Eat Real Food? Nutrition Advice · Episode 6 of 9 · 21 min
Fad After Fad — The Diet-Trend Cycle
For forty years diet fads followed one arc: a simple promise, explosive spread past the evidence, then collapse. Low-fat gave way to Atkins, which went bankrupt, then South Beach, gluten-free, paleo, keto and fasting. Meanwhile the government kept redrawing its own picture of the ideal meal, from the pyramid to MyPlate.
Who's who
- Robert AtkinsCardiologist whose low-carbohydrate program drove the low-carb boom
- Arthur AgatstonMiami cardiologist behind the South Beach Diet
- Michelle ObamaFirst Lady who unveiled MyPlate under Let's Move!
Timeline
- 1972Atkins publishes Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, seeding the low-carb idea
- 1992USDA releases the Food Guide Pyramid
- April 2003Robert Atkins dies; the brand keeps selling
- August 1, 2005Atkins Nutritionals files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- June 2, 2011USDA and HHS launch MyPlate
- January 2019Google search interest in keto peaks
Still debated
Whether the low-fat era caused the obesity surge is a leading hypothesis but not settled. Controlled trials find little durable advantage for any branded diet, though partisans dispute the designs, and keto's fade may mean collapse or normalization.