Originally Posted by atkins.com

Atkins Responds to a Frivolous Lawsuit

Read the real story behind a complaint by someone who claims that he developed heart disease as a result of doing Atkins. You should know that this action is being encouraged and funded by the animal rights group PCRM, in yet another attempt to garner publicity for their vegan agenda.

Atkins generally doesn't comment on litigation. But in this case, we must clarify some important issues and pose some serious questions in the interest of setting the record straight. First of all, scientific research suggests that the case has no merit, a possibility raised even in an article on the lawsuit, published in today’s New York Times. Further, PCRM (the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), which is actually a well-known extremist vegan, animal rights group, and the complainant suggest that the lawsuit is just for publicity. We should not let the real issue, providing people with a scientifically validated nutritional choice in the face of a worldwide obesity and Type 2 diabetes epidemic, be manipulated by this extremist group.

PCRM has a long history of initiating such scare tactics designed to convince the American public to stop eating animal protein of any sort. Furthermore, PCRM has been featuring the complainant, Mr. Gorran, and his various allegations on its Web site for quite a while.

Now, to our questions:

• Why does anyone take PCRM seriously and allow this group, with its animal rights agenda, to divert us all from the real crisis: the obesity and diabetes epidemics in this country?
  
  
  
• Why is PCRM, which despite its name, can reportedly claim less than 5 percent of its membership as actual physicians, even viewed as a legitimate participant in the nutrition debate? Shouldn’t the nutrition discussion be focused on science? In response to requests for scientific back up, for the past three years Atkins has been delivering it, now in the form of 27 research studies which have shown that, on average, within one year of doing low carb the Atkins way, people significantly lower several risk factors for heart disease. (see New Research, New Directions). Faced with science and fact, PCRM has resorted to scare tactics.
  
  
  
• Why isn’t the nutrition debate focusing on the recent comments from Dr. Walter Willett, of Harvard University’s School of Public Health, one of the leading experts on nutrition in the world? After reviewing all the scientific research on low-carb nutrition (all the studies followed Atkins protocols), Dr. Willet said, “We can no longer dismiss very-low-carbohydrate diets.” Similarly, in a recent article published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Sylvan Weinberg, MACC, called for medical professionals to recognize the validity of low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets like Atkins in the fight against heart disease. Dr. Weinberg asserted that it is no longer reasonable to accept or endorse on faith alone the superiority of the low-fat/high-carbohydrate approach to coronary health.
  
  
  
• Finally, why isn’t the science conducted by Harvard, Duke, the University of Pennsylvania and the American College of Cardiology included in the discussion of nutritional alternatives?

As always, Atkins stands by the science that has repeatedly reaffirmed the safety and health benefits of the Atkins Nutritional ApproachTM. As recently as last week, two new studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine confirmed the safety and benefits of Atkins as well as demonstrated, even when compared to low-fat diets, that Atkins provides improvements in major cardiovascular risk factors. These findings again show what has been seen consistently in 25 other studies over the past three years.

PCRM and its cronies do a great disservice to the cause of good health in this country by repeatedly manipulating the media to confuse and mislead the American public.