Asymmetrical Information

The article says "After two months he said, his cholesterol shot from 146, well within the normal range, to 230, considered in the hazardous range."

The possibilities are either (1) he developed dangerous atherosclerosis from those two months of the Atkins treatment, or (2) that he continued the treatement despite clear and convincing evidence of danger.

It is telling that the NY Times doesn't mention how long he continued the treatement, despite having access to his medical records.

I could use an obesity suit. My pants are too tight and I don't have a decent jacket...

"It is telling that the NY Times doesn't mention how long he continued the treatement, despite having access to his medical records."

The article talks about this issue. Part of what the law suit is about is that the Atkins book that he read explicitly made light of the cholesterol danger. The suit is based on similar reasoning to, I guess, tobacco suits where they say that the company misled about risks. I don't necessarily agree with holding tobacco companies liable for this sort of thing, but you should note that this person is not suing for damages, just $18K worth of medical bills. Mainly they want to get it out in the open that there are non-trivial risks associated with the Atkins diet that people should be aware of.

I don't necessarily agree with holding tobacco companies liable for this sort of thing, but you should note that this person is not suing for damages, just $18K worth of medical bills.

Just to be clear, a suit to recover out-of-pocket losses is a claim for damages. You may be thinking of "damages for pain and suffering" (a damage award which theoretically compensates a person for the suffering he has endured) or "punitive damages" (a damage award which is intended to punish the defendant for his conduct), forms of damages which are far more subjective (and which are frequently criticized for that and other reasons).

He followed the Atkins diet for two years? For 8 pound of weight?

He either wasn't on the diet, since he would normally lose the 8 pounds pretty quickly, or he was cheating like crazy.

I was on the Atkins diet for 6 months and dropped 70 pounds.

8 pounds, you just need to hit the gym a couple of times a week. This lawsuit is crapola.

P.S.

My cholesterol went from pretty high to normal within a couple of months of starting the diet.

At the risk of me tooing toxic, 8 freakin pounds? 5% of his total body weight? Who, or what, convinced this guy he was overweight in the first place? He'd have to be under 5' 5" tall to have a body mass index in the "overweight" category.

I don't get it.

Most likely he was worried about his looks. It's possible to develop a big potbelly and be skinny everywhere else - my mother did, and I would look like a snake that swallowed a beach ball whole if I hadn't started exercising. (This only had a little effect on the potbelly, but at least I'm bigger around the shoulders than the middle.)

And yes, a little exercise and a moderate reduction in overall calories would have been far wiser...

The problem with the Atkins diet is that the weak-willed are likely to take it as a license to pig out on fat. Lots of salad (with limited dressings of the fatty or sugary kind) and a little lean meat should reduce your weight and improve your health, but it's as hard to stay on this as any other diet. If you are looking for an excuse to keep eating bacon double cheeseburgers [1], it appears to be possible to read Atkins and come away thinking that you just have to wrap it in lettuce instead of a bun.

And it may be that the people marketing Atkins books, etc., are deliberately toning down the "salad" and "lean" parts of the message to sell more books. That might be actionable if it could be proven.

[1] Bacon double cheeseburger YUMMMM - but now I've got to split half a cord of firewood to burn it off.

Oh, for - "the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine". Not physicians, not responsible, little to do with medicine, this is a bunch of proselytizing so-and-so's who have been debunked in a lot of places over a number of issues. Think PETA.

"After two months he said, his cholesterol shot from 146, well within the normal range, to 230, considered in the hazardous range." And I suppose his doctor then told him to continue with Atkins? No way. But he still had seven pounds to lose, so...

"I contend there ought to be a warning on this diet..." There are a number of warnings, at least in the original - how did he miss them? Probably the same way he kept having his cholesterol tested but must have missed his doctor(s) warnings about the results.

Rgis eedjut should have looked up his grandmother's copy of the Grapefruit Diet: for eight pounds, it probably would have worked just fine.
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No, low-carb like Atkins' diet, is not for everyone. But neither is high-carb low-or-no-fat. And if you are wanting to go on a diet, pay attention to it, be checked regularly by a doc, and take heed if told you're killing yourself!

The Atkins diet stuff that I've been reading plays up the lean meat/salad diet and plays down the loads of bunless bacon cheeseburgers diet. Some of the old literature was a little more liberal with what you could eat, but lately the emphasis is on lean meats and vegetables.

For the record, when I am strictly following the Atkins induction diet (there are actually three diets in the plan), I can lose weight while eating pounds of bacon wrapped shrimp, bunless bacon cheeseburgers, etc... If I cheat even the tiniest but, though, BAM! I lose ground like crazy.

Lately, I've been following the diet fairly well and working up to moderate exercise (stuck on "light" exercise right now) and have been losing weight slowly.

I should be having my blood checked (for all the numbers) regularly, but am between doctors. It's my own damn fault if my arteries have just clogged up...

Maybe I should find a new doctor...

Bolie IV

The lawsuit is promoted by the "vegans."

The group dislikes Atkins because it promotes eating meat. It's a fraudulent abuse of the legal system and has no merit and will be dismissed as these publicity lawsuits always are.

The Atkins diet does not promote unlimited amounts of fat. This mischaracterization is typically done by out of work nutritionists who see Atkins finally permanently reducing their clientele.

The latest issue of Glamour for example perpetuates the lies that Atkins weight loss is somehow achieved by a reduction in calories. This is false. Ketosis is a state in which the liver releases ketones to breakdown the fat stored in the body. Ketones are released after 48 hours of less than 20 carbohdrates consumed.

This is how fat is burned from the body far more efficiently than by simple low calorie/low-fat diets. Studies now prove that ketosis allows dieters to consume more calories than their low-fat counterparts and still lose more weight.

It's an old diet but one of the few that really work well. Atkins didn't invent it. He popularized it back around 1970. It had an earlier revival in the 1950's as a celebrity diet which would lose folks roughly a pound a day if combined with moderate activity.

It lowers most folks blood pressure, reduces cholesterol, and generally promotes better health when done intelligently.

Just like the film "Supersize Me" this lawsuit is a propaganda piece. If you intentionally try to get ill - one can. Having three supersized shakes a day every day will put on thirty pounds in a month.

This dieter didn't even eat meat and never really went on the Atkins diet (vegan remember?) his favorite foods were "cheese and cheesecake." (cheesecake is a bread product which is taboo for induction phase of Atkins)

Vegans have some sort of societal left-induced guilt complex, among other neuroses and fail to realize that human are carnivores, complete with upper and lower incisors.

Whether it be SUV's or meat the left seem to look internally for the world's ills. Now if they could just realize that they have a mild mental illness that creates compulsive and antisocial behavior we would all be better off.

SDAI-Tech1

Ketosis is a state in which the liver releases ketones to breakdown the fat stored in the body.

Ketones are the product of incomplete fat metabolism (i.e. metabolism stopping short of carbon dioxide production), not the cause of it, and so don't break down anything.

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