Nice Atkins article in HSI's spam-mail:



LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION

Health Sciences Institute e-Alert

April 24, 2003


Dear Reader,

Around lunchtime on Thursday last week I was saddened to see
the breaking news in my e-mail inbox: Dr. Robert C. Atkins
had died that morning at Cornell University Medical Center in
New York City. After I mentioned this briefly in last
Thursday's e-Alert, I received this e-mail from an HSI member
named Jaime: "When did Atkins die, what did he die of, and
how old was he?"

On Tuesday, April 8, Dr. Atkins slipped on an icy sidewalk
outside his Manhattan office and suffered a head injury.
After undergoing emergency brain surgery, he remained in a
coma until his death on April 17. At age 72, Dr. Atkins still
worked full time attending to patients and overseeing the
Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine.

As I said in last week's e-Alert, HSI has worked closely with
Dr. Atkins in the past, and so his death was both a great
personal and professional loss. Most of the news stories I
read described him as a diet "guru," and in the sense that he
was an influential, groundbreaking leader in the field of
complementary medicine, he was indeed something of a guru - a
trusted counselor who helped millions of people regain their
physical health with his unconventional ideas about
nutrition.

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Coming on strong
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After many years of abuse by mainstream nutritionists, there
was a sea change for Dr. Atkins and the Atkins diet last
summer. In an e-Alert I sent you in July ("Taking a Brody"
7/10/02) I told you about a cover story in the Sunday New
York Times Magazine that showed how a steadily growing
minority of establishment researchers were beginning to take
seriously the low-carbohydrate diet made famous by the author
of "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution."

Over the course of 30 years, Dr. Atkins never wavered from
his controversial dietary ideas. In a nutshell, the Atkins
plan advises us to eat as much meat and other high protein
and high fat foods as we care to, while avoiding starches and
refined carbohydrates such as breads, pasta, rice, and
sugars. This plan has won many millions of readers worldwide,
but has drawn numerous, often passionate attacks from the
nutrition and diet establishment.

The American Heart Association has long condemned the Atkins
diet as an unhealthy regimen for the cardiovascular system.
So it must have been thoroughly galling to many in the
AHA "low-fat" camp when the results of a Duke University
study were announced last November, as part of the 75th
annual AHA meeting. In all of the heart health categories in
that trial, the Atkins diet scored equal or higher marks than
the AHA's "Step 1" low-fat diet.

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Step 1 stumbles
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In the Duke study 120 overweight subjects were put on two
diets: one half of the group followed the AHA's Step 1, low-
fat diet, and the other half followed the Atkins diet, in
which 60 percent of their daily calories came from fat, while
carbohydrates were reduced to less than 20 grams per day. The
Atkins subjects lost, on average 31 pounds each over 6 weeks,
while the AHA group lost an average of 20 pounds each. That
alone would be news. But the real news comes from three sets
of data that are touted to measure heart health.

The levels of LDL cholesterol (commonly called "bad
cholesterol") for the two groups showed almost no statistical
change. And while the numbers break even, I would guarantee
that more than a few pro-low-fat nutritionists fully expected
the Atkins diet to boost the LDL. Meanwhile, the Atkins group
showed an 11 percent increase in HDL cholesterol (the "good"
cholesterol). The AHA group recorded no rise in their HDL
levels.

Finally, and more importantly, the AHA group had a 22 percent
drop in triglycerides, while the Atkins group experienced a
triglycerides drop of almost 50 percent - more than double
the AHA dieters.

This was a major victory for Dr. Atkins - to be vindicated
with prestigious research, and to have it announced in the
camp of his most vocal detracters.

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On to Pennsylvania!
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In response to the AHA announcement, those nutritionists who
had long derided the Atkins plan were up in arms - but
certainly not backing down. In the San Francisco Chronicle,
Gail Woodward-Lopez, the associate director of the Center for
Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley,
compared the Atkins diet to a disease, saying, "Hepatitis C
is effective at helping people lose weight too." And Judith
Levine, an AHA registered dietitian curtly dismissed the
results, claiming, simply, "It's such a scam."

I can't help but think that their comments would have praised
the study if the results had shown the AHA diet to be
superior. After all, that's how it was SUPPOSED to turn out,
right?

The critics pointed out that the Duke study was funded by the
Robert C. Atkins Foundation - as if this automatically made
the results corrupt. What they don't mention is that three
other studies presented at medical conferences last year all
showed results similar to the Duke statistics. And their call
for further research has already been answered. Currently
underway is a one-year study at the University of
Pennsylvania, following 360 subjects.

In light of how things have been going for the Atkins diet in
the last few months, if you had to place a bet on the U. Penn
study, which side would you lay your money on? As always -
I'll keep an eye on my sources and let you know about the
Pennsylvania study results as soon as I hear.

In the meantime, in the wake of those successes, we mourn the
passing of the man who made the successes possible while
truly revolutionizing the world of nutritional medicine.