don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

(Subtitle: I don't want to sound as if I'm picking on a dead guy, but it's hard not to be critical.)

Robert C. Atkins, M.D. died on April 18, ten days after suffering a fall outside his Center for Complementary Medicine in Manhattan. He influenced a lot of people in his 72 years. He wrote diet books, ran a medical center offering a mix of holistic and traditional medicine and sold products -- lots of products. The question I would like to explore is this: Did Dr. Atkins do more good than harm?

Time might tell. Then again, we might never know. Yet, one can speculate, can't one?

One thing is for sure: For better OR worse, beginning in 1972 with the publication of Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Dr. Atkins was a big influence on the behavior of overweight Americans and others. He is credited with thirty million books sold, half of which were the initial 1972 diet book. At the time of his death, his latest book (Atkins for Life, St. Martin's, 2003) was the #1 best-seller on the NY Times hardcover advice book list and a 1999 paperback (Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, M. Evans) had been #1 for over 300 weeks. Influence on health habits, Atkins had -- big time. Yet then, Saddam Hussein influenced a lot of people too -- not that I'm suggesting Atkins belongs in the same category with the former Iraqi tyrant.

A little perspective is in order. As the New York Times reported on the occasion of his demise, "The market for weight-loss plans and products is $35 billion a year, and Dr. Atkins tapped it with scores of products, including cookbooks, energy bars and diet-oriented ocean cruises." The need for weight loss is not at issue. The proportion of overweight Americans now stands at 64.5 percent, up from 55.9 percent less than a decade ago.

As you surely know, Atkins was not exactly a promoter of the so-called "food pyramid" (crafted and promoted as part of the government's "Dietary Guidelines" and supported by nearly all nutrition scientists, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.) In fact, he stood the pyramid on its head. At the bottom of the Atkins pyramid (the foods that form the foundation of a diet) were steak and eggs, not bread, cereal, rice and pasta. He made fantastical claims for his approach that made the diet sound like an elixir, such as this in a recent television show: "You can take in more calories than you can on other diets and still lose weight. You can go to restaurants, order from the best of the main courses. It will correct diabetes, hypertension, most of the risk factors for heart disease, gastritis, esophageal reflux disorder, headaches, and a variety of other problems." He admitted, however, that there was no evidence (yet) to back such claims. Personally, I'm surprised he did not suggest it would retard aging, improve one's 10K times and enable better bowel movements.

Dr. Atkins said he had helped people lose 200 million pounds. Well, yes but -- nearly all of them regained those 200 million pounds. They wanted to lose weight, but they found it again, soon enough. I wish that, rather than focusing on temporary loss of pounds, he had helped his followers learn about, adopt and, most important of all, sustain wellness lifestyles. In my view, he did get some things right. He went after refined sugar, corn syrup and white flour. This was timely, as per capita consumption of these items has multiplied in the last two decades. Atkins said we were better off way back when (100 years ago) lard was the most popular fat. As with any public medical figure who has deep pockets and puts forth a controversial program of alternative treatments in addition to a highly controversial diet, he was often sued and, on one occasion, had his medical license suspended, briefly. He also had problems himself with weight gains and in recent years suffered heart problems, which he attributed to an infection, not his own high fat diet.

In any case, it is no wonder his diet was popular. He was a physician urging people to eat fat food! I should write a diet book. How about "The Don Ardell Ice Cream Diet?" I could make a killing, in more ways than one. As for Atkins' diet, who would not want to follow a regimen that encourages munching out on lots of foods that taste good (for example, steaks, bacon, buttered lobster, fried anything, etc.) if they could convince themselves that it must work? If the author of such claims is a real doctor, well, there must be something to it. Wrong.

There are a lot of quack doctors in the world. Atkins groupies should have looked for more evidence. Atkins' idea was that you would burn fat when there was an absence from your diet of carbohydrates that otherwise would be burned first. This, Atkins claims, provided a "phenomenal metabolic advantage." Simple and easy to understand but, as is often the case with that which is simple and easy to understand, probably wrong. I say probably because the juries on this diet are still out, though few expect to see the Atkins programs credited with long-term efficacy on the basis of independent longitudinal studies. Dean Ornish and other critics argued that the Atkins diet contributes to heart problems, cancers, constipation, fatigue and not last and certainly not least, bad breath. Yike -- now THAT is serious criticism. The Harvard Health Letter termed the Atkins approach "the bad boy of diets." Another popular put-down: Some people could lose weight by smoking cigarettes, but this should not be interpreted to mean that smoking is a good thing or a desirable part of a health promotion program.

All in all, Dr. Atkins was a great commercial success but it's likely that he did more harm than good. His diet remains unproven, it is at odds with nutritional science and it almost surely is quite dangerous. With his considerable resources, it's a pity he did not do more to promote independence from diets and pills (which would not have been self-serving, since he marketed so many pills himself), more to encourage personal responsibility, more advocacy for reforms in the health (sickness) care system and more to promote vigorous daily exercise.

Be well, and always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of nutrition. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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