Is it just possible that Dr. Robert C. Atkins was right? That his high-fat, low-carb plan, ridiculed for 30 years as dangerous nonsense, actually is a good, safe way to lose weight?
The dietary elite are not ready to change their collective mind, but half a dozen or so new studies have taken an objective look at the presumed evils of Atkins. The results have been little short of astonishing:
* During a few months on the Atkins diet, people lose about twice as much as on the standard low-fat, high-carbohydrate approach recommended by most health organizations.
* They do so without seeming to drive up their risk of heart disease. Their cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and ominous bloodstream inflammation generally improve, perhaps even more than on the standard diet.
* They appear to lose more weight even while actually consuming more calories than people on a so-called healthy diet.
All the experiments were short and small. None by itself would make a big stir. But together, they undermine much of what mainstream medicine long assumed about the Atkins diet.
"Some scientists are dismayed by the data and a little incredulous about it," said Gary Foster, who runs the University of Pennsylvania's weight-loss program. "But the consistency of the results is compelling in a way that makes us think we should investigate this further."
Until now, the opinion of the medical world has been essentially unanimous: Any diet that emphasizes meat, eggs and cheese and discourages bread, rice and fruit is nutritional folly.
The American Medical Assn. set that tone a year after the book, "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," came out in 1972. Its sarcastically worded critique dismissed the diet as "potentially dangerous." It called the diet's scientific underpinning "naive" and "biochemically incorrect." And it scolded book publishers for promoting "bizarre concepts of nutrition and dieting."
On the Atkins diet, up to two-thirds of calories may come from fat -- more than double the usual recommendation -- and that violates everything medical professionals believe about healthy eating. Carbohydrates are the foundation of a good diet, most say. Eating calorie-dense fat makes people fat, and eating saturated fat is what kills them.
Despite this, Atkins' books have sold 15 million copies, uncounted millions have tried the diet, and practically everybody has heard of someone who dropped a ton of weight on the Atkins plan.
