Posted on 05/26/2004 9:59:45 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
53-year-old man sued the estate of Dr. Robert C. Atkins and the company that promotes his diet yesterday. The suit says following the Atkins diet for two years raised the man's cholesterol so much that his arteries became clogged and required a medical procedure to open them.
The suit is apparently the first to involve the diet, the most prominent and controversial low-carbohydrate regimen and the one most associated with assertions that followers could eat all the red meat and saturated fat they wanted and still lose weight.
The plaintiff, Jody Gorran, who is being assisted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group that supports a vegan diet, is seeking $28,000 in damages. Mr. Gorran said he was using the suit to tell other people about the dangers of the diet and to have its promoters include warnings in books, other products and Web sites.
Mr. Gorran, of Delray Beach, Fla., said that in 2001, when his weight crept up to 148 from 140 he turned to the diet, specifically, the 1999 edition of "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." After two months he said, his cholesterol shot from 146, well within the normal range, to 230, considered in the hazardous range.
In October 2003, after three episodes of chest pain, doctors found that Mr. Gorran had a 99 percent blockage in a major artery and performed angioplasty and inserted a stent to keep it open. Before starting the diet, he said, tests showed that his arteries were clear.
In responding to a request for comment, a representative for Atkins Nutritionals and the estate of Dr. Atkins said they stood by "the science that has repeatedly reaffirmed the safety and health benefits of Atkins."
Speaking of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Nutrition, the statement says that the organization, "a well-known vegan and animal rights group, has a long history of initiating these kinds of scare tactics that are designed to convince the American public to stop eating animal protein of any sort."
Dr. Frank M. Sacks, a professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health who is a critic of the diet and who looked at Mr. Gorran's medical records at the request of The New York Times, said he was not surprised by the increase in cholesterol.
"It could happen in two weeks," Dr. Sacks said. "There are definitely people that happens to, though it is not a majority."
The American Heart Association said it would not comment on the suit, but issued a statement saying, "Eating large amounts of high-fat foods for a sustained period raises the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer."
Mr. Gorran said in his suit that after his cholesterol had increased he was encouraged to continue the plan by a passage in the book that acknowledged that cholesterol would increase for about one in three dieters. The book says those people should "eat only the lean proteins - turkey roll, skinless chicken breast, fish, farmer cheese, lean cuts of meat and so on - but do not increase your carbohydrate intake more than 5 grams. However, if you are not happy on the low-fat version of the diet or get hungry, or don't feel well on it, then don't bother with it; go back to the regular Atkins diet that you enjoyed more."
"I contend there ought to be a warning on this diet," Mr. Gorran said in a telephone interview from Florida, where he filed the suit. "I'm seeking an injunction to prevent them from selling their products, books, or having their Web site without a warning, because they know one-third of the people on the diet will have what Atkins referred to as 'less favorable cholesterol.' "
Within two months after going off the Atkins diet, where his favorite foods were cheese every day and cheesecake three times a week, his cholesterol dropped to 146.
Mr. Gorran, a wealthy owner of a manufacturer of solar panels for swimming pools, said he enlisted the physicians' organization "because they are familiar with publicity.''
"The whole thing is based on getting the word out,'' he said. "Even if the suit never gets anywhere, we'll be out there and people will start to think."
A law professor who read the complaint said he did not think that it would get anywhere.
"The lawsuit has two serious shortcomings from the legal point of view," said the professor, Benjamin Zipursky, who teaches torts and product liability law, said. "Tort law generally does not permit a cause of action or lawsuit based on bad theories put out in a book, and most courts would recognize a valid First Amendment defense here. I would be surprised if the case were not eventually dismissed before getting to a jury."
Professor Zipursky said that the suit was "chock-full of information about criticism of the Atkins diet.''
"So it really reads as if it were done by someone who is doing it for reasons of publicity rather than private gain,'' he added. "Not only is each claim for relief less than $15,000, it does not ask for punitive damages, which I think is appropriate and a sign of their seriousness."
The suit is not the first against a diet book. In 1989, a suit against the publisher of "The Last Chance Diet," by Robert Linn, a doctor of osteopathy, said someone died following the liquid protein diet in the book. A judge threw out the suit.
I don't care what kind of diet you're on. You can't eat like that and expect to have a healthy cardiovasular system.
Oooh, this'll be an ugly thread.
The guidelines in the book state you are supposed to stay on the induction phase for 2 weeks, not two years.
No one was ever told to pig out like that.
Well it was kind of a slow night...
"Hyperlipidemia," hmm? How about "lazy glutton syndrome"?
LOL!
First, who the hell goes on a diet when they weigh 148??? (Let me at 'em, I'll kill him! ;)
Second, there have been medical tests that show that if you follow the diet, your triglicerides (fat levels) and bad cholesterol levels actually go down dramatically as your body starts burning fat instead of the missing carbs -and your good cholesterol, HDL, goes up...
Not that I would know... much. ;)
The problem is that Atkins is counterintuitive -- the idea that you can lose fat by eating fat, SOUNDS impossible and crazy at first. Many people never get past this first impression. But it's based on sound biochemistry, and it works -- it absolutely works -- and for many people, it is the ONLY way that works. All the standard gov't-approved low-fat diets that Atkin's detractors would prefer we follow, are precisely what made us fat in the first place. Atkins worked when nothing else did.
I think that, in response to this suit, all the millions of us who gained weight on all the standard diets (in many cases, including mine, despite heavy exercise -- carbloading destroyed my running career), ought to sue all the lowfat peddlers. Bankrupt Pritikin!
So a vegan group is helping out with that lawsuit, eh? No hidden agenda there! (MY cholesterol dropped so much - after Atkins/low-carbing for over two years - that my doctor was completely amazed when she compared the before and after lab results last week. Thanks to eggs, cheese, beef and plenty of margarine!)
PETA front group
Why did he have his coronary arteries tested BEFORE starting the diet? This is not a normal test done in the absence of symptoms... like chest pain. Doctors do not prescribe invasive tests, and health insurers won't pay for the tests, in the absence of symptoms. Something is fishy.
140 pounds to 148 pound gain prompted him to go on Atkins???? He would have lost this amount in the first month on Atkins. Something is Phishy.
Something is physhy here... and it smells like Physicians for Responsible Medicine which is a front organization for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
There are some low-carb versions that are pretty tasty. Not as good as the best I remember, but pretty good nonetheless.
I haven't weighed 148 pounds since I was a junior in high school.
I was put on the induction for two weeks by my doctor after a diagnosis of PCOS. After two weeks I'd lost 15 lbs, my cholest. has dropped, my bp had gone from high to perfect, my acne had started to clear up, my hair stopped falling out and I was feeling better than I had in months. Since that time I try to keep my carbs down to less than 100 g a day and I go low carb for a week or two every time I start to get symptoms. (that's about two or three times a year) I take my vitamins, minerals and fluids and try to use common sense.
People are very good at hearing what they want to hear.
True. The biggest fallacy in dieting has been that fat causes weight gain and increased lipids. Its not fat, but sugar, ie carbohydrates. I could go into all the biochemistry, but basically sugar makes fat sticky. Take some Coke or a doughnut and rub some in between your finger tips. They get all gooey. Same happens inside.
Cheese and cheesecake aren't in the induction phase. Cheesecake three times a week isn't on the menu ever, as far as I know.
If this stupid lawsuit goes through, I'm gonna drink three cases of Dr. Pepper each day to wash down the chocolate covered donuts I'm gonna eat every hour on the hour. I'm gonna call this my version of the "American Diabetes Association Diet". Then I'm gonna sue the American Diabetes Association...
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