YOU know a weight loss diet is pervasive when the wife of a French chef is on it. Maria Reuge, co-owner of the haute restaurant Mirabelle in St. James, New York, started the Atkins diet, a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, before Thanksgiving.  

So far, she said a few days before Christmas, she has lost about 4.5kg – but the weight is “not peeling away”. She admits she misses fruits and vegetables – strictly limited, especially in the diet’s early weeks. And she worries about eating too much red meat – which the diet in no way limits.