Report: Diet Doctor Atkins Was Obese

Yahoo/AP ^ | 2/10/2004 | AP

[ClintonBeGone]

NEW YORK - Dr. Robert Atkins, whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat and cheese over carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a history of heart disease, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Atkins died last April at age 72 after being injured in a fall on an icy street.

Before his death, he had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report by the city medical examiner.

At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites)'s body-mass index calculator.

Diet is one potential factor in heart disease, but infections also can contribute to it.

Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council in New York, told the Journal that Atkins' heart disease stemmed from cardiomyopathy, a condition thought to result from a viral infection.

Atkins' weight was due to bloating associated with his condition, and he had been much slimmer during most of his life, Trager said.

The medical examiner's report was given to the Journal by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates vegetarianism. The medical examiner's office told the Journal that the report had been sent to the group in error.

There was no immediate response Tuesday to a call seeking additional comment from the medical examiner's office.

The diet guru's widow, Veronica Atkins, was outraged that the report had been made public.

"I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's health problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any diet," she told the Journal.

Last month, Veronica Atkins demanded an apology from Mayor Michael Bloomberg after Bloomberg called her late husband "fat."

In April 2002, Atkins issued a statement saying he was recovering from cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Of course it will, but since I clearly stated that it was for a 2 week period, I don't see your point.

Again, reading only what you want to see is not an effective form of debating. Let's put it this way.

A body builder does not need a weight-loss diet, so why are you saying he does?

A 350lb 17 year old boy needs a weight-loss diet. If 20g of carbs will turn him into a "Pee Wee Herman", then isn't that a good thing?

Lowering carbs will lower your weight. Lowering carbs is not a good way to body build.

But my response to you was not related to either of those facts, it was related to you claiming that the Atkins program is "no carb". That is factually not true. The first two weeks is 20g of carbs, with additional carbs being added each week until you hit your appropriate carb level based upon your exercise patterns and body chemistry. For some, it will be very low carbs, for others, more than they might expect.

But at no phase of the program is there "no carbs" as you claimed the diet was.

[tracer]

This is about ironic as Eull Gibbons dying from esophageal cancer (from tar in pine cones eat ate and pushed) and Jim Fixx crapping out while running, fully aware that he had a cardiac conduction defect which he failed to obtain treatment for.

Despite all this, the libs still love to descend on guys like Bennett (who spent his own money and hurt nobody during his sortees to Las Vegas) and Rush, who suffered from an addiction to pain pills that could have been avoided if he had the good fortune of being treated for his severe and chronic pain by physicians who were not so inappropriately tight-sphinctered re: pain meds.....

[Pukin Dog]

Man does not live by Porterhouse alone!

No, but throw in a rack of ribs, real Texas chili, Louisiana Gumbo and a few beers, and that should do it.

Bring that brown rice south, and you might get shot.

[Outlaw76]

" But at no phase of the program is there "no carbs" as you claimed the diet was."

My Father-in-law has used Atkins for a while, he can eat roughly 400 carbs a day in the maintnance cycle.

Sure that's less than your average trip to Olive Garden, but to me it seams realy high these days.

[TaxRelief]

PETA stole his private medical records. Investigation complete.

[Liberal Classic]

I went on the equivalent of the Atkins diet years ago before I had even heard of the man. The reason I cut out flour, bread, and pasta was due to a mild allergy to wheat gluten. I did not eliminate all starches, but I did avoid highly-processed foods such as children's breakfast cereals and wonder bread. Unless you have a gluten allergy you would never know how prevalent wheat is in everything, even packaged oat and corn cereals, all kinds of sauces. You'd be suprised. I kept soups and beans & rice in the fridge and healthy stuff to snack on like carrots and fruits. Overall I didn't really change my eating habits all that much, but cutting out cokes and sugary cereals went a long way. For the record, I went from 230lbs to 160lbs over a year and a half largely from reducing the amount of cokes and corn flakes I ate. I'm already a meat eater, so the only significant change was subsituting sugars and refined flours with vegetables and fruits. I didn't cut out all sugars, sometimes I did have deserts, but I stopped eating an entire Dominos and a six pack to wash it down. Right now my favorite things to eat is steak and tomatoes or sushi. I missed the whole 80s sushi craze, but I am beginning to believe I could eat it every day. That would be expensive though.

Years later after having read Dr. Atkin's book I think I understand why it worked for me, and I am always suprised at the amount of hatred leveled against the man. I do not believe he said anything revolutionary because his book stressed balanced nutrition not eating your weight in deli meats. I am suprised how threatened people are from his suggestion to alter the food pyramid. I suppose some people in the government make their livelihood from it, so maybe I shouldn't be so suprised.

[CommandoFrank]

But I really have a hard time accepting this diet as healthy.

My cholestrol went from 220 to 175, my triglicerides dropped to a safe level (forgot the numbers). I didn't use the Atkins diet but rather one similar called The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. It is not as hard as the Adkins diet, in fact it allows a daily 'reward meal' where you get to eat anything. Check it out... The diet was a plan of two doctors, man and wife, named Heller. A very easy diet plan.

[Mamzelle]

I can't believe this story. What are they doing sharing this private info about a patient?

Does a patient lose his right to privacy when he dies...?

If he does not, his wife has cause for both criminal and civil complaint.

[FooBarBaz]

DU'ers seem to dislike Atkins and his diet, therefore, Dr Atkins MUST have been right! :-D

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=355795

(i'm kinda new here, am I allowed to post links to DU? I didn't hotlink.)

[oldironsides]

Look and see what the Nutrasystem Diet did to thousands of followers. Lost gallbladders and some very sick people.
The court cases were numerous. They lost the pounds and many became sick.

[CajunConservative]

I'm starting Atkins and I'm craving fruit.

Berries are good, I love sliced strawberries with cream and a little bit of splenda. Strawberries will be in season soon here :o)

[not_apathetic_anymore]

"MMMM...Donut!":)

I more or less follow Atkins. I've lost about 45 lbs (mostly in the first 6 months of last year, then I relaxed and have increased the carbs some and stopped losing) I have more weight to lose and need to get more rigorous about it and even add in exercise. I don't really crave sweets, but darn-it-all when someone brings in a box of warm Krispy Kremes to work I hear the donut siren song and cant resist:)

[Mamzelle]

She's outraged because her privacy and her husband's has been violated--probably against the law, though I'm not sure how posthumous enters into the application.

I don't blame her--this is absolutely bogus. Atkins never denied a heart condition, and retaining fluid in his condition is not at all unusual.

It boggles the mind how batty the elites are being over on an eating plan that is working for so many people...You'd think this was tobacco or SUVs...

[Richard Kimball]

The medical examiner's report was given to the Journal by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates vegetarianism. The medical examiner's office told the Journal that the report had been sent to the group in error.

Wonder how many little slip ups like this will occur during political campaigns once health care is finally socialized.

[Eva]

The medical examiner's office told the Journal that the report had been sent to the group in error.

B.S. Why would anyone send a medical examiner's report to an unrelated group? I think I hear a lawsuit in the making.

[Ladysmith]

??! Really?! Was the Nutrasystem Diet based on pastas and such? More information please!

[tracer]

"I ran 3 miles yesterday. 3 months ago, I could barely walk without breaking into a sweat."

I hope that you at least have had an ECG or, better, a thallium scan. If you were as out o shape as you describe, you may have a nice case of atherosclerosis solidly underway.

A stenosed corornary or carotid artery + a blood clot or fragment of an arterial plaque == goodbye dogbyte12 + a sad thread on the FR.

I'm not slamming you, but rather am begging you to consult a cardiologist for baseline studies (including lipid, electrolyte, and coagulation profiles). It wouldn't hurt to get yourself checked out for Type 2 diabetes as well. Any family history of diabetes, stroke, heart disease, etc.?

BTW, although not an MD, I am a Ph.D. (1978) biomedical scientist who likely has the time and job mandate that allows me to read more medical journals, writes more journal articles, and attend more conferences than your family doc. But this is not about me by a long shot. It's about you.

All the best, and stay well, bro......

[CurlyDave]

Arnold Schwarzeneggar talks about high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets in his bodybuilding autobiography, which was written in the mid-1970's I believe.

Yesterday Dr. Dean Edell said on the radio that by curent BMI standards Arnold would be considered "obese".

From the pics I have seen he is in the "extraordinarily fit" category.

[CajunConservative]

Indeed, in the last years of his life, Dr. Atkins had a very weak heart. His so-called ejection fraction, a measure of the heart's pumping capacity, was "15 to 20," Dr. Trager said. Anything below 40 is considered heart failure; a reading of 15 is characteristic of some patients waiting for heart transplants.

I have a friend who had the same type of viral infection attack her heart, she had to have a heart transplant.

[Mamzelle]

re: could it be that the diet caused Atkins' health problems?

Certainly it is within the realm of possibility. There's no way to prove that it did not cause his problems, only that it was highly unlikely. I suppose the anti-Atkins can seize upon that.

Could be that the diet also causes you to slip on an icy sidewalk and bash your head--I can't disprove that, either.

But he was 72, and died from a fall. And there seems to be quite a franchise that's furious at him...