As an old school (read that as before he died) Atkins follower, I can tell you that the products and the actual doctor part are two different things. When he passed away the medical part pretty much went away and they turned into what I know refer to as the slim fast plan. I seem to recall his children kept the food business but they were not ever involved in the actual practice. It is all about the money now, it didn't used to be that way.

Dr. Atkins was against processed foods. I learned about eating whole, unprocessed foods while on it. I ate healthier than I had ever eaten in my entire life while on it. I'd dare say even healther than what I'm doing now with Nutrisystem because I am using convenience packaged foods along with my whole foods.

I was already into the lifestyle changes when the bars and shakes started coming out. They were not for phase 1 originally, they didn't recomend them for most phases of the diet and they did warn people that it could cause them to stall and instead encouraged us to eat our veggies and proteins (but say away from high fats and nitrates).