The Atkins Diet caused quite a stir in the diet world when it first came out. The first book published by Dr. Robert Atkins was published in 1972 and was entitled “Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution.” It advocated a completely different approach to weight loss. Rather than advocating the avoidance of meats and fats, the Atkins Diet promoted eating meats and fats — lots and lots of meats, meat products, and fats — while avoiding such things as fruits and vegetables. The idea flew in the face of accepted diet concepts of the time.

But the Atkins Diet was popular. It was popular because it worked. People could eat a lot and still lose weight. It was a dieter’s dream come true — for a while. Well-known doctors began to publish papers about the dangers of the Atkins Diet. They said that it would promote high cholesterol and high blood pressure followed closely by strokes, heart disease, and death.

The battle raged on! It’s been raging on for the last three decades.

The American Heart Association still doesn’t think much of the Atkins Diet. In 2006 a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said that “women reduced heart disease risk by eating more protein and fat from vegetable sources.” The conclusion was that the Atkins Diet and others like it were detrimental to women’s health.

Those who rage against the Atkins Diet say that the initial weight loss produced when a person starts the Atkins Diet is a diet phenomenon that is common to all weight loss diets and means nothing.

Most people (especially those who have never actually read one of Dr. Atkins’s books) think that going on the Atkins Diet gives them license to gorge themselves on red meat and fat. This assumption is NOT correct.

Collette Heimowitz, the director of research and education for Atkins Nutritionals, has said, “The media and opponents of Atkins often sensationalize and simplify the diet as the all-the-steak-you-can-eat diet. This has never been true.”