Robert Atkins

Atkins was born in 1930 in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Eugene and Norma (Tuckerman) Atkins. His family was Jewish. At the age of 12, his family moved to Dayton, Ohio, where his father owned several restaurants. As a young teen, Atkins held various jobs, including a position selling shoes at the age of 14 and a later gig on a local radio show. He attended Fairview High School in Dayton and, in 1947, finished second among 8,500 seniors on a statewide general scholarship test. Upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 1951, Atkins had thoughts of becoming a comedian and spent the summer as a waiter and entertainer at various resorts in the Adirondacks.

He eventually decided to pursue medicine, however, and received a medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1955. Atkins completed an internship under Dr. Emma C. Götz at Strong Hospital in Rochester, New York, and finished his residency in cardiology and internal medicine at hospitals affiliated with Columbia University.

Atkins specialized in cardiology and complementary medicine, and went on to open a private practice on the Upper East Side of New York City in 1959. His medical practice did not go well at first, and he began to put on weight and became depressed. After doing some research, he decided to pursue a low-carbohydrate approach published by Alfred W. Pennington, based on research Pennington did during World War II at DuPont. He began applying this approach in his practice, and began writing books about low-carb diets that became known as the Atkins diet, publishing his first book in 1972 and a few years later opening a complementary medicine center. He married his wife, Veronica, when he was 56.