30 Years Ago In TIME

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Simon Crittle, Sean Gregory, Janice Horowitz and Rebecca Winters

A 1972 cover story on the perils of AMERICAN EATING cited emerging diet doctors, including today's low-carb guru, Robert Atkins.

Many, aware that to be overweight is to be unattractive, are trying to diet their way to slimness... Many dieters opt for the eccentric. They have no lack of plans from which to choose... The Lover's Diet, devised by Dr. Abraham Friedman, at least sounds like fun. He urges the overweight to "reach for a mate instead of a plate" and exercise off their excess weight through intercourse. But unless they follow Friedman's low-fat and low-carbohydrate diet as well, they are unlikely to shed many pounds. A single act of intercourse, according to Friedman, burns an average of 200 calories... Many doctors eschew eccentric diets and insist that their patients learn instead to eat differently for the rest of their lives. Dr. Robert Atkins, a modishly dressed Manhattan physician who operates out of a plush East Side office, believes that overweight is the result of the body's inability to metabolize carbohydrates properly. He allows his patients such dietary don'ts as mayonnaise and heavy cream, butter, steaks and lobster, but limits them to a maximum of 40 grams of carbohydrates daily. Dr. Charles Roland of the Mayo Clinic says that "despite Atkins' sweeping generalizations and exuberant confidence, his thesis rests largely on unproven assumptions." --TIME, Dec. 18, 1972