magic formula for weight loss, Australian experts warn. Flinders University Associate Professor in Public Health, John Coveney, says the diet might work for short-term weight loss.

But over 12 months, it is no more effective than a low-fat diet, and health risks about its long-term use are unknown.

The Atkins diet is not a magic formula, he said.

The evidence seems to show that in the long-term - around a year - its not more successful than a low-fat diet. It does appear to have a more dramatic weight loss in the short-term.

Professor Coveney has co-authored a report in this weeks Medical Journal of Australia, with Associate Professor Malcolm Riley of Monash University.

They have suggested long-term use of the Atkins diet could have negative effects on a persons cardiovascular system, kidney function and bone health.

Celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Calista Flockhart and Geri Halliwell have been linked to the diet, which was first published more than 30 years ago.

It works on the premise that cutting back on carbohydrates stops the body producing too much insulin. High insulin levels are said to cause uncontrolled hunger and eating, and too much insulin causes the body to store fat.

However, Professor Coveney said the diet seems to work in the short-term for much simpler reasons.

Because you are encouraged to eat high protein foods - they satisfy you for far longer, he said.

But it works particularly because people are eating fewer calories because of the restrictions and possibly because of the satiety. Professor Coveney said trials of the diet had been carried out on people in good health, leaving question marks about the effects on people with chronic illness or the young and elderly on the diet for a long time.

He recommended people who wanted to lose weight should eat a variety of foods, cut back on their calorie intake and undertake regular exercise.

When you get fads like the Atkins, it can divert peoples attention from really important and very basic solutions to weight control, he said.

Dietitians Association of Australia state spokeswoman Tania Ferraretto agreed with the advice.

She said diets such as the Atkins dont work and can make people fatter over time.

Instead, anyone looking to lose weight should aim to change to a sensible exercise and eating regime they could safely follow for life.

THE hugely-popular Atkins Diet is medically unsound and a major health risk, nutrition experts warned yesterday.

They said the high-protein high-fat diet, followed by stars such as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Geri Halliwell, was a giant experiment which could have disastrous effects for millions.

Dr Susan Jebb of the Government-funded Medical Research Council said it would be negligent to recommend it for long-term use and called for research into its safety.

She dismissed the theory behind the diet, that it changes the bodys chemistry to burn off fat, as pseudo-science. Adverse effects could include kidney damage and bone loss.

The alert comes from one of the countrys leading experts on obesity. Dr Jebb is head of nutrition and health research at the MRCs Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge.

She was speaking at a special summit held in London to warn of the dangers that crash dieting poses to the nations health.

Dr Jebb said the Atkins Diet was the least healthy of a number of trendy faddy diets followed by people desperate to lose pounds in a hurry. She said. Fad diets prey on the overweight, offering quick fixes and psychological tricks. I see no medical benefit at all in them, and in particular the Atkins Diet.

It is nutritionally incomplete. It works in the short term but so does any diet that reduces the amount of calories eaten.

The diet is a massive health risk, its medically unsound. We have no idea what will happen in the long term because no one is evaluating the results of the experiment.

Obesity is a massive problem in the UK but this is not the way to solve it. The warning is the latest in a series from health professionals over gimmicky diet regimes, endorsed by celebrities.

A multimillion-pound book industry has grown on the back of claims that extreme eating patterns work.

The Atkins Diet is even challenging Harry Potter for world sales figures books about it are currently in first and third place on the British Hot 100 of online retailer Amazon.

Invented 30 years ago by American Dr Robert Atkins, who died earlier this year, it tells followers to eat vast amounts of meat but severely restrict carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables.

The theory is that carbohydrates increase the bodys production of the hormone insulin, which encourages cells to store fat. This leads to both hunger and weight gain.

Cutting carbohydrates right down, Dr Atkins asserted, turns the body from a carbohydrate-burning machine to one that burns fat.

But Dr Jebb dismissed the claim as pseudo-science.

She said following the diet long-term would mean a dramatic change in eating habits for most people, protein accounts for only around 15 per cent of total calorie intake.

Dr Jebb said. Its a profound change and we simply do not know the long-term health implications.

I certainly think we should be adopting a precautionary principle in terms of public health. The diet is known to put extra stress on the kidneys, which can lead to kidney stones and more serious damage particularly for those with pre-existing problems they might be unaware of.

There is also a fear of bone problems because the diet encourages the excretion of calcium which would otherwise go to build them.

Although two U.S. studies found the Atkins Diet was safe and effective, Dr Jebb said the dieters involved had been on it for only six months and a year.

She also pointed out that, longer-term, it had proved to be no better at permanent weight loss than a conventional low-fat diet.

Dr Jebb said people had to lose weight sensibly and slowly because there is no way to lose a stone in a few weeks without putting your health at risk.

Among other experts warning about the Atkins Diet is Amanda Wynne of the British Dietetic Association. She says the process of ketosis it triggers where the body burns up stored fat can result in nausea and tiredness, while drastic reduction in carbohydrates can lead to constipation and digestive problems.

Dr Jebbs colleague Toni Steer says. If you dont eat fruit and veg, you are excluding a lot of essential minerals and vitamins.

And we know that consuming these foods reduces your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Professor David Barker, a specialist in foetal health at Southampton University, has warned that mothers-to-be who follow such diet regimes are putting their babys health at risk.

The diet would deprive an unborn child of essential nutrients and raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes and strokes in adulthood.

Dr Jane Ogden, a reader in health psychology at King s College, London, told yesterdays meeting the Atkins Diet was popular because weight watchers could follow the instructions to the letter.

She said. What fad diets do is tell people in black and white what they can and cant do, and they identify with that.

Low Calorie Diet in Disguise

The Atkins Diet restricts calories by restricting choices. If all one did was eat Twinkies, one could lose weight unless one were able to consistently force oneself to eat more than a dozen a day. But would ones overall health be better or worse for it In essence, the Atkins Diet is not much different than the Twinkie Diet.

Americans get half of their energy from carbohydrates,137 so if people cut out half the food they eat, what they are left with is calorie restriction. Yes, one can eat unlimited amounts of fat on the Atkins Diet, but people typically cant stomach an extra two sticks of butters worth a day to make up for the calorie deficit. Since so many foods are taboo, people end up eating less out of sheer boredom and lack of variety. As one obesity researcher put it, If youre only allowed to shop in two aisles of the grocery store, does it matter which two they are138

Yes, all the butter one can eat, but no bread to put it on. All the cream cheese, but no bagels. Sour cream, but no baked potato. Sandwich lunchmeat, but, of course, no sandwiches. All the pepperoni one can eat, but no pizza crust. Cheese, but no mac.

In later phases of the diet, with less carb restriction, Atkins throws in a thin wedge of cantaloupe--wrapped in ham, of course.139 Having all the mayonnaise one can eat only goes so far.

On the Atkins Diet one can eat steak, but no potatoes--and watch the gravy it may have corn starch in it. All the shortening one can eat, just no making cookies with it. Eat all the burgers one wants. you just cant put them on buns, no fries--and beware of ketchup.140

Atkins described how to make cheeseburgers without the bun. I put all the meat on the outside... put the cheese on the inside... The cheese melts on the inside and never gets out.141

Although his recipe for hamburger fondue,142 combining burger meat, blue cheese, and butter, might top the cheeseburger recipe for heart disease risk, the prize would probably go his recipe for Swiss Snack,143 which consists of wrapping bacon strips around cubes of Swiss cheese and deep frying them in hot oil. The recipe, which supposedly serves one, calls for four strips of bacon and a quarter-pound of cheese.

Atkins rivals the creativity of the raw-food chefs of today in his uses for pork rinds. Pork rinds are chunks of pigs skin that are deep-fried, salted and artificially flavored. He recommends people use them to dip caviar. Or, perhaps for those who cant afford caviar, one can use fried pork rinds as a substitute for toast, dinner rolls...You can use them as a pie crust... or even matzo ball soup see our recipe on p. 190.144 Matzo balls made out of pork rinds--now that is a diet revolution.

The article seemed to claim that experts recommended the diet. I was greatly offended at how Gary Taubes tricked us all into coming across as supporters of the Atkins Diet, said John Farquhar, a Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Stanford. When the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine was asked to comment of one of Taubes claims, he replied, Its preposterous.48

If you are a woman and you are on the Atkins diet, you may have a problem if you want to start a family, say scientists. A high protein diet could make it more difficult for a woman to conceive. Scientists at the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, Englewood, USA, have come to this tentative conclusion after carrying out a study on mice.

Dr. David Garner, lead researcher, said Although our investigations were conducted in mice, our data may have implications for diet and reproduction in humans. He said that a diet which consists of 25pct. or more protein disrupts the development of mice embryos.

Dr. Garnes believes the same problem may appear in humans.

There is a genetic process called imprinting. This controls the activity of genes inherited from the mother and father. A high protein diet seems to interfere with this process.

The scientists had two groups of mice. They fed one group on a diet of 25pct. protein and the other group on 14pct. protein. Four weeks after being on this diet they mated.

Only a third of the mice 36pct. on the high protein diet developed with a normal H19 gene, as opposed to 70pct. of the other group.

Only 65pct. of the embryos from the high protein group developed into baby mice while 81pct. of the lower protein group embryos developed into baby mice.

They also found that the fetuses in the high protein group developed more slowly than the other group. They also found more defects in the baby mice from the high protein group.

A WOMAN ended up in accident and emergency when her body seized up only six days into the Atkins diet.

Sally Vickers, 27, was crippled by severe cramps in her stomach and legs while taking a bath and became trapped for two hours.

She was rescued when her boyfriend Paul Roberts, a 24-year-old agricultural technician, came home and heard her cries.

Miss Vickers, from Rennington, Northumberland, was taken to Alnwick Infirmary where she was diagnosed as being dehydrated, a known complication of the Atkins diet, and put on a drip.

Her experience will cause frighten other followers of the diet, which has faced a deluge of negative publicity.

On Monday, the Food Standards Agency highlighted the increased risks of cancer and heart disease from diets, such as Atkins, which favour fat over bread and cereals.

Last month, the Government-funded Medical Research Council said followers of the diet could suffer kidney damage and bone loss.

Nutritionists have also claimed that the high-protein diet creates a resistance to insulin which could trigger diabetes.

Most shocking was the case of 16-yearold Rachel Huskey, in Missouri, who died of heart failure after trying to lose weight.

A coroner could find no explanation for the heart problem but a team of experts who investigated her death said it was probably due to the way the Atkins diet upset her metabolism.

The eating plan has been tried by more than three million Britons and its success has caused a boom in sales of cheese, eggs and red meat.

Miss Vickers, a size 14 who is 5ft 5in and weighs 11st, started the diet six weeks ago after deciding she needed to lose a stone in two weeks before a friends wedding.

Six days into the diet she woke in pain. It was appalling, she said.

The book had said that I might suffer a few cramps but I was in real difficulties.

I started getting cramps in my legs and really bad pins and needles. That spread to my stomach.

I went to get in the bath because I thought the warm water might make me feel better but after I got in my legs just seized up and I couldnt move.

The pain was agonising and every time I tried to get up it hurt more, so eventually I just gave up and waited in the hope someone would come.

It was frightening.

I was stuck in the bath for about two hours before my boyfriend rescued me. He hadnt been due to come home from work until the evening but he decided to come back for lunch on a whim.

When I got to hospital I told the doctor I had drunk lots of water but she said that the diet is dehydrating because of a chemical reaction it causes in the body.

She advised me to come straight off the diet. Miss Vickers, an accounting firm assistant manager, was allowed to go home later the same afternoon.

I would never do the diet again, its just not worth it, she added. I lost just over half a stone but other people need to know how dangerous it can be. It really isnt worth the risk. Julia Smith, a dietician with the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, said. The Atkins diet book says everyone must have at least two litres of water every day.

One can still go to the Atkins website, though, and read how innocuous saturated fat is. One reader asks, Is it OK for me to consume more than 20pct. of my calories in the form of saturated fat The answer given is Absolutely.396

With this kind of advice, 53-year-old businessman Jody Gorran stayed on the Atkins Diet, and continued to recommend it to his friends even though his cholesterol had shot up 50pct.. Before starting the Atkins Diet, his cholesterol was excellent, he had no history of heart disease, and an unrelated CT scan showed that his coronary arteries were clean.397

For Jody Gorran, it took two years on the Atkins Diet before the crushing chest pain started. By then one of his coronary arteries was 99pct. blocked and his heart function was suffering for it. An immediate cardiac catheterization and stent placement may well have saved his life. In the opinion of his cardiologist, Gorran might well have otherwise had a massive heart attack and died within a short period of time. Mr. Gorran is now suing the Atkins Corporation, alleging that they knew, or should have known, that what they were saying about their diet and heart disease risk were false. He is trying to get the corporation to include warning labels on its books, website, and products that a low carbohydrate diet may be hazardous to your health--check with your physician.398

This is not the first time Atkins has been sued. When Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution first came out, a million-dollar class action suit was brought against Atkins and his publisher to recover medical expenses incurred by the diets side effects.399 A Brooklyn Assemblyman on Atkins who nearly died after a heart attack sued Atkins and the publisher for publishing the book without regard to the safety, truth or accuracy of the statements contained in the book.400 The book Nutrition Cultism cites 3 occasions in which Atkins was sued and the cases were each settled out of court in favor of the plaintiffs.401

When the chief health officer for the State of Maryland,2 was asked Whats wrong with the Atkins Diet He replied Whats wrong with... taking an overdose of sleeping pills You are placing your body in jeopardy. He continued Although you can lose weight on these nutritionally unsound diets, you do so at the risk of your health and even your life.3

The Chair of Harvards nutrition department went on record before a 1973 U.S. Senate Select Committee investigating fad diets. The Atkins Diet is nonsense... Any book that recommends unlimited amounts of meat, butter, and eggs, as this one does, in my opinion is dangerous. The author who makes the suggestion is guilty of malpractice.4

The Chair of the American Medical Associations Council on Food and Nutrition testified before the Senate Subcommittee as to why the AMA felt they had to formally publish an official condemnation of the Atkins Diet. A careful scientific appraisal was carried out by several council and staff members, aided by outside consultants. It became apparent that the Atkins diet as recommended poses a serious threat to health.5

The warnings from medical authorities continue to this day. People need to wake up to the reality, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop writes, that the Atkins Diet is unhealthy and can be dangerous.6

The worlds largest organization of food and nutrition professionals,7 calls the Atkins Diet a nightmare of a diet.8 The official spokesperson of the American Dietetic Association elaborated. The Atkins Diet and its ilk--any eating regimen that encourages gorging on bacon, cream and butter while shunning apples, all in the name of weight loss--are a dietitians nightmare.9 The ADA has been warning Americans about the potential hazards of the Atkins Diet for almost 30 years now.10 Atkins dismissed such criticism as dietician talk.11 My English sheepdog, Atkins once said, will figure out nutrition before the dieticians do.12

The problem for Atkins and his sheepdog, though, is that the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious scientific body in the United States, agrees with the AMA and the ADA in opposing the Atkins Diet.13 So does the American Cancer Society.14 and the American Heart Association.15 and the Cleveland Clinic.16 and Johns Hopkins.17 and the American Kidney Fund.18 and the American College of Sports Medicine.19 and the National Institutes of Health.20

In fact there does not seem to be a single major governmental or nonprofit medical, nutrition, or science-based organization in the world that supports the Atkins Diet.21 As a 2004 medical journal review concluded, the Atkins Diet runs counter to all the current evidence-based dietary recommendations.22

A 2003 review of Atkins theories in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition concluded. When properly evaluated, the theories and arguments of popular low carbohydrate diet books... rely on poorly controlled, non-peer-reviewed studies, anecdotes and non-science rhetoric. This review illustrates the complexity of nutrition misinformation perpetrated by some popular press diet books. A closer look at the science behind the claims made for these books reveals nothing more than a modern twist on an antique food fad.23