US bakers get a rise out of Atkins woes

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

NEW YORK (AFP) — Signs that the low-carb food trend championed by the Atkins diet has run its course are being greeted with relief by some in the US food industry who had struggled with a market-shaking shift in eating habits.

The downturn in popularity of the once pervasive Atkins regimen was signalled Monday by the announcement that Atkins Nutritionals Inc. (ANI), the company founded by the late, low-carb pioneer Robert Atkins, had filed for bankruptcy protection.

ANI, which sells its low-carb products in more than 30,000 stores across the United States and Canada, said it would reorganise its business and focus its energy on its "core nutrition bar and shake portfolio."

For critics of the Atkins diet, which promotes the slimming benefits of eating...