Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Atkins Diet Book

Question:
I have heard about the best seller book on Diet: Atkins Diet Book. But I am not sure what this book is written about.Can anyone please provide me some information?

Answer:
By Caroline Overington, Herald Correspondent in New York Robert Atkins spent his life telling people they could eat fat and stay slim. Yet, his medical record says, the man behind the Atkins diet died obese. The record, which has been leaked to the media, also shows that Dr Atkins had heart disease and hypertension, conditions that have been linked to high-fat diets. The news could devastate the estimated 30 million followers of the Atkins diet, which encourages people to eat a diet high in protein, such as red meat, but low in carbohydrates, which are found in cereals, pasta and rice. However, Dr Atkins's medical record was released by an organisation that has long campaigned against his diet; is opposed to the consumption of meat, and promotes its own books offering a vegan diet as a way of preventing cancer. Dr Atkins died last year, aged 72, after slipping on an icy footpath in Manhattan. The report, which was leaked to The Wall Street Journal, shows that at his death Dr Atkins weighed 117 kilograms. Since he was 183 centimetres tall, that would make him obese. But the Atkins company said on Tuesday that 27 of those kilos were added when he was comatose in hospital and all of his main organs had failed, leaving his body grossly bloated and distorted by fluid. The company also noted that no post-mortem examination was done, so his heart and arteries were never examined after death - in part because his widow, Veronica, would not allow it. The leaked medical report was therefore based only on an external examination by the New York City chief medical examiner's office. Dr Atkins admitted in a TV interview three months before he died that he had had a heart attack in 2002, and said that, as a cardiologist, he believed his heart disease was caused by a virus. The medical examiner's office said that Dr Atkins's medical report was sent in error to Dr Richard Fleming, a member of a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which campaigns against the Atkins diet and runs an anti-Atkins website. The Atkins company deplored the leaking of the medical record to a known group of vegan and animal rights extremists. Neither Dr Fleming nor his group took calls on Tuesday. The Atkins diet has long been attacked by medical professionals, who say the excessive consumption of fat and meat is a short route to heart disease. Others say that weight loss is the best protection against heart disease. The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, created a storm last month when he said Dr Atkins was fat, and that his diet was unpalatable. Mr Bloomberg expressed concern on Tuesday that somebody had inappropriately, with false information applied for and then leaked Dr Atkins's medical record. The Atkins diet book has sold 15 million copies in the US. It has been on the New York Times bestseller list for four years. In a statement on Tuesday, Mrs Atkins said: Let me state emphatically that I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet.