ROBERT ATKINS: Robert Atkins, who has died aged 72 after sustaining head injuries in a fall outside his New York clinic, was arguably the most influential diet guru in the world. He sold more than 10 million copies of his book, Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution, which might have been read by as many as 30 million people. In the last decade he was cited as one of the 10 most influential people in the world.
Just over a year ago Atkins suffered a heart attack but, as he pointed out, this was caused by an infection and had nothing to do with the Atkins diet, which he had followed for 39 years.
Atkins was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of a restaurateur, and studied at the University of Michigan and Cornell University medical college, from which he graduated in 1955. For a while he worked as a cardiologist in New York, but became increasingly interested in complementary medicine and nutrition after his success as a diet guru, founding the Atkins centre for complementary medicine in 1976.
He believed he knew how to save the Western world from its twin - and, he believed, linked - epidemics of obesity and diabetes. He claimed that he had unlocked the mystery of why we put on weight and, importantly, why we find it so difficult to lose the weight we put on. The Atkins diet had many celebrity followers. Geri Halliwell and Julia Roberts lost weight and kept it off, as did Victoria Beckham.
Atkins wrote seven bestselling books based on his diet, beginning with Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution (1972). A multimillionaire, he sold low carbohydrate foods through his company Atkins Nutritionals and often appeared on US talk shows. At the time of his death he believed that the medical establishment was finally coming round to his way of thinking.
One of the key things about the Atkins diet, he liked to say, was that the dieter did not need to feel hungry. "If you believe that weight loss requires self-deprivation," he told prospective followers, "I'm going to teach you otherwise." Atkins's dieting method was fairly simple. He believed that if you cut down radically on carbohydrates you would lose weight, even if you ate steaks, chops, fried eggs and bacon. Fat was not a problem. Carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates, were. Calorie intake, Atkins said, was relatively unimportant. "Carbohydrate is the bad guy."
This was a diet for the sedentary West, a diet which contained protein, vitamins and minerals, but which was low on fuel. It was expensive, a diet for rich people who did not do very much. But it worked.
The diet had its origins in Atkins's own life. As a chubby young doctor in the early 1960s, he had looked in the mirror and been shocked to see he had a triple chin. He wanted to lose weight, but felt that conventional diets would not work. He knew that, like most people, he would not be able to stick to them and would put weight back on.
But then he read an article in the journal of the American Medical Association about a low-carbohydrate diet. "It was so simple," he said. "It was the only diet that looked like I'd enjoy being on it. I ate a lot of meat, and a lot of shrimp, and a lot of duck, and a lot of fish." The diet worked.
The key to the Atkins diet, its founder believed, was insulin, which he called "the fattening hormone". Carbohydrates, he said, tamper with the insulin in our bodies. According to Atkins, when we eat too much carbohydrate the pancreas begins to over-produce insulin, which metabolises blood glucose, causing us to feel hungry all the time.
Atkins leaves his wife Veronica, whom he married at the age of 56, and his 93-year-old mother Norma.
Robert C Atkins, nutritionist, born October 17th, 1930; died April 17 th, 2003