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American Morning

Atkins Diet Controversy

Aired February 13, 2004 - 07:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The controversy is still raging about the man who led the low-carb revolution. Supporters of the late Dr. Robert Atkins take issue with suggestions that the diet he designed might have caused him some serious health problems.
Earlier, I spoke with Dr. Stuart Trager, the chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, about claims that the diet doctor was obese at the time of his death.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. STUART TRAGER, CHAIRMAN, ATKINS PHYSICIANS COUNCIL: What we know is that in front of his family and his friends and his associates, he swelled dramatically in the hospital. In talking to his physicians, something that some of the people have tried to get these records and make these points to endorse their own point of view didn't do apparently, his physicians told me that he was actually maintained on life support and was given excessive amounts of fluid to maintain his blood pressure, that while he was on life support it was necessary to maintain his blood pressure to give him this amount of fluid.

O'BRIEN: But as you well know, many, many doctors will say, gaining a couple of pounds a day is typical.

TRAGER: Right.

O'BRIEN: Maybe gaining five a day would be on the high side, but gaining 60 over eight days is abnormal.

TRAGER: What I can tell you is that the people I've spoken who saw him said his hands swelled in front of them to three to four times sized normal. I think it's really important that we ask ourselves: Why is this so important? You know, we've got an epidemic of obesity. This is a man who tried his hardest to fight that epidemic. He came up with a solution that is helping people right now manage their weight and improve their health. And we're focusing on weight and some records that were incomplete, and really truly we know now were not telling the whole story. He wasn't obese.

O'BRIEN: At the same time, you can understand that a lot of the interest comes because Dr. Atkins was on his own diet, and also had a history of heart problems. He has said in the past that they weren't linked to diet. But were any of them linked to diet?

TRAGER: He and his physicians have reinforced over and over again that what he had was cardiomyopathy, and the cardiomyoptathy that he had did not and was not related to having had heart attacks or anything else that was diet related. It was...

O'BRIEN: He had said it was a viral infection.

TRAGER: That was...

O'BRIEN: But then there were other medical issues, a progression of coronary disease, new blockage of a second artery. This comes from Dr. Atkins' wife. And while he said that the cardiomyopathy came from an infection, what about those other two?

TRAGER: Dr. Atkins was...

O'BRIEN: Are those diet related?

TRAGER: Dr. Atkins was a 72-year-old man, and he had the heart of a 72-year-old man. You know, he did lots of wonderful things and trying to stand guard and promote controlling carbohydrates, and carbohydrate awareness was a wonderful thing. H never claimed to have the cure for his own mortality.

He was a 72-year-old man. He tried very hard to fight conventional thinking and to promote his ideas. And in the end, I think we've seen now that science with 18 new recent clinical studies confirming the safety and efficacy and the value of controlling carbohydrates that he was right all along.

O'BRIEN: You've testified about the alternative food pyramid. What didn't you like about the food pyramid we have now?

TRAGER: I think what we know is that current food pyramid hasn't worked. Diet and nutrition may not come in one size fits all. And the harder we try to make people follow one approach we see it just doesn't work. We've got an epidemic of obesity. We lose 300,000 lives each year because of obesity.

O'BRIEN: What's the food pyramid you'd like to see?

TRAGER: We want to see more carbohydrate awareness. We've presented a food pyramid that really...

O'BRIEN: Meaning less carbohydrates?

TRAGER: Well, the right carbohydrates, making better carbohydrate choices so people choose nutrient-dense whole foods -- the carbohydrates that don't impact blood sugar so much, getting rid of the simple sugars and the highly-refined carbohydrates, choosing instead fruits and vegetables that don't raise blood sugar nearly as much, so people can eat until they are filled, rather than make choices with nutrient void empty calories.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's Dr. Stuart Trager. He is the chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council joining us a little bit earlier this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired February 13, 2004 - 07:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The controversy is still raging about the man who led the low-carb revolution. Supporters of the late Dr. Robert Atkins take issue with suggestions that the diet he designed might have caused him some serious health problems.
Earlier, I spoke with Dr. Stuart Trager, the chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, about claims that the diet doctor was obese at the time of his death.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. STUART TRAGER, CHAIRMAN, ATKINS PHYSICIANS COUNCIL: What we know is that in front of his family and his friends and his associates, he swelled dramatically in the hospital. In talking to his physicians, something that some of the people have tried to get these records and make these points to endorse their own point of view didn't do apparently, his physicians told me that he was actually maintained on life support and was given excessive amounts of fluid to maintain his blood pressure, that while he was on life support it was necessary to maintain his blood pressure to give him this amount of fluid.

O'BRIEN: But as you well know, many, many doctors will say, gaining a couple of pounds a day is typical.

TRAGER: Right.

O'BRIEN: Maybe gaining five a day would be on the high side, but gaining 60 over eight days is abnormal.

TRAGER: What I can tell you is that the people I've spoken who saw him said his hands swelled in front of them to three to four times sized normal. I think it's really important that we ask ourselves: Why is this so important? You know, we've got an epidemic of obesity. This is a man who tried his hardest to fight that epidemic. He came up with a solution that is helping people right now manage their weight and improve their health. And we're focusing on weight and some records that were incomplete, and really truly we know now were not telling the whole story. He wasn't obese.

O'BRIEN: At the same time, you can understand that a lot of the interest comes because Dr. Atkins was on his own diet, and also had a history of heart problems. He has said in the past that they weren't linked to diet. But were any of them linked to diet?

TRAGER: He and his physicians have reinforced over and over again that what he had was cardiomyopathy, and the cardiomyoptathy that he had did not and was not related to having had heart attacks or anything else that was diet related. It was...

O'BRIEN: He had said it was a viral infection.

TRAGER: That was...

O'BRIEN: But then there were other medical issues, a progression of coronary disease, new blockage of a second artery. This comes from Dr. Atkins' wife. And while he said that the cardiomyopathy came from an infection, what about those other two?

TRAGER: Dr. Atkins was...

O'BRIEN: Are those diet related?

TRAGER: Dr. Atkins was a 72-year-old man, and he had the heart of a 72-year-old man. You know, he did lots of wonderful things and trying to stand guard and promote controlling carbohydrates, and carbohydrate awareness was a wonderful thing. H never claimed to have the cure for his own mortality.

He was a 72-year-old man. He tried very hard to fight conventional thinking and to promote his ideas. And in the end, I think we've seen now that science with 18 new recent clinical studies confirming the safety and efficacy and the value of controlling carbohydrates that he was right all along.

O'BRIEN: You've testified about the alternative food pyramid. What didn't you like about the food pyramid we have now?

TRAGER: I think what we know is that current food pyramid hasn't worked. Diet and nutrition may not come in one size fits all. And the harder we try to make people follow one approach we see it just doesn't work. We've got an epidemic of obesity. We lose 300,000 lives each year because of obesity.

O'BRIEN: What's the food pyramid you'd like to see?

TRAGER: We want to see more carbohydrate awareness. We've presented a food pyramid that really...

O'BRIEN: Meaning less carbohydrates?

TRAGER: Well, the right carbohydrates, making better carbohydrate choices so people choose nutrient-dense whole foods -- the carbohydrates that don't impact blood sugar so much, getting rid of the simple sugars and the highly-refined carbohydrates, choosing instead fruits and vegetables that don't raise blood sugar nearly as much, so people can eat until they are filled, rather than make choices with nutrient void empty calories.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's Dr. Stuart Trager. He is the chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council joining us a little bit earlier this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.