Atkins foes have their own explaining to do

By Carolyn Susman, Palm Beach Post Staff Columnist

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent...eaa1f80061.html

Dr. Robert Atkins is dead.

But he isn't resting in peace.

A doctors' group that lobbies for a vegan diet -- and, according to Atkins' widow, illegally obtained the medical examiner's report that showed Atkins obese at his death -- continues to pound the pavement for low-fat eating.

Remorseless about its postmortem attack on the doctor who popularized the high-fat, low-carb diet, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has moved on to ads that hit men where they live: erectile dysfunction.

During the week of Valentine's Day, the group ran a television ad in South Florida markets on CNN, ESPN and Lifetime networks, linking high-fat eating to impotence. The ad ends with the tag line, "Eating meat contributes to artery blockages, and that can make you impotent."

Backing up its claim, PCRM -- which has been accused of being a cover for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a claim it denies -- sent out copies of studies, none of which concluded definite associations between high fat consumption and impotence. Cigarette smoking was more widely implicated. But some of the studies speculated that erectile dysfunction and heart disease might be associated and that impotence might be a warning sign for future heart problems.

This is certainly food for thought. And if modifying risk factors for heart disease makes impotence disappear, so much the better.

The real question is, who is this group, and why are they hitting below the belt? Web searches quickly bring up attacks by the National Council Against Health Fraud, Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the American Medical Association.

PCRM comes back with several counterpunches: the AMA has backtracked on its earlier statements that attacked PCRM on diet. More recent AMA statements are critical of PCRM's position against animal lab testing.

On Tufts, PCRM sent a link from the Center for Science in the Public Interest "and their exposure of Tufts University's School of Nutrition and Science Web site, which... is funded by Kraft foods." Meaning that Tufts' statements against PCRM's anti-dairy position are tainted. Well, this doesn't answer why nonfat milk is an unhealthful dairy product.

And if we're implicating by association, PCRM acknowledges receiving money from PETA but maintains that it is an independent organization.

Etcetera, etcetera.

PCRM is used to wrestling with the media and those who criticize its "love animals, hate fat" campaign. Its advisory board includes Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Henry Heimlich, all of whom are known for espousing their own controversial positions on diet and health.

Conclusion? No one seems pure in this debate over what constitutes a healthful diet.

It serves as a warning to examine closely who is saying what about which way to eat.

"They are inappropriately scaring us about health to promote a non-health but less popular agenda," says Jeff Stier of the American Council on Science and Health.

Really. And shouldn't we all be outraged that a group of physicians would use an apparently illegally obtained medical form to slander Atkins? Besides, even if he did die obese and with heart problems, how does that prove that his diet was to blame?

carolyn_susman~pbpost.com