Boo To Dr. Atkins

Please say it isn't so!

In the 1950s and '60s, Duke University made medical history with a diet program like no other ever tried. It was the Duke Rice Diet, and it was conducted in the appropriately named Rice House on captive inpatients.

All were overweight, all had tried and failed on other routines, and all were desperate enough to submit to a diet of pretty much nothing but rice. A very good friend of ours went there - he lost some weight - then he gained it all back. The Rice House did very little about changing lifestyles which led to obesity, but it did prove that drastic measures occasionally work. Briefly.

Now Duke University and its staff has again made the diet headline news with a study of people on the high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet made famous by Dr. Atkins. In a small study (only 120 subjects) the half on Atkins lost more weight, and in some respects had better blood fats than the control group on a Heart Association recommended low fat diet. Contrary to dire warnings from cardiologists, bad things didn't happen to the cholesterols of the Atkins group.

Dang! Of all the unfortunate things to happen to us mainstream doctors! After all these years of preaching about the evils of fat in the diet, here come those maverick madcaps from Duke telling us Atkins has been right for thirty years. It simply is not fair, and the sound of gloating from the fatty diet boys is not music to our ears.

Before we all turn in our licenses to practice medicine, it's important to consider a few things. First of all, this was a small study, didn't target a specific risk group (bad family history or previous heart attack, eg), and it didn't last a long time. There are some cautions to be observed before getting on this bandwagon.

If Atkins is a diet to follow for a lifetime, there are sure to be consequences that are not necessarily good. One of these is colon cancer. We've been aware for a long time that a diet high in fat is one of the factors in colon cancer development. Is this diet to be used only briefly and for short periods in order to avoid the colon malignancies that may follow?

A lot of that meat will be barbecued, smoked, or cooked to "well-done". Esophageal and stomach cancers increase among those who consume meat cooked this way. Perhaps all of the meat on the Atkins of the future will be boiled?

Then there's gallbladder disease. The incidence of gallbladder problems is directly proportional to the amount of fat in the diet. Although it's fairly easy to suck out a sick GB through the laparoscope, it's still a serious operation and should be avoided.

Oh by the way, a high meat / fat and low carbohydrate diet is likely to be low in fiber, which will promote the development of diverticulosis with its trailing factors of infection, bleeding and obstruction, not to mention perforation of the colon.

About the time Duke U started its Rice House, two diets enjoyed brief popularity in this country. One was called "The Drinking Man's Diet" and the other "The Mayo Clinic Diet." For practical purposes, neither was much different from Atkins, and the one attributed to Mayo was disavowed by the famous clinic. Both have been properly consigned to the trash can of history. One can only hope that Atkins will someday follow them.

If you need a diet which makes sense, is easy to follow, doesn't require a drastic alteration in grocery store purchases, can be used for years, and is associated with overall better health, you need look no farther than Weight Watchers, which showed up at about the same time as the Drinking Man's Diet. The success of Weight Watchers restores the confidence of doctors who despise Atkins.