The company founded by the late Robert Atkins has filed for bankruptcy in New York, according to an article in the Pretoria News by Andrew Buncombe of The Independent.
How is this possible? Millions of people all over the world, including in South Africa, are ardent adherents of the Atkins low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diet. The last thing one would expect, is that the organisation that controls the Atkins Empire would run into financial problems.
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Mega-company
Starting with the publication of the first book 'The Atkins Diet Revolution' in1972, the Atkins Empire encompassed a vast network of money-making ventures. They published many books on the Atkins Diet, and manufactured high-protein, low-carbohydrate foods.
People who were frantically searching for a solution to obesity spent millions of dollars on Atkins products. So how did things go wrong?
As a dietician who has spent many years trying to warn the public about the potential dangers of low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diets, I was amazed to read about the demise of this 'old enemy'.
It is hard to believe that an empire endorsed by celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Gerri Halliwell and Minnie Driver could be a failure and lose money.
Possible reasons for the demise
So what caused this amazing decline in the Atkins Company fortunes? There are a variety of possibilities.
Atkins' example
When Dr Robert Atkins passed away after a fall in which he injured his head two years ago, this messiah of weight loss, weighed 120 kg. With a BMI of 37,4, Atkins was seriously obese.
Critics of his diet had a field day publicising the fact that Atkins had himself not benefited from the diet regimen he propounded for more than 30 years. This negative publicity may have rubbed off on his empire and his products.
Competition
Many new diet fads like the South Beach Diet, and local variations such as 'Die Dieet Waarvan Almal Praat' climbed on the Atkins bandwagon and initiated vigorous advertising campaigns.
The competition may have undermined Atkins' supremacy as the only proponent of high-fat, high-protein diets.
Negative effects
Then there are the negative effects associated with the Atkins diet that may have started to influence public perception.
On individual level, dieters who stay on the diet experience negative effects such as constipation, foul breath, gout, nausea, gallstones, raised blood fat levels, deficiencies and kidney disease.
If these side effects don't put them off, many dieters find that they just cannot sustain eating only protein and fat for long periods. Once they stop using the Atkins diet, they tend to regain most of their hard-lost fat, and often gain even more than they lost in the first place.
Lawsuits
More public expressions of dissatisfaction with the side effects of the Atkins diet have also been well publicised.
Last year, the BBC reported that Jody Gorran, of the USA, was intending to sue the estate of the late Dr Atkins for $28,000, claiming that the Atkins Diet had caused his cholesterol levels to rise to dangerous levels.
Dr Gorran started using the Atkins diet in 2001 to lose weight. After two months on the diet, Gorran's cholesterol levels rose from a healthy 146 mg per decilitre to 230 mg per decilitre, a level that is considered dangerous.
By 2003, Gorran was experiencing chest pain and went for a medial examination. Doctors found that one of his major arteries was nearly completely blocked and performed an angioplasty.
When Gorran stopped using the Atkins diet and went back to eating a balanced, varied diet, his cholesterol levels dropped down to the normal value of 146 mg per decilitre again.
Gorran, who is of the opinion that the Atkins diet should carry a health warning, took the matter to court.
The American Heart Association did not comment on the lawsuit, but stated, "Eating large amounts of high-fat foods for a sustained period raises the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer".
Cumulative effect
If we consider the combined bad publicity of Dr Atkins' massive weight at death, the lawsuits, pressure from competition and dieters' individual experiences, it is understandable that the Atkins Empire is crumbling.
What now?
So what should the public do now? I would hope that anyone who wants or needs to lose weight would turn to sensible diets and exercise to shed kilos. But many people still want a quick fix. Modern dieters are often not prepared to be patient and to put some effort into weight loss. They want results and they want them pronto.
I imagine that dieters the world over will be trying out the latest crazes, the latest diets that promise them instant weight loss, and the latest pills and potions that seductively lure them into spending large amounts of money while they run after the phantom of quick weight loss.
If you are a disillusioned Atkins dieter, please be sensible this time around. Use a varied, energy-reduced diet that includes all the food groups, and combine it with regular aerobic exercise to lose weight. You may lose slowly, but the weight you lose will stay off and you will avoid getting trapped in the vicious cycle of 'yo-yo dieting'. – (Dr Ingrid van Heerden, DietDoc)
(Reference: A Buncombe (2005). Slim pickings: Atkins firm goes broke. Pretoria News, 4 August 2005; BBC News (2004). Atkins dieter sues after heart op. http://news.bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/health/3753581.stim)
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