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Dr Atkins
(1930-2003) |
Dr. Atkins |
The American doctor Robert Coleman Atkins was a cardiologist who fought for
the acknowledgement of alternative medicine, and one of the most famous and
succesful food experts of the last 40 year.
He became best known for the Atkins Nutritional Approach (or "Atkins Diet").
Atkins was born in Ohio, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1951
and received a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1955,
after which he specialized in cardiology and complementary medicine.
He founded the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, one of the biggest
centers of its kind.
Besides treating patients he also was an advocate for complementary medicine
as an alternative for farmaceutical drugs and surgery for many diseases.
Partly because of him alternative medicine got national attention as a
valid medical approach.
In 1972 he launched his diet, which gave him worldwide fame during the 90's.
Dr. Atkins died on april 17, 2003 at the age of 72. He slipped on the ice while walking to work,
hitting his head which caused bleeding around his brain. He lost consciousness on the way
to the hospital, where he spent two weeks in intensive care.
The severe braindamage caused him to retain a lot of fluid. He also got a viral
infection. Because of all this his weight at the time of his death was about
66 pounds more than two weeks earlier when he was hospitalized.
When his weight on the day of his death was published, some people wrongly
concluded that the dietguru himself had been overweight. However, on the day
after his accident his weight was documented as totally normal for his age.
Atkins became known for his diet with normal quantities of fat but limited
carbohydrates. It works, but medical scientist aren't exactly sure how. So far
it seems that the relatively large quantities of protein decrease people's appetite
but opinions still differ a lot.
Atkins wrote 13 books, among which were the Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution (1972),
Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (1992) and a new version of that (2002), and
Atkins for Life (2003) in which the Atkins lifestyle is described.
The New Diet Revolution was in the top-10 bestseller list of the New York Times
for almost 6 years. Worldwide more than 14 million copies have been sold and
that puts it in the top-50 bestseller list of all times.
Atkins for Life was also number one on the list for weeks after its publication
in january 2003.
Dr. Atkins also supervised a team of people working on different book projects, including
a new book that showed how important the Atkins lifestyle is in controlling diabetes.
Because he was convinced that diabetes and obesitas are both part of the same epidemic,
Atkins intended to spend part of his time in the coming years to challenge
conventional knowledge about diabetes prevention and -care, as he had done for
obesitas. At the request of his widow Veronica this new book, Atkins Diabetes Revolution,
was finished and published after his death. |
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