New Diet Revolution

Robert Atkins

Well, you can't beat the Atkins Diet for sheer number of coverts. Millions of people are following the Atkins Nutritional Plan, and all of them seem to be losing weight. The only “official” bureau to have come out against it has been exposed as a lunatic fringe of militant vegan doctors, and once again all is right with the world. Or is it?

I'm not going to deny that the book is accurate in its claims of helping people lose weight. It sometimes seems that everyone in the country knows two or three people who are on the Atkins Diet. I know, casually, seven (and those are just the ones whose eating habits I know). Of those seven, I know four who have been on it for more than two months, and all four have lost significant amounts of weight. Can't argue with stats like that. And most of the scientific stuff the late doctor puts in the book is backed up with an almost endless list of scientific papers and abstracts listed in the back. Hard to argue with that. In those places where the science is still somewhat in the future, he goes to pains to point that out, saying certain things are still in question, or are still being researched. All well and good, and on the surface it looks fantastic.

The problem is that one irrationality can throw the whole thing into question. And there is one. It is a glaring one for any professional skeptic. (Before writing this review, I wrote to the Atkins Center folks for confirmation that the Atkins people espouse the beliefs below, and I received a response in the affirmative.) Dr. Atkins and his professional followers are believers in what professional followers of urban legends have come to call the Aspartame Lie. There is a small, and very vocal, segment of the American population who believe, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, that aspartame is the Great Satan, and causes everything from cancer to multiple sclerosis. All claims have been refuted multiple times (Amazon does not allow the posting of exterior links in reviews, or I'd send the same fifty or so links I sent to the Atkins Center), and yet Atkins holds onto the belief, saying there are “questions about aspartame's safety.” One has to think that if the man is still holding to a view espoused only by a few so far out on the lunatic fringe they're liable to fall off a tassel, there may be some other urban legend-style skeletons farther down in the man's closet. Everyone reading this book, and adopting the Atkins Nutritional Plan, is encouraged to do as much research as necessary to convince yourself that he's on the money. And because of the belief Atkins holds in the junk science of the dangers of aspartame, “none” is not, in any way, an option. (no rating.)