IanD said:
We all "know" that Atkins died of a heart attack, & was morbidly obese when he died. The truth doesn't matter.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/ ... 32133.html
Weight loss guru Dr Robert Atkins.
Related:
Atkins' widow threatens to sue over leak
Dieting: Your say
Robert Atkins spent his life telling people they could eat fat and stay slim. But according to his medical records, the man behind the Atkins diet was obese at the time of his death.
The medical records, leaked to the media yesterday, also showed that Dr Atkins had heart disease and hypertension, conditions that have been linked to high-fat diets.
At first blush, the news has the potential to devastate the estimated 30 million followers of the counter-intuitive Atkins diet, which encourages people to eat a diet high in protein (such as red meat) but low in carbohydrates (cereals, pasta and rice).
But Dr Atkins's medical report was released by an organisation that has long campaigned against his diet. It opposes consumption of meat and promotes a vegan diet as a way of preventing cancer.
The medical report, leaked to The Wall Street Journal, shows that Dr Atkins, at 1.83 metres, weighed 116 kilograms last year. This would have given him a score of 35 under the body mass index calculation, used across the world to define whether a person is of healthy weight or not. Under the BMI, a score of 25 defines one as overweight. Over 30 and you are obese.
But the Atkins company said yesterday that 27 of those kilograms were added to Dr Atkins's frame in hospital after his major organs had failed, leaving his body "grossly bloated and distorted" by fluid.
It said no autopsy was done on Dr Atkins's body, so his heart and arteries were not examined, partly because his widow, Veronica Atkins, would not allow it.
The medical report leaked to the Journal was based only on an "external examination" of his body by the New York City chief medical examiner's office.
Dr Atkins died last year, aged 72, after slipping on an icy footpath in Manhattan. His medical report lists the cause of death as head injury.
Dr Atkins, a cardiologist, said in a TV interview three months before he died that he had a heart attack in 2002 and that he believed his heart disease was caused by a virus.
The medical examiner's office said this week that Dr Atkins's medical report was "sent in error" to Richard Fleming, a member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which runs an anti-Atkins website.
Dr Fleming last year released the diet book Stop Inflammation Now!, which promotes a diet that is all fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
The Atkins company deplored the leaking of Dr Atkins's medical records to "a known group of vegan and animal rights extremists".
Neither Dr Fleming nor the group he represents answered calls.
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 Atkins diet book has sold 15 million copies in the US. In a statement released this week, Mrs Atkins said: "I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet."