A cardiologist wrote a book that started a revolution that changed the way Americans think about food. Dr. Robert C. Atkins has taught everyone that carbohydrates are the enemy. Throughout the past decade many low-carb diets have become popular, an estimated 26 million people have tried it, and marketers have been quick of capitalize on the trend. Every time you go to the grocery store or turn on the TV you can find new products that have little to no carbohydrates. .
Diets are a huge consumption phenomenon in the United States. Everyone, male and female, want to lose weight to and have bodies like the pop stars. There have been many fad diets like the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the Popsicle diet, the blood-type diet and the Hollywood weekend diet. There are also many different brands of diet pills that claim to increase your metabolism and reduce your appetite such a Dexatrim and Xenadrine. Dieting itself isn't new, but limiting carbohydrates is.
The Wheat Foods Council commissioned a Gallup poll in 1999. The telephone survey "Setting the record straight: What American's Think about Fad Diets, Nutrition Advice and Food" polled 1000 consumers. The results showed that 52% of people had dieted to lose weight and many of them said that they had cut out important foods to do so. The poll also found that 82% considered the carbohydrate heavy USDA food guide pyramid to be the basis for a healthy diet. But, 40% of them said they had tried a low-carb, high protein diet like the Atkins diet. .
The low carb diet craze took off in the nineties when Atkins published Dr. Atkins" New Diet Revolution. In 1997 the book began its five-year run on the New York Times bestseller list. This diet isn't brand new though, Atkins wrote his first book in the early 1970's but it didn't catch on until recently. During the 1980's the best selling diet book was the F-Plan Diet by Audrey Eyton. The F-Plan's idea was that eating foods like baked potatoes and other fibers filled your stomach quickly so there was less desire to overeat.
