I really hate fads. Atkins was the first. Then Caveman (which morphed into Paleo). Keto is just starting to be a bit more recognized but now I am beginning to see the Carnivore diet. Now that I am sitting here, writing and researching my own book (basically, a simplified companion book to the original “Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution”), I keep running into all these faddish buzzwords that cause me to jerk my fingers from the keyboard before I make a total ass of myself.
I have never (and will never) go on a fat fast (eating nothing but fat) or an egg fast (eating nothing but eggs) or a soup fast (diet? I have no idea what the buzzword associated with this one is) simply to lose weight. If this is what I need to do to lose weight, I might as well buy some Dexatrim and live off of Slimfast shakes (that way, all my hair can fall out like my mom’s did when that is what she resorted to for quick weight-loss).
Fad diets have been around for quite a while (I used to have a women’s style book from the 1920’s that included a “Hollywood Diet” that somehow left out the illicit drugs they were doing in Hollywood at the time). When I first hear about Dr. Atkins’ “Eat Nothing But Bacon And Lose Weight” diet, I viewed it as just another fad. This is why I refused to read any of Dr. Atkins’ books (until I had to).
Now that I have read the books, I am glad I was wrong. What Dr. Atkins did was brought the clinical ketogenic diet (which was designed in 1923 for treating epileptic patients) into the mainstream by eliminating most of the counting (he focused solely on carbohydrates) and, since most of the public would balk at remaining on such a low carbohydrate diet, revealed a pathway back to a somewhat “normal” way of eating.
If you do not know what a clinical ketogenic diet looks like, check out this page: https://charliefoundation.org/diet-plans/ (which has 5 variations of a ketogenic diet) or watch this short video from Charlie Foundation:
