But in the improbable ’90s, when the stock market won’t go down and the crime rate won’t go up, Americans aren’t just bringing home the bacon, they’re eating it every day to lose weight. Steak and butter, too. The trade-off: no pasta or white bread or potatoes or those little gateaux things that are passed around on a plate after dinner. Oh, and one other trade-off: the evidence of higher odds of heart disease and cancer hasn’t changed.
Dieters tend to have a single focus, though, and often don’t care that many nutritionists abhor high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-sugar diets, which have been around for more than a century. The recent gurus differ on the details. Of the six diet books on last week’s USA Today list of 50 best sellers, all were seditious tracts aimed at toppling the traditional low-fat, food-pyramid orthodoxy–two by Dr. Robert C. Atkins of the “diet revolution,” two by actress Suzanne Somers, plus “Protein Power” and “Sugar Busters!” Actress Jennifer Aniston’s recent weight loss, if you’d noticed it, reportedly stems from a low-carb diet. So does Al Gore’s more lean appearance (neither has confirmed they’re on this diet).
Nutritionists say the weight loss is artificial because much of it is water that normally would be retained by the carbs, and that much of the reason these diets can work is that the ingestion of fat makes you less hungry. But proponents have counterarguments, and pursue their diets with the same analytical zeal they used to apply when they were forcing down tofu and high-fiber grain. Low-carb dieters say one of their favorite things about the regimen is that it makes eating out fun again. The proprietors of Lockkeeper’s Inn, a trendy steakhouse outside of Cleveland, say up to half of their patrons on a given night are on some form of the Atkins diet. Tony Stallion, a local pediatric surgeon, says he lost 70 pounds. “Any diet that allows me to eat pork rinds and meat is OK in my book.” Not every user finds it so successful, of course. As with most diets, many practitioners put the pounds back on when they get tired of cookie withdrawal. But for now, the latest diet craze is a way to have your steak and eat it, too.
