Once-Hot Low-Carb Diet Craze on Wane; Atkins Nutritionals Files for Bankruptcy

摘要

Dr. Robert Atkins died two years ago. Now the diet food company he founded has gone belly up: Atkins Nutritionals has filed for bankruptcy protection, and the low-carb craze it banked on has thinned out. The Ronkonkoma, New York-based company listed assets of 301 million dollar and liabilities of 325 million dollar in papers filed with the US Bankruptcy Court. Another sign of the times: frozen products based on a rival weight loss plan, the South Beach diet, have gained ground. Some people are blaming bad publicity: an alleged post-mortem showing that Atkins himself had a history of heart trouble, including congestive heart failure and high blood pressure and was seriously overweight when he died. But more likely, the Atkins diet wouldn't have lasted anyway.