It is estimated that more than 15 million Americans follow Dr. Robert Atkins’ diet recommendations of following a high-protein, low-carb diet in order to shed unwanted pounds.

Atkins’ diet philosophy has turned into a dieting revolution starting with his first book, "Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution," released in 1972. Since then, Atkins companies have seen millions in dollars of sales of low-carb and carb-counting products.

However, the popularity of the Atkins diet is worrying food companies that depend on consumers’ hunger for high-carb foods like pasta, pizza, cakes, cooking and cereals. They say that Atkins’ teachings falsely criticize food groups that make up the American diet and are contributing to the decrease in U.S. sales of some bread and cereal products.

Federal health officials are beginning talks to revise the Food Guide Pyramid, which recommends six to 11 servings of bread, cereals, rice and pasta each day. Some officials are calling for changes to cut back on the servings of grains and remove them from the foundation.

In response, food groups such as the Wheat Foods Council are attacking the Atkins diet, saying that it increasing the risk of health problems including cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, kidney damage and some cancers.

Additionally, they say that the Atkins diet can cause headaches, constipation and bad breath, and that obesity is not tied to carbohydrates, but rather to not enough exercise and overeating.

Consumers may already be straying from a grain-based diet. According to a government survey, spending for ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, pasta, flour, flour mixes and bakery products dropped from 2000 to 2001, while spending for meat, poultry, fish and eggs increased for the third straight year.

Further, the consumption of wheat in the United States dropped four percent from 1997 to 2001.

Until recently researchers have rejected the validity of the Atkins diet. However, now scientists are saying that the ideas may be valid, and the over-consumption of carbohydrate-laden products are to blame for the obesity epidemic facing America.

However, an Atkins representative said that Atkins is not looking for trouble with the food companies and that the diet-followers have an occasional doughnut or cookie.

Reuters Health March 17, 2003

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This is the first report I am aware of that indicates our country is finally starting to catch on. It really brightened up my day to learn that wheat consumption has dropped by four percent in the past few years. Very encouraging. People are actually starting to get the message. With over two-thirds of the country either obese or overweight and over one-third obese, people are starting to catch on to the truth. It is rare when a person doesn’t love grains and wheat so it is particularly encouraging to see this downward trend. It has to be real otherwise the food companies wouldn’t be after Atkins. I wonder if they will start coming after me when my new book, "The No-Grain Diet," is released later this month. Dr. Atkins is an amazing pioneer and has been a major advocate of this approach for many decades. It is unfortunate that most of his approach wasn’t more precise though. The major reason the Atkins program works is that it restricts grains. By definition a low-carb diet is a low-grain diet, but a problem results when one is a carb type according to their Metabolic Type. These individuals actually need a very high-carb diet, perhaps as high as 75 percent carbs. The only difference is that the carbs need to come exclusively from vegetables. While these individuals may initially lose weight with the Atkins approach, they will almost universally be failures on his program. This is because they are designed to be far closer to vegetarians with very low fat and protein intakes. Their problem is that they need to eliminate grains and crank up their exercise. Protein Metabolic Type, on the other hand, can actually do quite well on the Atkins program and make up the bulk of his major success stories. It is my sincere hope that the publication of my book will help to clear up the major source of confusion in this area and further contribute to a massive decline in grain consumption in this country. Related Articles: The No-Grain Diet Insulin and Its Metabolic Effects