What does a low-carb expert look like now?

Atkins_Robert

Lustig_Robert

Teicholz_Nina

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Curtis_Ernest

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Robert Atkins was a cardiologist who published Dr Atkins’ Diet Revolution (1972) and Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution (2012). Atkins died at the age of 72 in New York in 2003, after falling on ice. His report was mistakenly released to the public. The report stated that Atkins had “a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension.” The report states that his death was caused by a “blunt impact injury of head” and records his weight and height at 258 pounds [117 kg] and 6 feet [182 cm] tall. This represents a BMI of 32, which is classed as “obese”. At the request of his family, an autopsy was not performed. His supporters stated that Atkins suffered from cardiomyopathy, which was likely caused by a virus.

After the coroner’s report on Atkins’ death was leaked, Veronica Atkins vehemently denied on Larry King Live that her husband had coronary artery disease. She did admit later that his cardiovascular system may not have been as fit as the public had been led to believe stating that “Robert did have some progression of his coronary artery disease in the last three years of his life, including some new blockage of a secondary artery“.

Notice that Veronica used the word “progression”. Why did Atkins have progression of coronary heart disease and a new blockage of a secondary artery, the very conditions that his diet was supposed to eliminate?

Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. He specializes in childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar in the diet. He is the director of the UCSF Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program and a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society.

Despite his label of pediatric endocrinologist, his understanding of basic endocrinology is surprisingly lacking. He believes that sugar causes heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia and high blood pressure.v

Nina Teicholz is a journalist and author of The Big, Fat Surprise. She is a supporter of Robert Atkins’ high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

Teicholz claims that the American people have been eating a “low-fat, near vegetarian diet for the last half-century” is absurd. Beef consumption may have reduced 20% but all meats have risen 10% and poultry 89%.

33% of calories from fat is NOT a low-fat diet. Over the last 50 years, Americans are consuming 25% more calories.

William Davis is a cardiologist and author of Wheat Belly. According to Davis, “it becomes clear that grains have always been a problematic calorie source, with problems amplified by changes introduced by genetics manipulations and agribusiness. Cutting-edge research, for example, has revealed that consumption of modern wheat is the first step in triggering autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. As powerful as wheat elimination — or even better, all grains — can be, there is more to address as part of an effort to establish ideal health.”

The history of wheat is complex and researchers are not in agreement as to how wheat evolved. View the following post to examine a different perspective to William Davis’s distorted view.
Wheat and the Distorted Views of William Davis

According to Davis, dairy, eggs, ham, pepperoni and bacon wrapped chicken breasts are allowable foods – just stay away from “unhealthy” grains.

Davis claims that, “Pepperoni bread just looks unhealthy. After all, this ‘bread’ is really just made of ground nuts, coconut, cheese, eggs, and pepperoni”

Loren Cordain is a professor at the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University. He published the book, The Paleo Diet (2001) that promoted the concept and helped popularize the diet. He obtained his Ph.D. in exercise physiology from University of Utah in 19811.

Permissible foods are meat and poultry (grass-fed and free-ranging), fish and other sea foods, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and “healthy” oils. Foods to avoid include all dairy, grains, processed foods, potatoes, refined sugar, salt, refined vegetable oils, and legumes. Paleolithic diets are high in protein (19-35% of energy requirements) and fats (28-47%) and low in carbohydrates (22-40%).

John Funder is a professor of endocrinology. He retired as the chief of Obesity Australia at the end of 2014. He believes that sugar and carbohydrates make you fat.

He expects the development of an anti-obesity pill to be a “game-changer”.

Obesity Australia obtains funding from Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company.

Ernest Curtis is an US cardiologist based in Long Beach, California. He is the author of the Cholesterol Delusion. He states that cholesterol levels have nothing to do with whether a person develops heart disease or has a heart attack.

“Everybody has atherosclerosis to one degree or another,” states Dr. Curtis. “It is simply a biological fact of aging. Cholesterol is a major structural component of every cell in the body and especially vital to the cell membrane that encloses and protects every cell. The bile salts required for proper absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins are made from cholesterol as are many of the hormones without which we could not live. If the human body manufactures 80-90% of the cholesterol in our system, then how could humans survive and advance if [it is] manufacturing a toxic substance in the arteries?”

Blood is essential – we do not need to drink it.

Curtis believes that inflammation is the cause of heart disease, without stating what is the cause of inflammation.

He quotes George Mann, who states that, the idea that diet and heart diesease is related is “the greatest scientific fraud of the 20th century—perhaps any century.” ¹

According to Nina Teicholz, Mann found that “he could identify almost no heart disease at all“. ² 

However, according to George Mann’s paper, Atherosclerosis In The Masai, ³

Masai also have a very low energy intake in the foods they consume, are active and suffer from parasitic infections – all which contribute to lower serum cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease.

Denis Stewart is a herbalist from the Hunter Valley (NSW, Australia). He is an associate professor at University of Newcastle since 1902. Denis suffers from diabetes.

He believes that breakfast is poison, that carbohydrates are bad and Ancel Keys is responsible for our current obesity crisis and the poor level of nutrition found in our society.

He also advocates a Mediterranean-style diet, completely unaware that it was Ancel and Margaret Keys the coined the term Mediterranean Diet, based on the diets of the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France, southern Italy and Greece of the 1960s.

Ancel and Margaret lived in the village of Pioppi, south of Naples for over 20 years and wrote three books espousing the virtues of the Mediterranean diet.

You can discover more about the work of Ancel Keys and his actual achievements, instead of his imagined failures by reading my book, Low-Carbohydrate Mania: The Fantasies, Delusions, and Myths.

Related articles

What is the Problem with Wheat?
Wheat and Inflammation
Impact of a Gluten-Free Diet
Wheat and the Distorted Views of William Davis
Glucose Tolerance – Comparison of High-Fat and High-Carb Diets

Last updated on Friday 2 May 2025 at 14:58 by administrators

1. Barko, S. (2017)Cardiologist Refutes Relationship Between Cholesterol Levels And Heart Attack . Available from: www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8398286.htm (Accessed 15 October 2017).
2. Teicholz, N. (2015) The Big Fat Surprise. Simon & Schuster.
3. Mann, G. V. et al. (1972) Atherosclerosis in the Masai. American Journal of Epidemiology. 95 (1), 26–37.