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But as long as happy dieters and supportive doctors keep going on talk shows, people with eating problems aren't going to resist a diet that lets you eat pork rinds. Sam Panayotovich, 53, the Illinois state liquor commissioner, has been following a combination of Atkins and a 1979 local diet known as the whipped-cream-and-martini diet. The diet allows fondue, bourguignon, bearnaise, fried chicken, chunks of steak and enough alcohol for a buzz. He's lost 53 lbs. and kept it off for 11 months, a personal record. Like most Atkins adherents, the liquor commissioner talks about his diet with a mystical admiration. "When you talk about this diet, that you can drink and have a nice steak and lose weight, people look at you like you really have been drinking." And nothing cures a hangover better than a big, greasy bacon-and-eggs breakfast.
--Reported by Dan Cray/Los Angeles, Julie Grace/Chicago, David Nordan/Atlanta and Alice Park and Andrea Sachs/New York