Report: Diet Doctor Atkins Was Obese

[rodbarnett]

NEW YORK -- Dr. Robert Atkins, whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat and cheese over carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a history of heart disease, a newspaper reported Tuesday.


Atkins died last April at age 72 after being injured in a fall on an icy street.

Before his death, he had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report by the city medical examiner.

At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's body-mass index calculator.

Diet is one potential factor in heart disease, but infections also can contribute to it.


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-atkins-medical-report,0,3928110.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Mairead]

1. In his first book, he mentioned that weight had been a serious problem

for him all his life, and that it was only by following his Banting<1> diet religiously that he was able to keep his weight below 300 lbs! His weight had already damaged his heart by the time he discovered and applied the diet to himself, and he had expected -he himself was a cardiologist- not to reach age 50.

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1. The low-carb/hi-protein diet, as far as is known, was first promulgated not by Atkins but by the mid-19th-c. London businessman Wm. Banting. Banting said he had been put on the diet by his physician, that it had saved his life, and that in gratitude he was publicising it so that even people who would never have the good fortune to consult his physician could benefit.

[StClone]

2. I think he should have gotten a second opinion

If true the guy had some serious problems and food may have not been the root.