Did the Atkins Diet Really Kill Dr. Atkins?

Science, not scare-mongering, should be dominating the low-carbohydrate versus low-fat diet debate.

By Anthony Colpo.
February 17, 2004.

Dr. Robert Atkins was never a stranger to controversy. His high-fat, low-carbohydrate dietary guidelines contradicted virtually every closely-held tenet of mainstream nutrition, bringing him under constant attack from defenders of the low-fat diet doctrine. Atkins died in April last year from a head injury he sustained after falling on an icy New York footpath, but his demise has done little to stem the controversy surrounding his dietary recommendations. As the recent commotion surrounding the New York diet guru's death report clearly illustrates, his nutritional legacy is still a subject of heated debate.

The current uproar began after a Nebraska-based cardiologist by the name of Richard Fleming wrote to the New York medical examiner's office requesting a copy of Atkins' death report. Despite the confidential nature of such reports, someone at the office readily obliged Fleming, who, after receiving the report, passed a copy along to his acquaintances at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). The PCRM in turn contacted the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story and ignited a world-wide debate in the process.

The ease with which the PCRM has been able to cause such an uproar is a sad indictment of the woefully inadequate investigative methods employed by many journalists reporting on health and nutrition issues. As an independent researcher, one of the first things I do when studying new information is to verify its source. Foremost among my concerns is whether or not the information has come from someone with a vested interest, and whether the information is being issued in order to advance some sort of concealed agenda.

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