What is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet?

The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not endorsed by the eponymous Dr. Atkins firm, that tries to play on the fame of two diets: the grapefruit diet and the Atkins diet. However, a close look into this diet reveals that it may not be all it claims to be.

First of all, it’s very hard to any find information on the Atkins grapefruit diet plan at all. Clever people realize that when someone is carrying out a deception, they will usually skim over the facts. This is what the Atkins grapefruit diet appears to be doing while trying to get people to associate it with two supposedly effective diets.

Is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet part of the Atkins Diet or support by the late Dr. Atkins’ company? The answer is a resounding no, not only is there no mention of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet on the Atkins web site, but there is no fruit of any sort allowed in the list of allowed foods in the Atkins diet Induction phase either.

The induction phase includes the following foods: fish of all kinds, all fowl such as turkey and chicken, any shellfish, any meat such as beef or pork, eggs cooked in any style including fried, cheese, vegetables, herbs and spices, fats and oils, low carbohydrate beverages including diet soft drinks.

Please, notice one thing – that fruit is not on that list at all! Later phases of the Atkins diet do include limited amounts of fruits such as cantaloupe and even lemon juice, and the pre-maintenance and maintenance phases even allow small quantities of grapefruit, but when looked at in comparison with the amount of Grapefruit advised on the Atkins Grapefruit Diet there is a massive discrepancy.

The Atkins Grapefruit Diet suggests a cup of grapefruit juice or a cup of grapefruit sections, with 8 and 18 carbs respectively. Even the most liberal phases of the Atkins diet suggests limiting intake to below 8 carbs per day, when it comes to grapefruit. That’s a direct contradiction from one plan to the other.

Most reasonable people would have a look at the Atkins website itself the moment they heard of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet and when they found no mention of that diet on their site, a red light would flash and an alarmbell would ring.

In general, please remember this: any diet that relies too heavily on one type of food, such as grapefruit in a grapefruit diet, is not healthy for any but very short periods. The Atkins Grapefruit Diet is not associated with the Atkins diet, and could disrupt the results of the Atkins diet, especially in its early phases.