Dr. fATKINS?

[brownie]

From Reuters:

Medical Report Shows Atkins Diet Guru Overweight

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even in death, Dr. Robert Atkins, whose diet books and line of diet products have been tried by millions, is getting people excited.

His widow and the company he founded are denouncing the release of medical records that show he was overweight and suffering from heart disease when he died last April.

But a rival author defended the publication, saying Atkins had concealed a dangerous condition that could influence his millions of followers. Atkins promoted a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that he said would cause rapid weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease.

The records, a copy of which was sent to Reuters, show Atkins weighed 258 pounds when he died, which would clearly have made the 6-foot-tall medical doctor not just overweight but obese.

They also show he had a history of heart disease, including a chronic condition known as heart failure, high blood pressure and heart attack. Heart failure can cause fluid retention, but Atkins was by any measure at least 75 pounds overweight when he died at age 72.

The Atkins Physicians Council, a group of doctors paid to promote the Atkins approach, has said the diet guru gained fluid weight while in the hospital and had only weighed 195 pounds weeks before. But 195 is still 25 pounds overweight for a 6-foot man, according to global and U.S. standards.

The records were obtained from New York health officials by Dr. Richard Fleming of Omaha, Nebraska, who has debated Atkins, and by a vegetarian nutrition advocacy group.

But Fleming, who advocates a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, denied any breach of ethics and said Atkins was a fair target because he had concealed his own health while seeking to influence others.

Anything related to the health of Dr. Atkins because he had heart problems becomes an issue," Fleming said in a telephone interview. "When you see the increase in obesity in this country, anything discussing this becomes a public health issue."

HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE

Atkins died after falling and hitting his head on a New York City street last April.

The report from the New York City Chief Medical Examiner's office does not show that a formal autopsy was done on Atkins. It gives the cause of death as "blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma (a swelling of the brain)."

But it also carries notes that mention Atkins had a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure and high blood pressure.

In a statement released on Monday, Atkins' widow, Veronica Atkins, said her husband had suffered from heart disease for years but said it had nothing to do with the diet he advocated.

She also said he had a "witnessed cardiac arrest" -- not a heart attack -- while in the hospital in 2002. She accused those who released the medical report of breaching medical ethics and breaking the law.

Fleming, who runs a heart clinic in Omaha and who has published his own book on heart disease called "Stop Inflammation Now," said he called the medical examiner and asked for the report, which he was sent.

"I did nothing wrong," said Fleming, who has also debated Atkins on television. He gave the report to the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates a strict vegetarian or vegan diet, which has attacked the Atkins approach.

Fleming, who is not a member of the group and who says he eats meat, said the high fat content of the Atkins diet could worsen heart disease not only through raised cholesterol but by inflaming the arteries.

The American Heart Association  and other experts have also cautioned against the Atkins approach and advocate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and fiber.

[JSngry]

So how long has this "Atkins Physicians Council" been in business anyway, and who's backing them? I as because that diet's been around seemingly forever, and I thought it had been discounted as "risky" in mainstream consciousness, and then all of a sudden, a few months or so ago, it seems like everybody I know is talking Atkins, and then I start seeing the logo on foods, restraunts, etc., and now Subwy's pimping their Atkins Diet wraps and shit like that.

I've never seen such a concerted effort to get a "name diet" burned into the collective consciousness. This is a propaganda blitz of the highest order. So, who's behind it, and why don't they give a damn that the diet is not necessarily a good choice for many people? I don't want to go "political" either. This is business, marketing, all that, and it seems to be incredibly effective so far. I'm just curious as to the hows and whys.

[connoisseur series500]

It seems as if Subway outlets are committed to the Atkins' diet. It's a big part of their recent success.

[rachel]

It's a shame that journalists can't get the story straight (or choose to report in a way that is misleading...) Obviously other things must be taken into consideration such as muscle mass and muscle/fat ratio etc. when assessing weight. That Dr. Fleming would even make this a "story" just shows me that he either doesn't know what the hell he is talking about or is more interested in making headlines. Obviously Dr. Atkins' weight gain was due to fluid retention secondary to organ failure caused by his head trauma and had nothing to do w/his diet. Did Dr. Fleming actually expect us to believe that he gained that weight in the hospital eating steak and cheese omelets?

Also, his heart ailment was found to be viral in nature... not diet in nature.

Edited February 13, 2004 by rachel

[mikeweil]

Human health and nutrition is too sophisticated to be summed up in something like the Atkins diet - it never convinced me, although it works, but that does not mean it is really healthy.

Or maybe he simply didn't practice what he preached. They sure wouldn't tell us.

[BERIGAN]

How did those doctors get his personal records, anyway???

by Neil Cavuto

I want you to picture yourself dead.

The coroner is confirming you're dead. Weighing you. Measuring you. Then sliding you in a refrigerator and saying goodbye to you, if you're lucky.

I want you to picture yourself being Robert Atkins.

The diet guru died last April. But rather than let him rest in peace, a group that was long critical of the low-carbohydrate diet he espoused is using his corpse to make a point.

That group is called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. It advocates vegetarianism. That's all well and good. What's not good is what that group did after that. Somehow, some way, it got its hands on the final medical records of Atkins. Let me be blunt here: the crass details of a dead man on a hospital gurney.

The group says Atkins was fat, 258 pounds, proof, one of its members later told me, that Atkins either didn't practice what he preached, or did, and got fat anyway.

What the group failed to point out, and USA Today confirmed, is that Atkins went into the hospital weighing 195 pounds. He quickly fell into a coma and lingered for nine days in that vegetative state, being fed liquids that doctors tell me can indeed add dramatic weight in a short period of time.

But what Atkins ultimately weighed getting into, and sadly out of, that hospital doesn't matter. Common decency does. And this Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine wouldn't know the first thing about it.

It's one thing to hate a diet. It's quite another to use a dead man to make your point about that diet.

That dead man can't defend himself. So allow me.

I knew Atkins. I covered Atkins. The times I saw him he didn't look obese to me. And why would he? He was the poster child for the most talked about diet revolution in human history! You don't stay on message if you're not staying in shape. And the Atkins I saw was staying in shape.

He freely told me he battled weight in life.

It's a pity he can't battle classless fools in death.

The same fools who selectively cite only what they want in Atkins' medical records, who claim he had cardiomyopathy but fail to claim it wasn't his diet that caused that heart ailment. It was a viral infection.

Look, I have no ax to grind on Atkins.

I do have an ax to grind on fairness.

Try as critics have to disavow the health benefits of eating a low-carbohydrate diet, those who have tried it have lost weight, lowered their cholesterol and lowered their blood pressure.

Look, some people don't like low-carb diets. That's fine. What isn't is condemning the success of those who have lost weight on it and have fitter physiques because of it.

The medical establishment never much flipped over Atkins when he was alive. But they waited to pounce only when he was dead, and only then to use his corpse to make a point.

These critics say the diet makes you sick. Right now, they make me sick.

Their inconclusive studies. Their unsupported claims. Their high and mighty nutritional appeals. They think they've cornered the market on diets that work but ignore the very real medical proof that Atkins' worked better.

I'm not saying they have to eat a steak to see the light.

Just quit stabbing a "steak" through a dead man's heart to make a bloated point.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/neilcav...c20040216.shtml