Anti-Atkins Crowd Just Doesn't Get It

December 6, 2004

The radical anti-Atkins crowd is at it again expressing their open and honest disdain for the highly successful low-carb lifestyle that has helped literally millions upon millions of people around the world lose weight. And with each new negative story released, they're beginning to sound a lot like the little boy who cried wolf.

In an inauspicious article in The New York Times on Sunday entitled "Is the Low-Carb Boom Over?" the author writes that the seeming lack of interest and sales of low-carb products means the "fad" of eating the Atkins way is going away for good.

If Dr. Atkins were still alive today, I'm sure he would be laughing at this notion because it is practically the same thing they told him for decades before the Atkins diet blasted off to success beginning in the late 1990s.

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. Eating low-carb has become such a way of life for so many people, myself included, that it is not going anywhere. When I committed myself to eating low-carb as a permanent lifestyle change on January 1, 2004, it was not a half-hearted change. I am a lifetime low-carb eater now and until the day I die because I am living proof of its life-changing effects.

In the 11 months I have been doing Atkins, I have lost a mind-boggling 170 pounds, shrunk my waist size by 20 inches and my shirt size from 5X to smaller than an XL, as well as gained an enormous amount of energy I have never ever had in my entire life. At the age of 32, I have never felt as good as I do at this very moment. And I owe it all to educating myself properly about what Atkins is and what it is not.

What I have found since I have been doing Atkins is just how ignorant people really are about what eating low-carb is all about. The montra that it's a "bacon and eggs" diet is about all that most people know about this miraculous weight loss and weight maintenance program. But it's so much more than that.

I recently won a weight loss contest on a local talk radio station. One of the prizes was an "Atkins-friendly" meal each week for an entire year from a takeout steak restaurant. When I went to redeem my first coupon on Friday night, I was anxious to see what made it "Atkins-friendly." When I got the food home, I noticed it had 5 ounces of steak and 5 ounces of chicken in addition to a garden salad with ranch dressing. Yummy. That's only about 4 net carbs!

But imagine my surprise when in this "Atkins-friendly" meal I also had the biggest baked potato you've ever seen in your life. Are you kidding me? Don't they know potatoes are the antithesis of anyone doing a low-carb diet? To make matters worse, they also included a freshly-baked roll dripping with butter. I could have the butter, but not the bread! If I was new to Atkins and didn't know any better, I probably would have eaten all of this "Atkins-friendly" meal thinking I would be okay. But that would have been a mistake.

And therein lies the problem. Companies and people in general have an idea in their mind of what low-carb means, but the term has become so convoluted now by people who don't know what they're talking about that the general public is easily confused.

In the New York Times piece, the author begins by detailing the failure of a new low-carb pasta that was approved to have the Atkins label put on it last July. She seems to take great pleasure in announcing that "boxes of the stuff are gathering dust in warehouses" because "the unusually chewy pasta" did not sell as well as expected.

But guess what? That's business. You come up with an idea and you market it to see if the consumer wants it. In this case, people eating low-carb did not feel the need to have a pasta alternative. As a former pasta junkie, including what used to be my most favorite food -- macaroni and cheese, I can honestly say that I do not miss eating pasta one bit. I don't miss it and I don't miss bread either. You lose your craving for these foods as you stick with eating low-carb as a lifestyle. But, if the urge arises for one of these items, it's nice to know there are low-carb versions available to consumers.

Although the anti-Atkins crowd and their willing accomplices in the mainstream press are quick to point out that Atkins had to "admit defeat" with the failed pasta, the company that has helped millions upon millions learn about a great-tasting weight loss and weight maintenance alternative to the bland low-fat diets out there is still trucking along.

In fact, in the November/Demember 2004 Atkins catalog, guess what is featured on the front cover? You got it, it's delicious low-carb pasta. Atkins Quick Quisine Frozen Ravioli and Tortellini to be exact that includes flavors such as Four-Cheese, Beef and Chicken Parmigiana. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it! For 9 net carbs, you can't beat these options for people watching their carbohydrate intake.

But there's more than low-carb pasta available to people doing Atkins. There are delicious meal replacement and breakfast bars in scrumptious flavors and loaded with vitamins and nutrients like Chocolate Chip Granola and Peanut Butter Granola, Trail Mix, Triple Berry, Blueberry Muffin and more. These great tasting items complement the entire selection of low-carb Atkins products from pancake mixes to pita bread to pizza crust and cookies. The product selection from Atkins makes it so easy to choose your favorite foods without having to worry about them containing excessive carbohydrates that prevent your from losing weight. I am thankful for the options available to those of us eating low-carb.

But, once again, the author of the New York Times story laments the so-called glut of low-carb products on the shelves of grocery stores nationwide. She noted that so many companies began trying to mimic the Atkins products that now we have nearly 4,000 new "low-carb versions" of foods on the shelf that were not there two years ago.

Yet most of these companies don't understand what low-carb means. I remember seeing a "low-carb" Hamburger Helper box on the shelf when it came out earlier this year and could not believe it contained 24 net carbs per serving. While this might be lower in carbs than the regular Hamburger Helper, it certainly would not be described by me as "low-carb."

And then there's the new C-2 from Coca Cola. They brag about how it has "half the carbs" of a regular Coke. While that is true, it still has 19 net carbs per serving. And since a 20 ounce bottle of C-2 has 2 1/2 servings, that amounts to an eye-popping 48 sugar carbs in this so-called low-carb Coke. It's these kind of dishonest gimmicks from companies trying to take advantage of uninformed low-carb dieters that angers me to no end.

That's why I stick mostly with the Atkins brands because I know I can trust them to be low-carb and have the right ingredients in them. If there seems to be too many low-carb varieties on the market today, don't blame Atkins. They only account for about 175 products, which is less than 5 percent of what is on store shelves today. Considering Atkins is the industry leader, that's a very small inventory of products. But I have found that they only focus on the products that they know people doing their diet will enjoy purchasing again and again.

If you are one of those who believes the low-carb industry is "deeply wounded," as the New York Times story suggests, by the scare tactics being used by doctors conducting studies on the effects of low-carb versus low-fat, then you would be shocked to learn that there are millions upon millions of us out here who are living healthy lives and enjoying every delicious bite of our low-carb living.

While the story bemoans that a research firm found that only half of the people who were on a low-carb diet in January have stuck with it through September, I'd say that's a very high number of people who have given it a shot and have lost weight as a result. That means that half of those doing low-carb as a New Year's resolution in January are still on it, myself included. I would be very interested in that same research firm conducting another survey of people in January 2005 to find out how many more people will start Atkins for the first time because of the enormous success it has been for people like me.

Diets fluctuate because people have a different level of devotion to them based on their own personal weight loss needs. For me, I knew I could not remain at 410 and expect to get any healthier. My cholesterol and blood pressure were getting out of control and I did not even know it. Three months after I started Atkins and had lost about 75 pounds, my doctor gave me the news that I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. But what he said next nearly floored me.

He looked me right in the eyes and told me, "Had you not started losing weight, you were right on the verge of suffering a fatal heart attack!" Whoa! That'll wake up and motivate even the weakest person out there to do what you have to do to return to good health. And that's exactly what I have done.

While Atkins Nutritionals, the company that was created in 1989 by Dr. Atkins to sell products based on his popular diet, has seen a decrease in sales this year, that does not mean the Atkins diet is going anywhere. Go to any Wal-Mart in the United States in the pharmacy section and you tell me if you think Atkins is fading away. Not hardly.

Hopefully, others who have done as well as I have will step forward and defend the Atkins lifestyle because it has changed them as much as it has changed me. I'm a strong believer in it because I am literally a new man because of it.

If you think low-carb is going away anytime soon, then try telling that to potato and bread companies. Their decline in sales is a direct result of so many of us who have given them up for better low-carb foods.

And how about the drastic decline in support for other weight loss programs like Weight Watchers, whose stock is down 16 percent since late 2002? Do you think they believe low-carb has had no affect on them? Why else would they now offer a "low-carb version" of their diet? You see, everybody wants to do low-carb because they know it is the only effective means for losing and keeping weight off for good.

Dr. Stuart Fischer, who worked with Dr. Atkins for nine years, is described by the New York Times as saying "low-carb offerings aren't very effective at helping people lose weight and eat healthier."

Oh, really. Then explain how I've lost my 170 pounds, Dr. Fischer. I'm waiting with hushed anticipation for this explanation. Just as the boy who cried wolf so many times that he eventually got ignored, the same is happening with all of these low-carb naysayers who obviously have nothing better to do with their time and resources than to criticize something wonderful that has and is continuing to help the masses lose weight.

As if everything I have said was not enough evidence of the benefits of eating Atkins, a new study that will soon be released to the American Journal of Physiology by a team of scientists at the University of Southampton School of Medicine shows that pregnant women who eat low-carb during their pregnancy have babies that show lower liver triglyceride levels as an adult and greater fat burning capability than babies from pregnant women who eat a low-fat diet.

Because of the millions of Americans who develop heart disease, which is related to both triglyceride levels and fat burning capability in the body, this study provides even more evidence that eating low-carb is good for anyone and everyone.

Are you interested in learning more about doing Atkins and making low-carb living your way of life? Go to the Atkins web site for more information on the specific plan that I used to lose my weight or take a look at an excellent low-carb magazine called Low Carb Living for great low-carb tips and recipes that will get you started right on the low-carb option that is best for you.

Jimmy Moore