Fat Chance

Not a lot of people know it, but in early versions of the Atkins diet, Robert Atkins performed some magic.

In the book that launched his eponymous diet, Atkins observed, correctly, that "sugar is the American food industry's friend" and that modern diets were shaped by contemporary capitalism. We are forced to consume sugar not because it's good for us, said Atkins, but because it's good for the food manufacturers. As Steven Shapin notes, there are moments where Atkins' original critique looks rather like that of other systemic critics of the way we eat today, like slow food.