Good news about Atkins! NY Times article

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(This is not perfect, but it's a good start!!)

 

Make That Steak a Bit Smaller, Atkins Advises Today & #146;s Dieters

 

January 18, 2004

By MARIAN BURROS

 

 

 

 

 

After advising dieters for years to satisfy their hunger

with liberal amounts of steak, eggs and other saturated

fats, the promoters of the Atkins diet now say that people

on their plan should limit the amount of red meat and

saturated fat they eat.

 

Responding to years of criticism from scientists that the

Atkins version of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat regimen

might lead to heart disease and other health problems, the

director of research and education for Atkins Nutritionals,

Colette Heimowitz, is telling health professionals in

seminars around the country that only 20 percent of a

dieter's calories should come from saturated fat. Atkins

Nutritionals was set up by Dr. Robert C. Atkins to sell

Atkins products and promote the diet.

 

An Atkins spokesman said Ms. Heimowitz has been giving

these seminars for five years, but that they do not

represent a departure from the original premise of the

diet.

 

Atkins representatives say that Dr. Atkins, who died last

year, always maintained that people should eat other food

besides red meat, but had difficulty getting that message

out. There has been a revision in expressing how the diet

should be followed, not in the diet itself, they say.

 

But in their consumer publications, Atkins officials have

never set limits on saturated fat, and Atkins is widely

known as the diet that lets you eat all the meat you want.

 

Dr. Atkins did more than anyone else to popularize the

idea that dieters could eat fat and lose weight. As

millions followed his advice, sales of red meat soared and

steakhouses grew in popularity. His book " Dr. Atkins' New

Diet Revolution " has sold 15 million copies. Atkins

Nutritionals reported $100 million in revenues for 2002.

 

The change comes as Atkins faces competition from other

popular low-carbohydrate diets that call for less saturated

fat. A book on one such plan, the South Beach Diet, came

out in April 2003 and has sold more than five million

copies. Atkins representatives made the revision, Ms.

Heimowitz said, because " we want physicians to feel

comfortable with this diet, and we want people who are

going to their physicians with this diet to feel

comfortable. "

 

The Atkins regimen remains a high-fat diet. But Atkins

officials are specifying the amount that should be

saturated - the kind that comes from meat, cheese and

butter - and the amount that should be unsaturated - the

kind that comes from most vegetable oils and fish. The

revision places more emphasis on fish and chicken.

 

Paul D. Wolff, chief executive of Atkins Nutritionals, said

the company is trying to get its message out clearly. " The

way the book was promoted was, here's the program that is

counterintuitive, " he said. " `You can eat a lot of bacon

and steak.' It was the marketing of the book. The media saw

it as a sexy story. "

 

" Perhaps what was communicated in the past was unclear, " he

said. " We would agree with that. "

 

So why not tell people straight out that you can't eat all

the steak and eggs you want, Mr. Wolff was asked.

 

" Interesting question, " he said as he hung up to catch a

plane.

 

The clarification came as a surprise to Atkins dieters who

were interviewed. " A lot of people will be totally

shocked, " said Ellen Bain, a graphic designer in Brooklyn.

The message she said she had taken away from reading Atkins

books and Web sites was: " The fat in the diet is very good

for you; it doesn't make any difference what kind of fat it

is. There are no limits of any kind in the meat department,

like steak and eggs for breakfast, a burger for lunch and

beef stir-fry for dinner. "

 

Ms. Bain, who said she has lost 48 pounds on the Atkins

diet since July 1, said, " Is it possible that now they are

revising their thinking? "

 

Beef, pork, lamb and butter were on the list of " foods you

may eat liberally " in " The New Diet Revolution, " first

published in 1992; its update is No. 1 on the New York

Times advice, how-to and miscellaneous paperback

best-seller list.

 

" Atkins for Life, " Dr. Atkins's newest book, published a

few months before his death, says: " You should always eat a

balance of different types of natural fat. " The precise

proportion of saturated and unsaturated fat was

unspecified, Ms. Heimowitz said, because " trying to tell

consumers to do math is futile. "

 

Russ Klein, a marketing executive, who has been on Atkins

since Dec. 21, interpreted the phrase " foods you may eat

liberally " to mean " eat until you are full. " And, he added,

" I think it's probably true you can eat all the red meat

you want. "

 

Ms. Heimowitz said people read the phrase " eat liberally "

as a license to gorge on red meat. " Not making a

distinction between one kind of protein and another, that

was a mistake, " Ms. Heimowitz, " and that is why we had to

write another book, to get the story straight. "

 

But, she added, " Even in the old book it says `eat until

you are satisfied but not stuffed.' "

 

Total fat in the revised Atkins diet remains much higher

than other diets recommend: 60 percent of the calories are

still derived from fat, twice the level recommended by the

Agriculture Department. Of that, one-third can be saturated

fat - also twice the level recommended by the department.

The rest should be poly- and mono-unsaturated fats.

 

That means that a person who eats 1,500 calories a day

could eat a 17-ounce strip steak every day, according to

Mindy Hermann, a registered dietitian. After the diet's

first phase, the amount of fat allowed drops to 55 percent,

but the percentage of saturated fat stays the same.

 

Dr. Atkins said that carbohydrates caused obesity and

eating fat helped regulate levels of insulin, which helps

produce body fat. Ms. Heimowitz said, " Saturated fat isn't

as much of an issue when carbohydrates are controlled; it's

only dangerous in excess when carbs are high. "

 

But Dr. Frank M. Sacks, a professor of cardiovascular

disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health,

scoffed at those scientific claims. " What they are saying

is ridiculous, " he said. The revision, he added, " has

nothing to do with science; it has to do with public

relations and politics. "

 

The medical establishment largely disputes Dr. Atkins's

reasoning and says that high levels of saturated fats are

dangerous.

 

Dr. George L. Blackburn, associate director in the division

of nutrition at Harvard Medical School, said the diet's new

version is " definitely healthier, " but that " all of the

studies we have on Atkins are based on the Atkins of the

1970's: eat all you can as long as you keep carbs out. "

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/nyregion/18DIET.html?

ex=1075468554 & ei=1 & en=81692b9a8b3f5e81