Review by Booklist Review
Just when it seems as if everyone agrees that dietary fat is the ultimate nutritional no-no, the best-selling Atkins returns to insist that sugar, refined white flour, and carbohydrate-based junk food are far more harmful to most Americans than steak and salmon, eggs and butter. New Diet Revolution proposes a four-stage program designed to liberate carbo-junkies from their addiction by helping them (1) lose weight by cutting their carbohydrate intake to a level that produces "benign dietary ketosis (ketosis/lipolysis)" and (2) develop lifelong eating habits that maintain lower weight and better health. Atkins calls the metabolic mechanisms he blames for most obesity "diet-related disorders": hyperinsulinism, with its connection to hypoglycemia and adult-onset diabetes; yeast infections; and food intolerances. In addition to restricting carbohydrates, Atkins encourages consistent exercise and use of a wide variety of vitamin and mineral supplements to improve fitness as well as weight loss. (Atkins practices "complementary medicine," which seeks to blend all healing arts and to "select the safest therapies first," as in preferring "nutritional pharmacology" to drug therapy.) Establishment institutions such as the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, and the National Institutes of Health are firmly committed to the low-fat side of this argument, but Atkins has some 25,000 patients, the fans of his syndicated radio program, the Literary Guild (featured alternate), and a committed publisher (a 75,000-copy first printing) on his side. His latest effort includes menus and recipes, a carbohydrate gram counter, and scientific references. (Reviewed June 1, 1992)087131679XMary Carroll
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Twenty years after publication of his bestselling Diet Revolution , Dr. Atkins is back and ready to raise a new ruckus. Once again, he contends that weight gain has little to do with fat intake; indeed, he will demonstrate ``how much fat you can burn off, while eating liberally, even luxuriously.''79 He encourages dieters to revel in traditional sources of protein like red meat, and to eat eggs and bacon for breakfast82-3 . Rapid weight loss, he promises, will be achieved through his 14-day ``induction'' diet, in which almost all carbohydrates are virtually banned from the table, forcing the body to go into a fat-burning metabolic state called ketosis. He still urges broad-based vitamin supplements to take up any nutritional slack. So what's changed in 20 years? Atkins says he now is more interested in ``complete wellness'' than in dropping pounds quickly; he stresses that the ``induction'' is not to be considered a lifetime regimen unless, of course, the dieter has particularly stubborn ``metabolic resistance.'' Readers of his last book may notice some defensiveness--two decades of criticism clearly have taken their toll. Nonetheless, there is enough of the old Atkins to make this the most arrogant diet book to appear in a long while. sic, ital `` I hope to amaze you ,'' he writes, `` as I amazed millions of dieters in the past .'' And that's when he's in his modest mode. 75,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Atkins updates his 20-year-old best seller, Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution ( LJ 9/15/72), with a holistic approach to health and well-being. He repeats his controversial, questionably valid premise that the elimination of carbohydrates from the diet will result in weight loss, good health, and euphoria. Contrary to current thinking, Atkins promotes a diet of protein and fat in four stages: induction, ongoing weight loss, premaintenance, and maintenance. Case histories document his achievements. However, his verbose text, bloated by rhetoric and generalizations, may overwhelm lay readers, who may not be able to distinguish between fact and speculation. Useful appendixes include menus, recipes, and a carbohydrate gram counter. For libraries where Atkins's earlier works were popular.-- Marilyn Rosenthal, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, published two decades ago, sold millions of copies but was denounced by medical authorities for its unsound high-calorie, low-carbohydrate regimen. Now it's back, slightly modified, and billed even more contrariwise as a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. Atkins blames carbohydrates for most cases of overweight--as well as for much fatigue, mental fog, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. A high-fat diet, he says, is harmful only when added to a high- carbohydrate diet. At times, he backs off and hedges, admitting, for example, that refined flour and sugar, not all carbohydrates, are the culprits, and even that the desserts he promotes should be limited to special occasions. Still, heavy cream, butter, and cheese abound in his recipes; bacon and eggs are on his daily breakfast menu; and his program, especially the 14-day ``induction diet'' designed to induce ketosis, or fat-burning, turns all prevailing guidelines upside down. It will be interesting to see how this book does now that low-fat, high-carbohydrate eating has been so widely accepted by professionals and public alike. Atkins claims success with his 25,000 overweight patients (who take an average of 30 nutritional pills a day along with the diet), and he scores a point or two against pro-establishment preconceptions among researchers, but he certainly doesn't prove that his is the healthier diet. Still, get ready for a blitz.
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