Book sales of the Atkins diet have dwindled here, reflecting the trend which has led to the company behind the diet filing for bankruptcy in the US.
Atkins Nutritionals has attributed the decline of the company to decreasing demand and an increase in the number of competing diets.
The controversial low-carbohydrate Atkins Diet was published in a number of different titles and topped the best-seller diet lists.
Irish bookstores yesterday report diminishing sales, particularly in the light of other more fashionable diets such as the GI diet. At Easons, which incorporates Hannas book shop, a spokeswoman said sales of the books on the Atkins diet were declining and one or two of the Atkins titles had been dropped from its stock list altogether.
"The GI diet has probably been one of the causes. It has become popular because of the coverage and there are a number of GI diet titles," she said. That was the way it was now with diet plans, she added. Diet books were an industry now, there were so many and people were always looking for new ones.
A spokeswoman at Waterstone's said that the Atkins books were no longer among the top best-selling diet books. "They are not in the top 10 any more. A few years ago, Atkins dominated the best-sellers lists, now the GI diet is taking over," she said.
At the Waterstone's Dawson Street store, a spokesman said there had been a gradual tail-off over the last couple of months.
"We don't know if that has anything to do with negative publicity or from the competition," he said. "My feeling is that it is more to do with the competition like the GI diet and others."
Atkins has always been controversial. It was the most popular diet between 2002 and early 2004, but it also received huge criticism. It advocated a high-protein and high-fat diet with extreme limits on carbohydrate intake. It allowed foods like meat and eggs, but advocated low fruit and vegetable consumption.
Critics suggested that because fat intake was often increased, changes in blood rapids could raise the risk of coronary heart disease. They also said a diet low in fruit and vegetables was not good for long-term health.
The diet was based on the research of Dr Robert Atkins, who died aged 72 in April, 2003 after sustaining head injuries after a fall outside his New York clinic. A year earlier he suffered a heart attack but he said this was caused by an infection and had nothing to do with the diet which he had followed for 39 years.