If you thought the Atkins diet was so 2003, then get ready for phase two: Atkins, the retail phenomenon. Atkins Nutritionals, the company founded by the late Dr Robert Atkins to profit from his dietary theories, has just launched its first UK range of low-carbohydrate foods for that “controlled-carb” lifestyle.
With more than three million Britons said to be followers of Dr Atkins’ “philosophy”, the products — from breakfast bars to milkshakes, such as the Advantage Shake — are now being heavily promoted in Boots stores and health-food shops throughout the country. One store called Carbless Foods, which opened recently in the Bargate Shopping Centre in Southampton, is dedicated to selling food suitable for the Atkins diet.
These foods are not cheap. A 500g tub of bake mix will cost you £8.99 — more than twice the price of comparable non-Atkins alternatives. A packet of five 37g breakfast bars will set you back £4.99 and a 330ml carton of shake drink (of the non-milk variety) will cost £1.87. No wonder the US parent company had sales last year estimated at almost £60 million.
The range has already earned the ire of the British Dietetic Association, which accused the company of peddling a “fad diet” that took advantage of people. Many doctors, too, question the premise of the Atkins diet.
Colette Heimowitz, the company’s senior nutritionist, has spent the past few weeks briefing journalists about this “often misunderstood, misused and unjustly maligned” diet, insisting that it is supported by a large body of science. But a closer look at some of the scientific papers she cites — such as a highly supportive one in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine — reveals that their authors have “received grants or research support from the Robert C. Atkins Foundation”.
We asked Catherine Collins, the Body&Soul dietitian, to take an impartial look at the food range and to give her own objective assessment.
Collins, the chief dietitian at St George’s Hospital, South London, has closely followed the debate about low-carbohydrate diets. So does she agree with Colette Heimowitz that these products can “improve one’s overall health and wellbeing while preventing disease”? First, to the Advantage strawberry-flavour shake drink. A quick look at the ingredients list reveals just how processed these foods are. Compared with a more natural strawberry milkshake, this product sounds like it was assembled in a chemistry lab. Apart from water, milk protein concentrate and soya bean oil, this pink-coloured greasy liquid contains a host of chemical additives. The packet explains that the 330ml portion contains only 2g of “net carbs” — the carbohydrates defined by Atkins as those affecting blood sugar and which followers need to count. In total, the drink provides 181kcal (kcal is shorthand for calorie) of which 47.5 per cent come from protein, 46 per cent from fat and just 4.5 per cent from carbs.
So does Collins see any advantage to Advantage? “This is really a triumph of food processing over ‘normal’ foodstuff,” she says. “I’m not sure if it’s intended as a snack or a meal but it’s too low in calories for a complete meal replacement and too high for a ‘between-meal’ nibble.” (The company says that they are not meal replacements and recommends three proper meals a day.) A better snack, Collins suggests, would be a piece of fruit, at about 50kcal, or an Options chocolate drink (about 40kcal) or perhaps both.
Weight loss is to do with the total calories consumed not the type of calories, she says — and most dietitians would recommend a weightreducing diet of between 1,200 and 1,800kcal, according to the individual. When we asked the company to explain why the drink contained so many added chemicals, we were told that it is “carefully formulated not only to taste good but also to be free of harmful additives and have minimal impact on blood sugar ”. A spokeswoman points out that the shake contains no hydrogenated oils and trans fats, additives typically found in processed foods, and that sugar has been replaced by sucralose as well as glycerine and maltitol (a sugar alcohol).
The drink does contain plenty of added minerals and vitamins, which account for many chemicals on the list. But that does not change Collins’s view: “This drink is just too extreme; very high in protein, high in fat and negligible in carbs. A finger of Fudge and a multinutrient tablet each day from a well-known manufacturer would provide 115kcal and enhance weight loss in a more pleasurable way.”
Atkins Nutritionals, by the way, will be happy to sell you its own supplements, from £10.39 to £20.99 a pack. When we asked the company why Atkins products cost so much, we were told that the ingredients are expensive.
“As sugar, bleached flour and other sources of nutrient-void calories typically found in processed snack food are replaced in Atkins selections with more costly and more healthy substitutions, these products simply cost more to make,” the company said.
And what of the Atkins Morning Shine Breakfast Bars, made with soya protein and “pieces of real fruit”? A 37g pack contains just 2g to 3g of net carbs, compared to up to ten times as much in a more conventional breakfast bar.
As you might expect, about half of the 145kcal comes from fat. The main ingredients are white chocolate with sweeteners and soy protein crisps and granules, although the ratio of saturated to total fat is within what Collins sees as healthful ranges. Would she recommend these bars? “Any bar providing 50 per cent of its energy content from fat is difficult to reconcile within a healthy diet,” she concludes. “It’s like milk chocolate.”
Collins, you may have noticed, is not entirely convinced by the Atkins marketing machine. Asked to list her broader concerns, our dietitian continues for some time. For a start, she says, the company glosses over the fact that it has no long-term data, beyond anecdotal reports, on weight loss, unlike all large slimming clubs and even rival products such as SlimFast. (Atkins Nutritionals insists its diet is firmly supported by independent clinical tests conducted at “prestigious universities”.) Collins also believes that Atkins fails to address the medical consequences of a lifelong diet high in fat and low in fruit and vegetable intake and variety.
As it rolls out its product range across Britain, Atkins Nutritionals does not appear too concerned about the naysayers. Colette Heimowitz’s own presentation includes a telling quote from Einstein: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” True believers, it knows, will make their own way to the check-out.
Visit www.atkins.com/uk; or call 0800 5285467
