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The Truth About the Atkins Diet

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The Truth About the Atkins Diet PromiseSoy: vs. Reality NOVEMBER 2002 VOLUME 29 / NUMBER 9 CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST $2.50 —page 8— HEALTH LETTERTM The Truth About the Atkins Diet By Bonnie Liebman “What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” asked the cover story of the July 7th New York Times Magazine. The arti- cle, by freelance writer Gary Taubes, argues that loading our plates with fatty meats, cheeses, cream, and but- ter is the key not just to weight loss, but to a long, healthy life. “Influential researchers are begin- ning to embrace the medical heresy that maybe Dr. Atkins was right,” writes Taubes. Taubes claims that it’s not fatty foods that make us fat and raise our risk of disease. It’s carbohydrates. And to most readers his arguments sound perfectly plausible. Here are the facts—and the fic- tions—in Taubes’s article, which has led to a book contract with a reported $700,000 advance. And here’s what the scientists he quoted —or neglected to quote—have to say about his reporting. (Continued on page 3) COVER ST erhaps the most telling state- ment in Gary Taubes’s New York Times Magazine article Pcomes as he explains how diffi- The cult it is to study diet and health. “This then leads to a research lit- Truth erature so vast that it’s possible to find at least some published research to support virtually any theory.” About He got that right. It helps explain why Taubes’s article sounds so credible. the “He knows how to spin a yarn,” says Barbara Rolls, an obesity expert at Pennsylvania State University. “What Atkins frightens me is that he picks and chooses his facts.” Diet She ought to know. Taubes inter- viewed her for some six hours, and she sent him “a huge bundle of papers,” but he didn’t quote a word of it. “If the facts CLAIM #1: The experts recom- ■ According to Taubes, Harvard don’t fit in with his yarn, he ignores mend an Atkins diet. University’s Walter Willett is one of the “small but growing minority of estab- them,” she says. TRUTH: They don’t. Instead, Taubes put together what lishment researchers [who] have come An Atkins diet is loaded with meat, to take seriously what the low-carb-diet sounds like convincing evidence that butter, and other foods high in satu- doctors have been saying all along.” carbohydrates cause obesity. rated fat. Taubes implies that many of True, Willett is concerned about the “He took this weird little idea and blew the experts he quotes recommend it. harm that may be caused by high- it up, and people believed him,” says John Here’s what they say: carbohydrate diets (see “What to Eat,” Farquhar, a professor emeritus of ■ “The article was incredibly mislead- page 7). But the Atkins diet? “I cer- medicine at Stanford University’s Center ing,” says Gerald Reaven, the pioneer- tainly don’t recommend it,” he says. for Research in Disease Prevention. ing Stanford University researcher, His reasons: heart disease and cancer. Taubes quoted Farquhar, but misrepre- now emeritus, who coined the term “There’s a clear benefit for reducing sented his views. “What a disaster,” says “Syndrome X.” “My quote was cor- cardiovascular risk from replacing Farquhar. rect, but the context suggested that I unhealthy fats—saturated and trans— Others agree. “It’s silly to say that car- support eating saturated fat. I was with healthy fats,” explains Willett, bohydrates cause obesity,” says George horrified.” who chairs Harvard’s nutrition depart- Blackburn of Harvard Medical School and ment. “And I told Taubes several times that red meat is associated with a higher the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center risk of colon and possibly prostate can- in Boston. “We’re overweight because Gary Taubes cer, but he left that out.” we overeat calories.” tricked us all ■ It’s not clear how Taubes thought he “ “I was greatly offended at how Gary could ignore—or distort—what into coming Taubes tricked us all into coming across as supporters of the Atkins diet,” says researchers told him. “The article was across as Stanford’s John Farquhar. written in bad faith,” says F. Xavier Pi- supporters Taubes’s article ends with a quote Sunyer, director of the Obesity Research of the from Farquhar, asking: “Can we get the Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Atkins diet. low-fat proponents to apologize?” But Center in New York. “It was irresponsi- that quote was taken out of context. ble.” — John Farquhar “What I was referring to wasn’t that Here’s a point-by-point response to Stanford University” low-fat diets would make a person gain Taubes’s major claims. ›››› NUTRITION ACTION HEALTHLETTER ■ NOVEMBER 2002 3 COVER STORY weight and become obese,” explains CLAIM #4: We’re fat because we Farquhar. Like Willett and Reaven, he’s ate a low-fat diet. worried that too much carbohydrate My quote was TRUTH: We never ate a low-fat can raise the risk of heart disease. diet. “I meant that in susceptible individu- correct, but “ “At the very moment that the govern- als, a very-low-fat [high-carb] diet can the context raise triglycerides, lower HDL [‘good’] ment started telling Americans to eat suggested cholesterol, and make harmful, small, less fat, we got fatter,” says Taubes. dense LDL,” says Farquhar. that I support “We ate more fat-free carbohydrates, which, in turn, made us hungrier and Carbohydrates are not what has eating satu- made us a nation of butterballs, how- then heavier.” ever. “We’re overfed, over-advertised, rated fat. I was It’s hard to believe this claim passed and under-exercised,” he says. “It’s the horrified. the laugh test at The Times. If you enormous portion sizes and sitting in believe Taubes, it’s not the 670-calorie — Gerald Reaven front of the TV and computer all day” Cinnabons, the 900-calorie slices of Stanford University” Sbarro’s sausage-and-pepperoni-stuffed that are to blame. “It’s so gol’darn obvious—how can anyone ignore it?” pizza, the 1,000-calorie shakes or “The Times editor called and tried to Double Whoppers with Cheese, the get me to say that low-fat diets were 1,600-calorie buckets of movie theater the cause of obesity, but I wouldn’t,” CLAIM #3: Health authorities popcorn, or the 3,000-calorie orders of adds Farquhar. recommended a low-fat diet as cheese fries that have padded our back- the key to weight loss. sides. It’s only the low-fat Snackwells, CLAIM #2: Saturated fat pasta (with fat-free sauce), and bagels TRUTH: They didn’t. doesn’t promote heart disease. (with no cream cheese). “It’s preposterous,” says Samuel TRUTH “We’ve been told with almost religious : It does. certainty by everyone from the Surgeon Klein, director of the Center for Human If there’s any advice that experts agree General on down, and we have come Nutrition at the Washington University on, it’s that people should cut back on to believe with almost religious cer- School of Medicine in St. Louis. saturated fat. They’ve looked not just tainty, that obesity is caused by the “There’s no real evidence that low-fat at its effect on cholesterol levels, but on excessive consumption of fat, and that diets have caused the obesity epi- its tendency to promote blood clots, raise if we eat less fat we will lose weight and demic.” insulin levels, and damage blood vessels. live longer,” writes Taubes. Taubes argues that in the late 1970s, They’ve issued that advice after exam- It’s true that some diet books, notably health authorities started telling ining animal studies, population stud- Dean Ornish’s Eat More, Weigh Less, Americans to cut back on fat, and that ies, and clinical studies.1-3 Taubes dis- have encouraged people to eat as much we did. Wrong. misses them with one narrow argument. fat-free food as they want. (Of course, According to the U.S. Department of Saturated fats, he writes, “will elevate Ornish is talking about fruits, vegeta- Agriculture, added fats (oils, shortening, your bad cholesterol, but they will also bles, and whole grains, not fat-free lard, and beef tallow) have gone up elevate your good cholesterol. In other cakes, cookies, and ice cream.) But steadily since the late 1970s (see words, it’s a virtual wash.” “everyone from the Surgeon General “Hardly a Low-Fat Diet”). Total fats Experts disagree. “Fifty years of on down” is baloney. (which include the fat in meats, cheese, research shows that saturated fat and “The Surgeon General’s report doesn’t and other foods) have also gone up, cholesterol raise LDL [‘bad’] choles- say that fat causes obesity,” says though not as steadily. terol, and the higher your LDL, the Marion Nestle, who was managing edi- So how can Taubes write that “the higher your risk of coronary heart dis- tor of the report and is now chair of the major trends in American diets, accord- ease,” says Farquhar. Yet Taubes has no nutrition and food studies depart-ment ing to USDA agricultural economist qualms about encouraging people to at New York University. “Fat has twice Judith Putnam, have been a decrease in eat foods that raise their LDL. the calories of either protein or carbo- the percentage of fat calories and a He’s willing to bet that higher HDL hydrate. That’s why fat is fattening ‘greatly increased consumption of car- (“good”) cholesterol will protect them.
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