Attwood was born near
New Edinburg, Arkansas. He was the son of Mrs. Raymond Attwood. In the 1990s, Attwood was instrumental in defending some
vegan parents whose children were removed by social workers from the California Department of Children's Services.
Benjamin Spock wrote the Foreword. Attwood took a leave of absence from his practice to promote his book, and traveled over the ensuing three and a half years until his death. Gerber's market share dropped from 85% to 65% in the months following a national news conference on the practice. Shortly thereafter Gerber discontinued this 40-year practice, changing their labels to reflect 100% fruit and 100% vegetables. Attwood established and helped build the vegetarian website, VegSource.org.
Benjamin Spock later hired Attwood to work as a nutritional consultant for the last revision of his own classic bestseller,
Baby and Child Care, released in July 1998. Attwood's audio series,
The Gold Standard Diet: How to Live to be 100, was released nationally to bookstores in 1998. In October 1998,
Hohm Press published Attwood's book,
A Vegetarian Doctor Speaks Out, some of which grew out of letters from people who contacted him through his website. ==Diet==