The Effects of Atkins, on Bodies and Bank Accounts

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

People flirted with the Atkins no-carb regime because it offered an answer we found easier to swallow than more exercise and modest portions. And even as the diet craze subsides, it's left its marks, perhaps its stretch marks, on the American scene.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Many people embraced Atkins because they saw results.

Mr. RONESE COXON(ph): If I would have kept going, I think I would have kept losing, but I fell off of it.

NORRIS: That's Ronese Coxon of Silver Spring, Maryland, confessing to his Atkins backsliding today at a mall not far from his home. He says in the first week on the diet, he lost two pounds.

BLOCK: The next week, three more.

NORRIS: In the end, he lost 10 pounds on Atkins. Now he's up 20 pounds from his original weight, and he says his wife suffered the same reversal. So did another relative.

Mr. COXON: You should see my brother-in-law. His belly now is way bigger than it was before he did the Atkins. You know, it was just like it made him, you know, eat more, you know, after, when he quit the Atkins. Seemed like not only did he lose, but he gained like 10 more pounds now.

BLOCK: At the same mall today, 82-year-old Irving Lyon(ph) was walking for exercise. He says he doesn't regret his brief romance with the Atkins diet, even though he, too, put back on all the 20 pounds he lost on the plan.

Mr. IRVING LYON: You have to stay on it to a point to really get the benefit of it, but I enjoyed being on it. I had plenty to eat, and I felt good.

NORRIS: Some people never went on the Atkins plan themselves, but knew people who did. In Rochester, New York, today, Sheri Czarnecki(ph) said she likes the South Beach Diet better, but had a friend who swore by Atkins.

Ms. SHERI CZARNECKI: I went over to her house for dinner, and she had--she cooked, like, shrimp. It was all protein. She cooked shrimp and chicken and, like, veal, ate it in, like, this lemon butter sauce, meat, cheese, eggs. It doesn't really make your breath smell that great, either, when you don't have any.

BLOCK: For Rich Rudolph, the rise of Atkins has meant more business. As president of Rudolph Foods Company in Ohio, he saw sales of pork rinds, an Atkins favorite product, soar, and his company made sure people knew that.

Mr. RICH RUDOLPH (President, Rudolph Foods Company): We did put zero carbohydrates, a splash on the bags that indicated that they are naturally zero carbohydrate. I think that carb awareness will remain. I think people are much more aware of how many carbohydrates they do consume.

NORRIS: Rudolph said today that his business picked up by more than 20 percent at the height of the diet, and although sales of pork rinds have dipped some lately, he's selling more than before the diet swept the country.

BLOCK: On the other hand, bread companies felt an opposite effect.

NORRIS: And Julie Somers of Panera Bread said her company wasn't too worried. She says bread has been part of people's lives for thousands of years.

Ms. JULIE SOMERS (Panera Bread): It symbolically has such a role if you think about breaking bread and traditions around bread from different cultures and holidays. So it's really something that's part of people's daily lives. It's part of their culture. It's part of their traditions, and I think that it's difficult for people to give that up.

BLOCK: That's Julie Somers of Panera Bread. Yesterday, Atkins Nutritionals filed for bankruptcy in New York.

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