Hasn't everyone heard of the Atkins Diet?

Despite the popularity of the Atkins Diet and other low-carbohydrate weight-loss systems, respondents to a new survey were nearly twice as likely to agree that it is important to cut down on fat as on carbohydrates.

For Diet Foods, a new market assessment report, market analysts Key Note commissioned BMRB Access to conduct original research into attitudes towards weight loss, and to weight-loss methods.

More than half (53 per cent) said that cutting down on fat is the way to lose weight, compared with 27 per cent who said that it was important to cut down on carbohydrates. Both men and women are approximately twice as likely to acknowledge the importance of cutting down on fat as on carbohydrates in order to lose weight.

Low-carb diets, such as the Atkins Diet, appear to be most popular in the North West (35 per cent) and lowest in Wales (just eight per cent).

Since the latter months of 2003, the UK market for diet foods has been shaken up by the effect of the 'Atkins Revolution'. There have been comprehensive developments in relation to obesity among the UK population as a whole, and many manufacturers and retailers have begun to improve the healthiness of their products.

However, the Atkins and South Beach Diets contradict recent health professional and government advice, as they allow adherents to consume relatively high levels of fat - this may explain why a large number of consumers still associate cutting down on fat with losing weight.

The research may indicate bad news for manufacturers of slimming meals and drinks however, as just under one in five (18 per cent) of respondents to the survey think that slimming meals and drinks can be helpful for those trying to lose weight, with the under 24 year-olds being most likely to think that they could be beneficial (23 per cent). Key Note forecasts the UK market for specialist slimming foods will reach £138m by 2009, whereas the market for low-fat and low-sugar products will grow at a similar rate to the food market as a whole, reaching £3.68bn by 2009.

The most recently available government figures (published in April 2004, and taken from the DoH's 2002 Health Survey for England) show that the proportion of both men and women classified as overweight or obese rose between 1998 and 2002. Approximately two-thirds of males (65 per cent) and 57 per cent of females were either overweight or obese in 2002.

The low-carb dieting regimes are reportedly on the wane in the US - an indication that this may not be the long-term trend in the UK. However, new product development continues to be strong, with both Slim Fast and Weight Watchers launching low-carbohydrate products.

The research in Key Note's report certainly indicates that consumers are less enthusiastic about cutting down on carbohydrates than the high level of publicity, and new product launches, would suggest.