High Protein Diets: More Unfounded Attacks On The Atkins Diet

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I thought of this Winston Churchill quote last week when I was still steaming over a ridiculous media attack on high-protein diets in general, and on the Atkins diet in particular.

The lack of substance of this attack would be laughable if not for the fact that many who read about it or saw the television coverage would be left with the clear impression that the Atkins diet is dangerous.

In reality, there's plenty of sound research that easily refutes that claim.

On the offensive
In late November, Dr Neal Barnard, the president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), hosted a press conference to warn the world of the supposed horrors awaiting those who follow the Atkins diet.

Joining Dr. Barnard for the press conference were four people who felt that high-protein diets had done them harm: the parents of a young girl who died of a cardiac arrest while on a high-protein diet, the sister of a middle-aged man who died of a heart malfunction while on a similar diet, and a man who said he felt betrayed by the Atkins diet; after two years of following the diet his heart had deteriorated from healthy to diseased.

On the same day as the press conference, Dr. Barnard appeared on the CBS Early Show in the US where he told viewers that the PCRM had requested the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) to investigate the health problems and fatalities linked to 'this kind of diet fad.'

And those are the basic weapons of this attack: Two deaths and a call for the CDC to investigate, as if a diet might be considered a disease.

So far there's no response from the CDC, and I don't expect there will be. Like many others in the scientific community, the CDC will almost certainly examine Dr. Barnard's complaint and dismiss it for what it really is: personal un-testimonials dressed up to appear as scientific evidence.

In short: This boat won't float.

Leading the witness

At the PCRM press conference, Dr. Barnard told WebMD Medical News that it's not his organisation's intention to 'allege cause and effect with this diet in any individual case.' But that was the exact intention of the press conference and the CBS appearance.

To understand the extreme bias PCRM has against Atkins, you only need to know two things: 1) PCRM is an animal-rights activist organisation that rigorously promotes a vegetarian diet, and 2) Apart from its main web site, the PCRM operates a separate site that's entirely devoted to attacking the Atkins diet.

One of the features of PCRM's 'Atkins Diet Alert' site is a 'High Protein Diet Registry' in which visitors to the site who have tried a high-protein diet are asked to fill out a form to 'help us better understand the health problems associated with high-protein diets.'

During the press conference, Dr. Barnard presented statistics gleaned from this registry that supposedly show how 20 percent of the 188 respondents reported serious health problems (such as kidney and heart ailments) they felt were associated with their high-protein diets.

So in effect, Dr. Barnard based his attack on less than 40 testimonials that can't be verified or backed up with scientific evidence. (In a controlled study, for instance, we would know if any of those respondents had a family history of heart disease, or if any were alcoholics, smokers, pre-diabetic, or taking drugs that might have triggered adverse reactions.)

Nevertheless, CBS and other major news outlets stepped right in line with PCRM's baseless attack and sent out the sound-bite that two deaths were linked to the Atkins diet.

And that information was halfway around the world before the truth had a chance to put its pants on.

Responsible is as responsible does

Dr. Barnard calls the Atkins diet a 'fad.' But you can be sure he wouldn't be attacking this 'fad' if it were simply fading away as fads always do.

As I've mentioned in e-Alerts over the past two years, the validity of the Atkins diet is finally being recognised by the mainstream. Thirty years after its inception, we're seeing more and more studies - from Harvard, Duke University, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Heart Association - showing Atkins to be safe and effective while promoting heart health with lowered homocysteine, triglyceride and C-reactive protein levels. Not to mention that the Atkins plan has helped millions of people lose weight; even those who have been unsuccessful with other diets.

Is the Atkins diet right for everyone? No, because no diet can be one-size-fits-all. Will everyone have success with the Atkins plan? Of course not.

But rather than educate people about any potential real concerns or side effects, it seems to me that PCRM is taking the low road and trying to demonise high-protein diets by exploiting a few isolated cases that can't be scientifically verified.

Meanwhile, nearly 200 subjects are currently participating in a two-year study of the Atkins diet, funded by the National Institutes of Health. We'll look forward to those results, knowing that, no matter what they may reveal, it won't be the last word on the efficacy or safety of high-protein diets.