Dozens of diets will take your weight off temporarily. But if

you re in the market for weight loss plus health, I think you should

go a step further. Ask yourself stricter and more interesting ques-

tions: How many diets will restore that vigor and sense of wellness

I had almostforgotten I could have? How many diets will positively

reinforce my health, day by day and year by year?

I think that s the type of diet you need--an unabashed feel-

good diet, a full-energy diet, a lifetime-wellness diet.

As an old veteran of the diet wars, I write from a unique

perspective. People come to me concerned for their health, aware

that I know something about losing weight. But, I believe, they re

even more vividly conscious of the fact that I have a reputation

for helping men and women with serious health disorders. The

Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine is a major outpatient

facility on 55th Street in Manhattan, with a patient population

nearly 10,000 strong. These are patients with diabetes and heart

disease and multiple sclerosis, with arthritis and chronic fatigue

and hypertension. Less than 5 % of those patients were interested

primarily in weight loss when they first knocked at my door.

Yet fame and fortune came to me as a master of effective

dieting. It was only after the Atkins diet made me famous that

I moved into my life s work in nutrition medicine, using it to treat

serious health problems. Why, then, am I writing another book

on dieting?

Dieting is a crucial part of the health care I provide. Unless

you eat right, you can t be healthy, and if you do eat right, then,

generally speaking, you won t be overweight.