Dr. Atkins took 60 vitamins a day!

And low-carbers complain when plant-based eaters take just one (B12).


Atkins' Diet: Can We Have Our Turkey and Eat it Too?

November 26, 1999

MATALIN: All right. Dr. Atkins, before we run out of time, you have been on the diet for 36 years. Do you -- is it true you take 60 vitamins a day?

ATKINS: I try to.

MATALIN: Why?

ATKINS: I believe in vitamins.

MATALIN: Well, that does not speak well for the diet if it needs to be supplemented...

ATKINS: No, it speaks well for my knowledge of vitanutrients. I take them because I have learned in my study of vitanutrients how valuable they can be. I'm looking to do things above and beyond what other people can achieve. I'm looking to be by the age of 100 still young and active and functioning well, and for that I'm going to need some extra vitamins. That's what my research in vitanutrients has shown me. It doesn't mean my diet is inadequate. It has been shown that our diet is more nutrient dense than the diet consumed according to the government recommendation. And the American Heart Association -- can you imagine they have their seal of approval on Fruit Loops.

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/diet.fitness/9911/26/atkins.diet/


I guess all those supplements didn't help him too much as it was revealed he suffered from heart disease, obesity, and previously had a heart attack a year before his death.

"The latest twist is the publication in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday of details from Dr. Atkins's confidential medical report. The report concludes that Dr. Atkins, 72, had a history of heart attack and congestive heart failure and notes that he weighed 258 pounds at death.

The report, based on an external examination of the body and some hospital information, said Dr. Atkins had a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension. His wife objected to an autopsy, Ms. Borakove said, so none was performed.

Dr. John McDougall, a member of the Physicians Committee and an internist who had debated Dr. Atkins, said there was no doubt that Dr. Atkins had lost weight after his cardiac arrest, but before that was a different story. "I knew the man," he said. "He was grossly overweight. I thought he was 40 to 60 pounds overweight when I saw him, and I'm being kind." As for the buildup of fluids in his final days, he said, "I never heard of anyone gaining 60 pounds of fluid in nine days."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/11/nyregion/just-what-killed-the-diet-doctor-and-what-keeps-the-issue-alive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_atkins#Heart_attack
http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/atkins.asp
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