Atkins Nutritionals launches a new ad campaign series this month that targets both the classic Atkins Program weight loss seeker (who typically wants to lose 40 plus pounds) and is a female 35-54 years of age. Scott Parker, Atkins’ chief marketing officer says the bigger opportunity is to reach those who want to eat healthier and consume fewer sugars and carbs – men and women 25-44 years old and want to drop ten pounds. A group he estimates is four times larger than the classic Atkins customer.
Robert Atkins MD and Cardiologist first appeared on my WOR Radio program on in the late eighties; a sole voice in the nutrition space preaching the benefits of a high-protein, low-carb diet. His first book, Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution: The High Calorie Way to Stay Thin Forever published in 1972, spent five years on the New York Times best seller list and in various editions according to his biography sold greater than 15 million copies and put him on a path to publish a plethora of books and cookbooks all touting his high-protein regimen. Atkins came under severe criticism from other researchers and physicians for not having research studies to support his claims; including Dean Ornish MD and nutrition researcher who touted the opposite – that a low-protein high-carb diet could reverse heart disease.
NEW YORK – APRIL 17: Dr. Robert Atkins’ diet books are seen through the window of the pharmacy at The Atkins Center April 17, 2003 on East 55th Street in New York City. Diet doctor Robert Atkins, 72, originator of the popular high protein, low carbohydrate diet, died at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. (Photo by Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)
I interviewed Atkins and Ornish on another WOR Radio program together and they debated the issue – it was like a Jerry Springer match-up about nutrition and heart disease and both left the program declaring victory and calling into question the others’ diet scheme. Atkins died on April 17, 2003.
Parker told me by phone this morning that “there are over 80 studies supporting Atkins’ claims” with the most recent published on August 23, 2017 by the University of Florida, UF Health and The Institute on Aging, Department of Aging an Geriatric Research which reviewed 38 popular diets, then whittled down the number to seven which had been evaluated in clinical trials that met strict criteria set by researchers, and then found two that had three or more trials: Atkins and The Zone. The Atkins Diet had the most number of trials – ten, and nine out of the ten according to the research report “demonstrated clinically meaningful short-term weight loss, and six of eight long-term Atkins clinical trials demonstrated long-term weight loss”.
[“Source-timesofindia”]
