Stores shun Atkins diet food

By Sarah Harris, Daily Mail

28 August 2003

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British supermarkets are shunning new Atkins Diet food products following a series of health scares.

Atkins Nutritionals, the U.S. company behind the controversial weight loss regime, aims to launch its branded low- carbohydrate products here next year.

The range, which includes bread mix, breakfast bars, sauces and crisps, has proved extremely lucrative in the U.S., with annual sales of £64 million.

It is available in 30,000 stores there, including the Wal-Mart chain and health shops.

But there is now mounting concern over the possible dangers of the highfat, high-protein and low-carbohydrate Atkins Diet, used by stars such as Jennifer Aniston and millions of people in Britain and worldwide.

Major UK retailers say they are not planning to stock the products. Sainsbury’s warned that low-carbohydrate diets go against healthy eating advice and can be harmful in the long-term. Waitrose said it encourages customers to make their own choices and enjoy a balanced diet.

Sainsbury’s dietician Kate Arthur said: ‘Sainsbury’s supports the current UK dietary guidelines that suggest including plenty of starchy rich fruit and vegetables, with moderate-amounts of lean protein and lower fat dairy foods.

‘Carbohydrates such as bread, cereals and potatoes provide energy as well as important B vitamins, iron and fibre so eating a low carbohydrate diet may mean your diet is being nutritionally compromised.’

Safeway said it would not be stocking the Atkins products while Tesco said: ‘We do not endorse any specific diet. Our aim is to offer customers a wide choice of foods to help them eat a healthy balanced diet’.

Somerfield and Boots said they had no plans to stock the Atkins products and Holland & Barrett has not yet decided. Asda, which is owned by Wal-Mart, also said no decision had been made.

Atkins Nutritionals denied the foods were being snubbed but refused to name the UK stores with which they are negotiating. A spokesman said: ‘Our experience is that the public and retailers are very keen to have the brands over here.’

Invented 30 years ago by cardiologist Dr Robert Atkins, the phenomenally-popufoodlar [sic] diet is based on the theory that cutting carbohydrate intake alters the body chemistry, turning it from a carbohydrate-burning machine into one that burns fat.

Dr Atkins, who died earlier this year, made the majority of his multi-million pound fortune from the nutritional supplements.

The Atkins Diet book has sold 1.1 million copies here since it was published in 1999.

The updated paperback version, released in January, is selling 120,000 a month.

The runaway success of the Atkins industry has been blamed for a slump in sales of pasta, potatoes and rival slimming products on both sides of the Atlantic.

But experts in the U.S. and Britain have branded the diet potentially dangerous and scientifically incorrect.

British doctors have blamed it for a worrying increase in the problem of constipation – a key factor in causing bowel cancer. Other dangers are said to include kidney problems.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the diet may have been a factor in the death of 16-year-old Rachel Huskey, from Missouri.

Atkins Nutritionals denies that there are health risks.

Starchy Rich Fruit ??? Fruit does not contain a significant amount of starch, if any. Most (Avocados, Olives, and such excepted) are almost pure sugar.



If you listened to these loons, you'd think meat had no vitamins/minerals. In fact, most meats have MORE B Vitamins and Iron than Starchy Foods...Meat contains as much as 25%RDA of some Vitamins and Mineral, compared to <5% in Whole Grain Bread and <3% in White Bread [and that is with extra vitamins/minerals added -- Enriched Flour.] About the only mineral that Bread provides alot of: SODIUM. Cereals are naturally void of nutrients. You know how Cereal makers make their cereals so high in Vitamins ??? They add ground up Vitamins. Eating Bread/Cereals with ground up Vitamins in them is no different than eating a Twinkie with a Multivitamin stuffed in the center. Hell, I could bake a Double Chocolate Doughnut with 100%RDA of every Vitamin and Mineral, but it would still be a deep fried lump of dough. About the only Vitamin Potatoes provide alot of is Vitamin C...You can get many times the amount found in potatoes by eating Broccoli or Cauliflower...both of which are common in LC Diets.



Slimfast, the Wheat, Potato, and Sugar Industries are losing money...I can't think of anyone more deserving.



Constipation ??? What are they smoking ??? Before I went on Atkins, I ate a diet of 60-80% Carbs, 5-25% Fat, and 10-15% Protein...I would go several days without going #2 (sitting down.) Since going on Atkins, I have started going SEVERAL TIMES A DAY. If anything, eating Low-Carb has cured my Constipation [caused by eating too much Starch.]



It was not...The girl had a heart arythmia...which could have been caused by any number of things including drug use, bulimia, or genetics. The electrolyte imbalance could have been the result of drug use, bulimia, or resuscitation drugs. Her Calacium was dangerously low. My understanding of Calcium is that if the body lacks enough serum Calcium, it will get what it needs from the bones, causing them to thin. You are not going to run out of bones in two weeks. Your body has enough Calcium to last quite a while. This leads me to believe that drugs [possibly resusciatation drugs as some have suggested] caused the imbalance. BTW, The doctor who made the claim that the diet killed her never even examined her.

This is so appalling. It is like a conspiracy. But what does Sainsburys have to fear from these self-styled experts? (prophets of a failed religion) The tragedy is that to some extent the marketplace will not correct this. UK lc'ers will buy their Atkins stuff elsewhere, sothe retailers will lose a bit, but odds are all of you will still buy your meat cheese porkrinds etc at Boots or wherever, so they won't really be punished. What an absolute travesty.

I think that in less than a year these stores will be selling Atkins or an equivalent product. They just won't annouce it. The demand for the products will have to be met.

Hmmm...how many of these chains who are shunning low carb products due to "health concerns" also sell cigarettes and candy? No? How about carbonated drinks full of sugar? How about over the counter diet pills and laxatives that anorexics and bulemics often abuse?
If they're going to start refusing to carry products based on their possible health risks, they might want to take a hard look at the things that they already carry that are far from healthful. If they don't, then concern for the health of the public is far from their primary motive.

They'd better stop selling all their meats, veggies, eggs, and dairy products, too, cuz that's what I ate on Atkins!

If a person dies because of massive protein intake and not enough carbs, isn't meat the MOST available to a teenager? As opposed to overpriced franken food (bad tasting, for the most part,IMHO).

Jinx

I had a wierd fantasy about this - suppose they BAN the potato? Plenty of health reasons to do so - it's a "gateway tuber" masquerading as a vegetable. Most studies show (the ones I just made up) that most people who eat pizza and krispy kremes started their life of addiction with mashed potatoes. Plus, look what it would do for the economy - the street value of a bag of potatoes would be in the hundreds. Whole armies of agents could have fulfilling careers scouring remote valleys for hidden potato growing "operations." The possibilities are endless. Bill