Dr. Robert C. Atkins, who bucked dietary dogma with best-selling books that helped millions of Americans shed pounds by shunning carbohydrates while indulging in beef, bacon, eggs and butter, died Thursday as a result of injuries suffered in a fall on an icy New York City sidewalk. He was 72.
On April 8, a day after a snowstorm, Atkins fell and hit his head just yards from his Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in midtown Manhattan. He was taken to New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, where doctors removed a blood clot from his brain. But he remained in critical condition, slipped into a coma and was placed on life support.
Atkins' name became synonymous with dieting in 1972, when he published "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," which sold about 10 million copies worldwide and brought pointed criticism from his colleagues, who dismissed his alimentary advice as faddish. But two decades later, he was back with "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," again a top seller, and in 1999 he released another revision that has remained atop the New York Times paperback bestseller list.
Earlier this year, in a new book, "Atkins for Life," he advised readers about how to maintain a healthy weight after taking off excess pounds.
With his books and the surrounding buzz, Atkins changed the way many Americans went about trying to lose their love handles, beer bellies and double chins. Because of him, supermarkets did a brisk business in pork rinds -- a permitted substitute for potato chips, pretzels and other off-limits starchy snacks -- and restaurants learned to keep the bread basket off some dieters' tables.
According to Atkins, the body burns carbohydrates before burning fat. By drastically limiting carbohydrates, his diet forces the body into a state of "ketosis" -- burning fat for fuel and causing pounds to drop. Dietary fat, he said, helps satiate hunger, helping dieters to eat less.
Critics, who over the years included the American Dietetic Assn., American Medical Assn. and American Heart Assn., say that by limiting fruits, vegetables and whole grains, the plan limits important sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber while permitting consumption of saturated fats considered to be major artery-cloggers.
Dr. David Heber, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition and an advocate of making nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables the foundation of a healthy diet, said one aspect of Atkins' theories rang true.
"He had a grain of truth in what he said because protein is known to be more satiating than carbohydrate, and many Americans are deficient in protein intake," said Heber, who lost 20 pounds on the Atkins plan when he was in his 20s. "What Atkins did most effectively was increase the protein intake among many dieters. This was a good thing because I believe the USDA recommendation of 15% of calories from protein is too low, and it should be around 30%. The bad thing about the Atkins diet was it was 59% fat, [35% protein] and 5% carbohydrate, which did not leave enough room for fruits and vegetables."
Although he never lived to see the medical establishment fully accept his diet, Atkins saw some of the decades-long opposition begin to weaken in the last few years. In 2001, the American Heart Assn. invited Atkins to present research about the effects of his dietary approach on heart disease. Last fall, Duke University researchers presented data to the American Heart Assn. showing that overweight people on the high-fat, low-carb Atkins plan lost more weight and had lower cholesterol and triglycerides -- two blood fats associated with heart disease -- than those on a low-fat diet. A handful of studies presented earlier this year also showed that Atkins dieters dropped pounds and lowered their cholesterol without harming their health.
There have been no long-term studies about how well Atkins diet followers maintain their lower weights, however, nor have researchers established what happens to cholesterol and blood pressure once Atkins dieters reach their goal weight.
Still, he was taken seriously by colleagues at major institutions such as Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.
"This is a man who cared and had a passion, and it was philanthropic first," said Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the nutrition division at Harvard Medical School, who knew Atkins for 30 years and invited him to lecture. "He will forever be an icon in the field and, obviously, now that the National Institutes of Health is invested in five-year studies, he's made sure that his ideas will get careful attention."
Blackburn said the diet doctor made a major mark by "reopening the approach to diets for weight control."
