Why I quit atkins.

More than half of all people who’ve tried low-carb diets have given up, a survey found. Is this the latest indication that the Atkins fad has peaked?

Two years ago this month, Gary Taubes kicked it off with a NYT Magazine cover story arguing that emerging science proved Atkins right and the nurtition establishment wrong. A couple small, short-term studies released shortly thereafter seemed to show he was on to something. But there were problems with the "Big Fat Lie" piece: CNN found that three of the researchers Taubes cited completely disagreed with his main premise. Worse, it turned out Taubes had claimed low-fat diets don’t work while ignoring the vast body of peer-reviewed evidence to the contrary, and more of his sources came forward to say things like "I was greatly offended by how Gary Taubes tricked us all into coming across as supporters of the Atkins diet. I think he’s a dangerous man. I’m sorry I ever talked to him."

While studies continued to show the healthfulness and effectiveness of low-fat, high-carb diets, the previously-touted Atkins studies began to degenerate: The big weight-loss difference in the six-month study evaporated after another six months, and in another it emerged that 40% of the subjects weren’t really on the diet.

At the same time, known risks such as heart disease, cancer and constipation were joined by other concerns from new studies, including bad breath, bad moods, gout, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, kidney failure, massive heart blockage and sudden death. Dr. Atkins’ own rather sudden death didn’t help matters, especially with the revelation that the diet guru was overweight (even without considering the obesity of his corpse, about which one doctor says "Any medical doctor who allowed this much fluid accumulation in a patient in 9 days should have his medical practices reviewed.") Atkins’ company began backing off the Taubes prescription of bacon cheeseburgers, claiming they never meant for people to eat so much saturated fat, but it didn’t stop a new coalition of nutritionists from branding the diet "unhealthy" and "a ripoff."

At least one new site is wholly devoted to rigorously debunking Atkins, and while we wait for that emerging science on low-carb’s long-term advantage, a new survey this year of 4,000 people across the world found that "without exception, a high complex-carbohydrate, high-fiber, high vegetable-protein diet was associated with low body-mass index (the standard measure of healthy weight). The more animal protein a person ate, the higher his or her weight."

I eat normal now, and work out, I think maintaining the same weight for the past year is good, so I’m a-ok.