But the tide is turning. These are excerpts form an article in the New York Times on 7/7/02.
Incidently I lost 35 pounds doing Atkins.
The entire article is here, but it is long.
http://atkinscenter.com/Archive/2002/7/9-672214.html
TAKING A BRODY
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
July 10, 2002
**************************************************************
Dear Reader,
This past weekend at Wimbledon, Venus and Serena Williams
dominated. They each advanced to the final round of the singles
championship (little sister Serena won it this year), and then
teamed up the next day to win the doubles title - once again.
I watched their doubles match as I browsed through the Sunday
New York Times. The cover story in the magazine was a new
chapter in another intense volley that's been going on for years
in the diet world.
This volley is Brody vs. Atkins. That is: Jane E. Brody, the
columnist who writes on health issues for the New York Times,
and Robert C. Atkins, M. D. , the author of "Dr. Atkins' Diet
Revolution. "
To say that these two have been adversarial is to put it mildly.
And now, suddenly, their face-off has taken a surprising and
unexpected turn that may leave Ms. Brody with some high-protein
egg on her face.
--------------------------------------------------------------
That was then
--------------------------------------------------------------
I should mention that Agora, HSI's parent company, has published
Dr. Atkin's newsletter in the past, so I've met and worked with
this pioneer of complementary medicine. Over the course of 30
years, Dr. Atkins has not wavered from his controversial dietary
ideas. In a nutshell, Dr. Atkins advises us to eat as much meat
and other high protein and high fat foods as we care to, while
avoiding starches and refined carbohydrates such as breads,
pasta, rice and sugars. This plan has won many millions of
readers, but has drawn numerous, often passionate attacks from
the nutrition and diet establishment.
Enter Jane E. Brody who has ridiculed the Atkins plan a number
of times through the years. In 1999 she wrote a column for the
New York Times, in which she scoffed at the diet and gleefully
quoted two nutritionists who said, "'The Atkins diet is
potentially so dangerous that the Surgeon General should
probably put a warning on every book Dr. Robert Atkins sells. "
Finally she dismissively pointed out that no researchers had
taken the "Atkins scheme" seriously (although she personally
knew four people who tried the diet and had problems with it -
apparently that was all the "research" she needed to form a
conclusion).
But that was then and this is now. And now Ms. Brody has the
opportunity to enjoy a meal of high-fat crow, made possible,
ironically, by the very newspaper she writes for.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Low-fat chickens come home to roost
--------------------------------------------------------------
The title of the cover story of the Sunday New York Times
Magazine (7/7/02) asks this question: "What if It's All Been a
Big Fat Lie?" The article's author, Gary Taubes, states that "a
small but growing minority of establishment researchers have
come to take seriously what the low-carb-diet doctors have been
saying all along. "
Notable among these researchers is Walter Willett, chairman of
the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public
Health. Willett, who is the spokesman for a long-running study
that includes data on almost 300,000 subjects, says that the
low-fat-is-good-health message is clearly contradicted by their
findings. Furthermore, it appears that the extreme focus on the
adverse effects of fat may have contributed to the huge upswing
of obesity in America.
In the 30+ years that the idea of the low-fat diet has become
gospel, the number of obese Americans has been steadily rising,
to the point that obesity is now being called an epidemic.
Meanwhile, the current NY Times article points out that the
Atkins diet may successfully address obesity by controlling
blood sugar levels and reducing the intake of empty calories.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tables turned
--------------------------------------------------------------
In a letter published in the New York Times in 1999, Dr. Atkins
responded to the accusations of Ms. Brody, saying, "As a
practicing cardiologist, my work is based on helping patients.
What motivates Ms. Brody's hostility? She does a disservice to
millions who lead healthier lives on my program and to many more
who continue to embrace unproductive dietary programs thanks to
misinformation of the sort propagated by Ms. Brody. "
Perhaps this past Sunday's New York Times article has signaled
an important change in direction, moving the conventional wisdom
toward the close of an era of unproductive dietary programs and
misinformation. Ms. Brody stated correctly in 1999 that there
was as yet no major research available to support Dr. Atkins'
claims. I'm really looking forward to see how (or if) she'll
respond now that her own newspaper has delivered the news that
research results have started coming in - and she was wrong.
In 1886 a young newsboy named Steve Brodie jumped off the
Brooklyn Bridge and survived. For many years after, a leap from
the great bridge was referred to as "taking a Brodie. " Maybe the
term will be revived and the spelling updated and in 2002
"taking a Brody" will refer to the embarrassment of publicly
ridiculing someone who later turns out to be right.
**************************************************************
Incidently I lost 35 pounds doing Atkins.
The entire article is here, but it is long.
http://atkinscenter.com/Archive/2002/7/9-672214.html
TAKING A BRODY
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
July 10, 2002
**************************************************************
Dear Reader,
This past weekend at Wimbledon, Venus and Serena Williams
dominated. They each advanced to the final round of the singles
championship (little sister Serena won it this year), and then
teamed up the next day to win the doubles title - once again.
I watched their doubles match as I browsed through the Sunday
New York Times. The cover story in the magazine was a new
chapter in another intense volley that's been going on for years
in the diet world.
This volley is Brody vs. Atkins. That is: Jane E. Brody, the
columnist who writes on health issues for the New York Times,
and Robert C. Atkins, M. D. , the author of "Dr. Atkins' Diet
Revolution. "
To say that these two have been adversarial is to put it mildly.
And now, suddenly, their face-off has taken a surprising and
unexpected turn that may leave Ms. Brody with some high-protein
egg on her face.
--------------------------------------------------------------
That was then
--------------------------------------------------------------
I should mention that Agora, HSI's parent company, has published
Dr. Atkin's newsletter in the past, so I've met and worked with
this pioneer of complementary medicine. Over the course of 30
years, Dr. Atkins has not wavered from his controversial dietary
ideas. In a nutshell, Dr. Atkins advises us to eat as much meat
and other high protein and high fat foods as we care to, while
avoiding starches and refined carbohydrates such as breads,
pasta, rice and sugars. This plan has won many millions of
readers, but has drawn numerous, often passionate attacks from
the nutrition and diet establishment.
Enter Jane E. Brody who has ridiculed the Atkins plan a number
of times through the years. In 1999 she wrote a column for the
New York Times, in which she scoffed at the diet and gleefully
quoted two nutritionists who said, "'The Atkins diet is
potentially so dangerous that the Surgeon General should
probably put a warning on every book Dr. Robert Atkins sells. "
Finally she dismissively pointed out that no researchers had
taken the "Atkins scheme" seriously (although she personally
knew four people who tried the diet and had problems with it -
apparently that was all the "research" she needed to form a
conclusion).
But that was then and this is now. And now Ms. Brody has the
opportunity to enjoy a meal of high-fat crow, made possible,
ironically, by the very newspaper she writes for.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Low-fat chickens come home to roost
--------------------------------------------------------------
The title of the cover story of the Sunday New York Times
Magazine (7/7/02) asks this question: "What if It's All Been a
Big Fat Lie?" The article's author, Gary Taubes, states that "a
small but growing minority of establishment researchers have
come to take seriously what the low-carb-diet doctors have been
saying all along. "
Notable among these researchers is Walter Willett, chairman of
the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public
Health. Willett, who is the spokesman for a long-running study
that includes data on almost 300,000 subjects, says that the
low-fat-is-good-health message is clearly contradicted by their
findings. Furthermore, it appears that the extreme focus on the
adverse effects of fat may have contributed to the huge upswing
of obesity in America.
In the 30+ years that the idea of the low-fat diet has become
gospel, the number of obese Americans has been steadily rising,
to the point that obesity is now being called an epidemic.
Meanwhile, the current NY Times article points out that the
Atkins diet may successfully address obesity by controlling
blood sugar levels and reducing the intake of empty calories.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tables turned
--------------------------------------------------------------
In a letter published in the New York Times in 1999, Dr. Atkins
responded to the accusations of Ms. Brody, saying, "As a
practicing cardiologist, my work is based on helping patients.
What motivates Ms. Brody's hostility? She does a disservice to
millions who lead healthier lives on my program and to many more
who continue to embrace unproductive dietary programs thanks to
misinformation of the sort propagated by Ms. Brody. "
Perhaps this past Sunday's New York Times article has signaled
an important change in direction, moving the conventional wisdom
toward the close of an era of unproductive dietary programs and
misinformation. Ms. Brody stated correctly in 1999 that there
was as yet no major research available to support Dr. Atkins'
claims. I'm really looking forward to see how (or if) she'll
respond now that her own newspaper has delivered the news that
research results have started coming in - and she was wrong.
In 1886 a young newsboy named Steve Brodie jumped off the
Brooklyn Bridge and survived. For many years after, a leap from
the great bridge was referred to as "taking a Brodie. " Maybe the
term will be revived and the spelling updated and in 2002
"taking a Brody" will refer to the embarrassment of publicly
ridiculing someone who later turns out to be right.
**************************************************************