The Atkins Diet has his business cooking.

• Author: Woodard, Bert
• Position: PEOPLE

John Troy's experience with the Atkins Diet mirrored that of many Americans. he got spectacular short-term gains but couldn't maintain them.

Troy, 66, wasn't following the diet, which concentrates on foods low in carbohydrates and high in protein. He was supplying it. His Yanceyville company, The Wizard's Cauldron Ltd., made steak and barbecue sauces and salad dressings under the Atkins name. He made his pitch to Melville, N.Y.-based Atkins Nutritional officials at a 2002 trade show. "It was all about eating salads and proteins. I suggested they brand a line of condiments [dieters] normally couldn't have to go on those things." The key, he says, was substituting sucralose--marketed as Splenda--for sugar.

Wizard's Cauldron had revenue of $6.4 million in 2003--up from about $2.5 million the year before, with most of the increase from Atkins sales. But the next year, the bottom fell out: Wizard's Cauldron revenue dropped to $4 million, and Atkins Nutritional is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

But he is accustomed to rebuilding his businesses. "I'm unemployable, so I guess I have to be an entrepreneur." Troy, who admits that he is fuzzy about some dates, grew up in Durham. In 1959, after a year at what is now Campbell University and a year at Duke, he dropped out.

He dabbled in stereo sales in the '60s, but after two failed marriages, he decided to sell the last thing he owned--a Volkswagen--and move to Jamaica, where he spent time with a native he calls Jamesy. "I was into natural foods, but he would go into the...