MY DAYS WORKING WITH DR. ATKINS

by Shirley Linde

Millions of people were touched by Dr. Robert Atkins’ death-those who had their lives changed by his diet program and those who had worked with him in his crusade for use of nutritional approaches to medical problems. I was affected in both ways: I worked with him for almost two years as the co-author on his second book, and I went on the program and felt its effect.

We were first brought together in New York, where I was living at the time writing books and doing features for magazines and medical publications. A friend who was a film writer asked to use my apartment for a presentation to some potential backers for a new film. The project never made it, but an agent who was there learned of the articles and books I had written and came back after the meeting to ask if I might want to work on an unnamed book with an unnamed doctor. It turned out to be Bob Atkins.

Atkins and I met a number of times, me judging his sincerity and whether his approach was logical, he judging whether I could handle the writing and editing the way that he wanted. On about the fourth meeting I was petting his big English sheep dog, Bumbles, who started joyously bouncing about, licking and jumping all over me. “Bob, your dog loves me, how bad can I be? Let’s just get going and do the book!” He said “Okay” and that’s how we got started.

We worked first with a tape recorder, produced a draft, and then added and deleted and rewrote and revised and revised some more. Bumbles was no help. At the first writing session he jumped up and slobbered all over my suit and pawed runners in my hose.

Once, while taking a dinner break, we came back to find that Bumbles had jumped up and slept on manuscript pages that had been carefully organized and laid out on the sofa. That night I reorganized the papers and had to use a steam iron to get rid of wrinkles in order to make them readable. Another time, during a TV break (Atkins was a Star Trek fan and did not miss an episode if he could help it), Bumbles ate most of one page. Bob Atkins had a great mind but an unruly dog.

Most people think of Atkins just in relation to weight loss, but his program and his vision involved more than that. The book we wrote together was based on his observation that people on his diet program came back saying, “I feel better than ever before,” “I never knew I could feel this good,” “I have so much energy!” We decided to call the book Dr. Atkins’ Superenergy Diet.

There were actually four individualized diet programs in the book, along with three chapters on tailoring your own vitamin and mineral program, a very important part of the program if one is to get the best results. I talked to many of the patients, and as I do with any program I write about, I went on the diet myself to test its effect.

As I wrote in my preface in that book, the diet changed my life. In the past, despite being a fairly bubbly and energetic person, I was usually utterly drained and exhausted by late afternoon. And in the past, I never really felt right unless I had nine hours of sleep. On the Superenergy Diet my energy level was sustained through the day, I needed less sleep, and I no longer needed to leave good company and good times because of tiredness.

Have I stuck to the diet? I do not keep sugar in the house, seldom drink alcohol, and choose whole grains over refined white stuff. I put lemon in caffeine-free herbal tea or drink caffeine-free diet cola, water, or fruit juice. I often eat my salad for dessert. After I was on the diet for about a year I found I could have some no-no foods without feeling fatigue or my skin breaking out. And I still brake for chocolate.

Atkins had training and experience as a specialist in internal medicine, then in cardiology; and because he had a serious weight problem researched and tested various kinds of diets on himself. After seeing how the approach benefited his patients, he wrote his first book, which stayed on the best seller list for 59 weeks.

I am glad that Atkins lived long enough to see his long struggle pay off after the constant criticism heaped on him by the AMA and others, and that his diet was recently acknowledged to be effective. This year, several studies have shown that people on the Atkins diet lost weight without compromising their health and that in fact the diet was more effective than a low-fat diet recommended by most medical organizations over the last two decades. He always knew, by the acclaim from millions of people using his diet, that it worked, but it hurt him that many in the medical establishment would not objectively look at the results. Those that criticized him loudest almost never bothered to read the book.

I am sad that he did not live long enough to see the results published of an NIH study currently underway comparing the results of his approach with others.

And I am sad that he did not have the time to finish what he considered would be his most important medical contribution: his approach for the treatment of diabetes. We had already seen that Dr. Atkins’ Superenergy Diet was effective against diabetes, and he was working out refinements for a comprehensive program against the disease.

Atkins slipped on ice in an unseasonable storm in New York, hit his head on the sidewalk, and died April 16 at the age of 72.

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An NASW member since 1956, Shirley Linde, Ph.D., has written 35 books on medical subjects and two cruise guides. She lives in St. Petersburg, Fla. and is editor of SmallShipCruises.com and TheCruiseChef.com.