Atkins charity to bankroll diet research
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | June 23, 2004

A charity founded by the late diet doctor Robert C. Atkins stands to inherit his vast fortune and plans to bankroll a barrage of studies championing his popular low-carbohydrate diet, positioning it to dominate diet research at a time when an unprecedented number of Americans are seeking weight-loss guidance.

With Atkins's estate worth an estimated $600 million, the Robert C. Atkins Foundation will eventually become the largest private supporter of dieting research in the United States. Its budget could rival what the federal government now spends on studying diets.

Atkins's will called for his fortune to be held in a trust for his wife, Veronica, and instructed that it be transferred in chunks to the charity, with the entire remaining amount going to it upon her death, according to officers at the charity. This year, Veronica Atkins, 61, will give the charity $46 million, said the charity's officials, boosting its assets twentyfold.

The New York-based foundation's leadership, which includes Atkins's widow, says it intends to use the cash infusion to continue Atkins's crusade, following his death last year. Its sole stated mission remains the same as it was when Atkins founded it in 1999, to fund research into low-carbohydrate diets.

The development marks a dramatic turnabout : Atkins was long marginalized by the nutrition research community, but critics now worry that the Atkins foundation's wealth and singular focus could distort the nation's dieting research agenda in a way that benefits Atkins Nutritionals, the for-profit company that sells Atkins diet products and that once had close ties to the charity.

"The studies they fund keep the Atkins name in your face," said Dr. David L. Katz, a Yale University nutritional specialist. "If you've got a product to sell, just being out there is worth it. The foundation can buy those headlines."

For instance, headlines worldwide trumpeted a scientific study last month demonstrating the short-term effectiveness of the Atkins diet. The study, conducted by Duke University researchers, had been funded three years earlier by the Atkins foundation. Executives for Atkins Nutritionals, who at the time sat on the charity's board, approved the research topic.

The medical director of Atkins Nutritionals, Dr. Stuart L. Trager, said the company no longer has any role in the foundation, but acknowledged that its research could help the company. "As the science continues to validate the safety and efficacy of controlling carbs as a nutritional principal . . . the interest in this approach will rise," he said.

Charity specialists interviewed could not cite another example like the Atkins case, in which a charity and company have such a similar and narrow focus.

William Josephson, a New York assistant attorney general in charge of charities, called the arrangement rare, but said it violated no laws. "If it wasn't bona fide research, it would cross the line."

Between 1999 and 2002, the charity funded 11 studies at a cost of about $1 million, according to the charity's tax records. These studies have suggested that the Atkins diet is a safe and effective weight loss method for up to one year. But the research has not yet shown that dieters keep the weight off over the long term.

The studies thus far have mostly been published in legitimate science journals. But Atkins's goal in creating the charity hardly envisioned disinterested scientific inquiry.

"He just wanted vindication," said Abby Bloch, a nutritionist who is the foundation's vice president. In the late 1990s, she said, "Dr. Atkins was getting increasing criticism from his opponents that he didn't have any research backing his claim."

So, as his diet surged in popularity, Atkins decided to use his new wealth to answer the criticism. He established the charity in 1999 with a $1,000,100 donation, according to the foundation's tax records. A charity, unlike a company, could produce science that appeared free of taint, Atkins said at the time, according to Bloch.

The charity's first grant went to Dr. Eric Westman at Duke University. Westman's specialty was nicotine research. He had noticed that some patients trying to quit smoking adopted the Atkins diet to avoid weight gain. He called Atkins seeking data on the diet and came away with a $71,159 grant to study it.

Atkins insisted to scientists that the charity was independent from the company, said scientists interviewed.

However, by 2000, the charity's board comprised just four people, all of them closely associated with the company: Atkins, who owned a majority stake in Atkins Nutritionals; his wife; the company's chairman, Paul D. Wolff; and president, Scott Kabak, according to tax records. Dr. Atkins remained its sole funder.

Bloch reviewed all the grant proposals. But it was the Atkinses and the corporate officers who had the final word on which were funded. Bloch, however, said the company never exercised "any influence or restriction on the research."

The charity gained immense resources following the death of the 72-year-old Atkins in April 2003.

Lawyers for the Atkins family quickly realized that Atkins's will meant that the charity would become enormous, requiring tighter management and independence from Atkins Nutritionals, said family associates. They brought in the National Philanthropic Trust, professional managers of charity money. Veronica Atkins became chairwoman of the foundation, with two officials of the trust as deputies.

As the charity transformed itself after Atkins's death, so too did Atkins Nutritionals. Boston-based investment firm Parthenon Capital, along with Goldman Sachs, bought an 80 percent controlling share in the company for $533 million, according to Wall Street analysts. The Atkins family no longer has any investment in the company.

Though Atkins himself is no longer alive to control the charity, its officers made clear it would continue to wage his fight for the low-carbohydrate diet. "We're really looking to primarily study the low-carb approach to eating," said Eileen R. Heisman, a trust executive who now sits on the charity's board. Veronica Atkins could not be reached for this story.

As its funding increases, the foundation is looking beyond mere weight loss.

It has begun funding studies on using the low-carb approach to treat diabetes, epilepsy, and seizures, loss of cognitive function in the elderly, and esophageal reflux. It plans to range more widely in the future.

The foundation's growth gives it the potential to wield outsize influence in the health-research world, which is chiefly driven by grant funding. The government does not compile figures on how much it spends studying diets specifically. But this year, the federal government will spend $400.1 million for a major push on obesity research, which covers a wide variety of studies. By comparison, the Atkins Foundation may eventually have $600 million in assets to back its goals.

The charity's largest funding recipient has been Dr. George L. Blackburn of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard, who got a $260,000 grant in 2001, which he continues to use on a low-carb study. He said Atkins Nutritionals has never tried to influence his work, and he expressed his skepticism of the diet.

"There's been no data showing that it would be safe [over the long term] to be on a diet that had more than 10 percent of the calories from saturated fat," he said.

But Tufts University science policy scholar Sheldon Krimsky said the Atkins foundation and the company clearly "have a theory that they're trying to prove."

"They seem to have mutual goals," he said.

Katz said that even ambiguous studies that mentioned the Atkins name would keep the brand in the public eye. Case in point, he said, was the foundation-funded study by Westman at Duke, published last month in a major scientfic journal. It showed that the diet bested low-fat diets over a six month period. That time span is considered by nutritionists to be too short to measure the true effectiveness of a diet.

"When you get a published study that says look at all this short-term weight loss, people get distracted by it," Katz said. "Atkins was in all the headlines, and the foundation bought that."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/a..._diet_research/

Some fancy semantics going on here. The article seems to be warning us that the Atkins Foundation could be come so large that it could surpase the amount the government spends on diet research. (clearly a worry of the author) "Its budget could rival what the federal government now spends on studying diets."

Notice he says the "budge" could exceed what the government spends on studying diets. Not, the foundation would outspend the governement. If you look at the numbers, it's actually quite impossible at the moment (who knows what the future will bring) to do this. This won't be possible even if the Atkins Foundation does eventually get all the money they say it could possibly get. "this year, the federal government will spend $400.1 million for a major push on obesity research, which covers a wide variety of studies. By comparison, the Atkins Foundation may eventually have $600 million in assets to back its goals." Yes, 600 is greater than 400, but the way foundations work is that they don't use the principle, they fund out of the interest of the principle. So, if the government is spending 400 million, the foundation would have to have enough funds to have over 400 million in annual interest to surpass it. Not likely with only 600 million in principle.

I'm glad to hear that they will have enough money to fund research that is badly needed. I'm also glad to read how they've set up better oversite to ensure proper administration of the foundation. It's important to not give the opponents of LC any more ammunition, as if they even need a reason to attack.

I hope the foundation does good work and carefully spreads the wealth to show the benefits of a low-carb diet.

Plane Crazy

What floors me is that for years critics of Dr. Atkins refused to give the plan any credence because of "lack of research" and kept challenging Dr. Atkins to provide scientific evidence that his plan was as healthy as he claimed.
Now that Dr. Atkins has passed on and a foundation has been created with money bequethed to them by Dr. Atkins, people are freaked out because they're funding research into the low carb WOL?
Folks...which is it? Do you want research or not? Sheesh! It seems to me that these people are looking for any excuse they can to not have to admit that Dr. Atkins was right all along.

They want the research, they just don't want it funded by Atkins. Now, I bet there'd be no arguement if WW or Jenny Craig paid for research.....which they wouldn't do, because they know it would bite them in the a.....butt.