EmailJust over a year ago, Atkins suffered a heart attack, but, as he pointed out, this was caused by an infection and had nothing to do with the Atkins diet, which he had followed for 39 years.
Atkins was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of a restaurateur, and studied at the University of Michigan and Cornell University medical college, from which he graduated in 1955. For a while, he worked as a cardiologist in New York, but became increasingly interested in complementary medicine and nutrition after his success as a diet guru, founding the Atkins centre for complementary medicine in 1976.
He believed he knew how to save the western world from its twin - and, he believed, linked - epidemics of obesity and diabetes. He claimed that he had unlocked the mystery of why we put on weight, and, importantly, why we find it so difficult to lose the weight we put on. The Atkins diet had many celebrity followers. Geri Halliwell and Julia Roberts lost weight, and kept it off, as did Victoria Beckham, Davina McCall, Minnie Driver, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and even Al Gore. Stevie Nicks, of Fleetwood Mac, called him "a god among men".
Atkins wrote seven bestselling books based on his diet, beginning with Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution, (1972). A multi-millionaire, he sold low carbohydrate foods through his company Atkins Nutritionals, and often appeared on US talk shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. He also hosted the radio show Your Health Choices, which was syndicated across America. At the time of his death, he believed that the medical establishment, which had criticised his diet for decades, was finally coming round to his way of thinking.
One of the key things about the Atkins diet, he liked to say, was that the dieter did not need to feel hungry. "If you believe that weight loss requires self-deprivation," he told prospective follow- ers, "I'm going to teach you otherwise."
Atkins's dieting method was fairly simple. He believed that if you cut down radically on carbohydrates, you would lose weight, even if you ate steaks, chops, fried eggs and bacon. Fat was not a problem. Carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates, were. Calorie intake, Atkins said, was relatively unimportant.
"Carbohydrate is the bad guy. You have to see that," he told Larry King earlier this year. This was a diet for the sedentary west - a diet which contained protein, vitamins and minerals, but which was low on fuel. It was expensive, a diet for rich people who did not do very much. But it worked.
The diet had its origins in Atkins's own life. As a chubby young doctor in the early 1960s, he had looked in the mirror and been shocked to see he had a triple chin. He wanted to lose weight, but, as a man with a large appetite, felt that conventional diets would not work. He knew that, like most people, he would not be able to stick to them, and would put weight straight back on.
But then he read an article in the journal of the American Medical Association about a low-carbohydrate diet. "It was so simple," he said. "It was the only diet that looked like I'd enjoy being on it. I ate a lot of meat, and a lot of shrimp, and a lot of duck, and a lot of fish." The diet worked. Soon, he was trying it on patients, who also lost weight. "I knew I had found something wonderful," he said.
The key to the Atkins diet, its founder believed, was insulin, which he called "the fattening hormone". Carbohydrates, he said, tamper with the insulin in our bodies. According to Atkins, when we eat too much carbohydrate - a situation which is virtually impossible to avoid in the west - the pancreas begins to over-produce insulin, which metabolises blood glucose, causing us to feel hungry all the time.
That is why, he concluded, too many of us are obese. At the time of his death, he was writing a book about the connection between diabetes and obesity, to be called Diobesity.
Atkins leaves his wife Veronica, whom he married at the age of 56, and his 93-year-old mother Norma.
· Robert C Atkins, nutritionist, born October 17 1930; died April 17 2003
;