What was the fad diet in the 70s? A Look Back at the Scarsdale and Atkins Diets

December 28, 2025 •

4 min read

In the 1970s, the diet industry was ripe with quick-fix solutions, promising rapid weight loss and a new physique. The most influential and enduring fad diet in the 70s was arguably the Atkins Diet, which introduced millions to the concept of low-carbohydrate eating. However, it shared the spotlight with other restrictive plans like the Scarsdale Medical Diet, which also promised dramatic results in a short period.

Quick Summary

A retrospective analysis reveals that the most prominent 70s fad diets were the low-carbohydrate Atkins and the severely restricted Scarsdale Medical Diet. These plans, driven by celebrity endorsements and promises of rapid results, often neglected balanced nutrition and long-term sustainability, a common criticism levied by modern health experts.

Key Points

The Atkins Diet dominated the 70s: Dr. Robert Atkins' low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet challenged low-fat orthodoxy and became immensely popular.
The Scarsdale Medical Diet offered a quick fix: A severely restrictive, 1,000-calorie, 14-day diet created by a cardiologist for rapid weight loss.
Other bizarre trends existed: Diets like the Grapefruit and Cabbage Soup plans promised quick, short-term results through extreme restrictions.
Diets were often nutritionally unsound: Many 70s fad diets were unbalanced, leading to nutrient deficiencies and potential health risks.
The legacy includes lessons in caution: The unsustainability and dangers of these restrictive diets serve as a lesson for modern approaches to health and nutrition.
Emphasis shifted from calories to macros: The Atkins Diet in particular helped popularize the idea that macronutrient ratios could be more important than just calorie counting.

The Dominant Fad Diets of the 1970s

The 1970s were a pivotal decade for diet culture, setting the stage for many of today's nutritional debates. Amidst the bell-bottoms and disco music, a wave of diets emerged that captivated the public's imagination, promising rapid, and often radical, body transformations. Two diets, in particular, dominated the conversation: the Atkins Diet and the Scarsdale Medical Diet. These plans, along with others like the Grapefruit Diet and the Cabbage Soup Diet, defined the era's approach to weight loss. While the Atkins Diet focused on limiting carbohydrates over the long term, the Scarsdale diet was an ultra-strict, short-term measure.

The Atkins Diet: A Low-Carb Revolution

Published in 1972 by cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins, Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution challenged the prevailing low-fat dietary advice of the time. His plan proposed that a high-protein, high-fat, and very low-carbohydrate diet could force the body into a state of ketosis, where it burns stored fat for energy instead of glucose.

Atkins' approach was built on several key phases, designed to guide dieters through the process:

Induction: The most restrictive phase, limiting carbohydrate intake to about 20 grams per day to initiate ketosis.
Balancing: Gradually reintroducing more carbohydrates from nutrient-dense sources like vegetables and nuts.
Pre-Maintenance: Further increases in carbs to find a personal tolerance level for weight maintenance.
Maintenance: The lifelong phase, where the individual sustains their goal weight by controlling carbohydrate intake.

Despite criticism from many in the medical community about its high saturated fat content, the Atkins Diet gained immense popularity and laid the groundwork for modern low-carb and ketogenic diets.

The Scarsdale Medical Diet: A Rigid, Short-Term Fix

In contrast to the multi-phase Atkins plan, the Scarsdale Medical Diet was designed as an extremely strict, 14-day crash diet. Created by cardiologist Dr. Herman Tarnower, the diet limited participants to approximately 1,000 calories per day, with specific, pre-determined meals.

Key features of the Scarsdale diet included:

A fixed menu of lean protein, limited fruits, and non-starchy vegetables.
A high protein-to-carbohydrate ratio.
A prohibition on snacks, cooking with fat, and most beverages aside from water, black coffee, and tea.
The use of a “Keep Slim Program” for maintenance, which was less restrictive but still controlled.

Upon its release in 1978, the diet sold millions of copies, but modern health experts widely criticize it for being nutritionally deficient and promoting unsustainable, yo-yo dieting.

Other Notable 70s Fad Diets

While Atkins and Scarsdale were highly influential, other, even more extreme, diets captured the public's attention in the 1970s:

The Grapefruit Diet: A resurgence of a 1930s trend, this diet claimed that eating grapefruit with every meal would help burn fat due to special enzymes. It combined low-calorie, high-protein eating with mandatory grapefruit consumption.
The Cabbage Soup Diet: This seven-day regimen involved eating almost nothing but a low-calorie cabbage and vegetable soup. Dieters experienced rapid water-weight loss and significant nutritional imbalances.
The Last Chance Diet: A dangerous liquid protein diet from 1976 that involved consuming a formula made from pre-digested animal by-products. This diet was taken off the market after several people died from its use.

Comparison of 1970s Fad Diets


Feature	Atkins Diet (1972)	Scarsdale Medical Diet (1978)	Grapefruit Diet (Resurfaced)
Core Philosophy	Very low-carb, high-protein, high-fat to induce ketosis.	Severely restricted 1,000-calorie daily intake with specific menus.	Eat grapefruit with every high-protein meal, believing it has 'fat-burning' enzymes.
Duration	Multi-phase plan designed for long-term lifestyle change.	Strict 14-day regimen, followed by a less restrictive maintenance program.	Typically a very short-term, 10-12 day cycle.
Main Drawback	High in saturated fat, potential nutritional deficiencies, and difficult to sustain long-term.	Nutritionally unbalanced, dangerously low-calorie, and promotes yo-yo dieting.	Extreme calorie restriction, limited food choices, and lack of scientific backing.
Modern Verdict	Influential but requires care; modern versions are more nuanced.	Widely discredited and deemed unhealthy and unsustainable by experts.	Pseudoscience-based, nutritionally inadequate, and not recommended.

The Lasting Legacy of 70s Diets

The fad diets of the 1970s represent a fascinating chapter in our relationship with weight and nutrition, reflecting a desire for quick results and a willingness to embrace radical solutions. The enduring legacy of these diets, particularly the Atkins plan, is the shift they fostered towards a focus on macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) rather than just calories. However, their flaws—including restrictiveness, nutritional deficiencies, and promotion of unsustainable practices—serve as critical lessons for modern dieting. Experts today emphasize balanced, sustainable eating habits rather than relying on extreme, short-term solutions. The cycle of fad diets continues to this day, but the wild, unproven claims of the 70s offer a clear cautionary tale.

For more insight into diet culture history, the book The Last Chance Diet offers a chilling exposé on one of the era's most notorious and dangerous plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Atkins Diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat eating plan. Its main premise is that by drastically reducing carbs, the body will enter a state of ketosis and burn stored fat for energy, leading to weight loss.

The Scarsdale Medical Diet was a very low-calorie, 14-day crash diet that required participants to follow a strict, pre-determined menu. It emphasized high protein intake while severely restricting calories to around 1,000 per day.

No, the Grapefruit Diet was not scientifically proven. It claimed that a special enzyme in grapefruit could burn fat, but this has no scientific basis. Any weight loss was likely due to the diet's severe calorie restriction.

No, most 70s fad diets are not considered healthy by modern standards. Many were nutritionally unbalanced, dangerously restrictive, and promoted unsustainable eating habits that could lead to nutritional deficiencies and health problems.

'Yo-yo' dieting, or weight cycling, is the repeated loss and regain of weight. Diets like the Scarsdale plan, with their extreme, short-term restrictions, are inherently difficult to maintain, making weight regain almost inevitable and trapping dieters in this cycle.

The 1970s were a time of cultural change and a growing interest in health and fitness. This environment, combined with celebrity endorsements and clever marketing, made people more receptive to promises of rapid weight loss and body transformation.

Yes, many 70s fad diets, especially the Atkins Diet, had a lasting impact by influencing modern low-carb and ketogenic diets. They also highlighted the need for more nuanced and evidence-based approaches to nutrition, moving beyond simple calorie counting.