Diet Battles Head for Television

By PATRICIA WINTERS LAURO

THE continuing battle between diet gurus promoting a low-fat, high-fiber lifestyle and those preaching a high-protein, low-carbohydrate approach is taking to the air this week, with a 30-second television commercial sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

The committee views high-protein diets as potentially dangerous. The commercial, created by Tidepool Media Productions in Washington, tells viewers that a high-protein, meat-intense diet can promote osteoporosis, kidney disease and possibly colon cancer. "You have more to lose than just weight," a voiceover says.

The commercial never mentions Dr. Robert Atkins or his diet, but the Atkins diet is clearly a target. The spot is part of the committee's broader plan to dispel a "flood of misinformation" about high-protein diets, like the one promoted by Dr. Atkins, said Neal D. Barnard, a physician who is the president of the group, which says it has a membership of 5,000 doctors and 100,000 supporters. Dr. Barnard said the Atkins diet was not mentioned by name in the ad because other high-protein diets like the Zone are also popular.

After being around for 30 years, the Atkins high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet — which had been largely ignored or discredited by the medical establishment — has had a surge of popular interest after a recent study in The American Journal of Medicine found people lost weight and reduced cholesterol levels on the diet. But the study urged more research to determine long-term safety.

With the renewed interest, New York-based Atkins Nutritionals has stepped up its marketing efforts. Radio advertising promotes the diet's new recognition, while print ads in magazines like Vanity Fair and People provide how-to manuals on following the Atkins diet.

Proponents of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets, confronted by a population growing more obese even as a low-fat approach has been government dogma, contend that carbohydrates and sugar — not fats from protein — make people fat. Dr. Barnard and much of the medical establishment contend that most fats and sugar are the culprits in the American obesity epidemic.

Dr. Barnard said the committee decided to run the campaign now because it was surprised by the resurgence in popularity of the high-protein diet.

"We could not have predicted this popularity," Dr. Barnard said. "Regrettably, individuals have gotten a tremendous flood of misinformation that neglects to tell of the diet's dangers."

The Atkins Center issued a statement calling the physicians' committee "an extremist vegetarian animal rights group," adding that the committee was political in nature and had been repeatedly censured by the American Medical Association.

"We're not going to get into a philosophical debate with extremist vegans over the merits of meat and animal byproducts," said Carlette Heimowitz, director of education and research for Atkins Health and Medical Information Services.

Jeanne S. McVey, a physicians' committee spokeswoman, said the group, which is based in Washington, is a health advocacy organization that has strongly objected to animal testing but that it is not an animal rights group. She also said Dr. Barnard had disagreed with the A.M.A. in the past, but had never been censured.

A search of the A.M.A.'s Web site showed that the association strongly objected to the committee's position on animal testing.

Until now, the fight between the low-fat and high-fat diet camps has been played out in the news media, not directly in advertising. Dr. Atkins and Dr. Dean Ornish, who is a member of the committee, have frequently promoted opposing views in the news media. Both doctors' diet companies have increased their advertising this year, but neither has attacked the other by name.

Although the committee's campaign has spent just $50,000 for advertising time, Dr. Barnard said this was only the beginning. He said the committee would also attack high-protein diets in campaigns aimed at doctors and academia.

With malpractice insurance a hot topic, the committee plans to direct print and Internet ads to doctors, warning of the possible liability associated with recommending a high-protein diet, Dr. Barnard said. He and other committee members will discuss the issue at professional conferences and symposiums and at universities.

He said the diet issue was a prominent one in academia right now.

"There are a couple of battlefronts," Dr. Barnard said. "The ad world is a smaller one. The one that is actually the driver is the academic world, and that's where the diet will ultimately hang. It's a slower battle, but it's more decisive, and one drives the other."

The TV spot is running on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago, Houston and Washington. A full-page print ad will run in USA Today in the regional markets of Nashville, St. Louis and New Orleans.

The markets were selected because their populations have high rates of obesity and other fat-related health problems, said Simon Chaitowitz, the committee's communications director.

Dr. Barnard said he thought that the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets would ultimately be proved to be unsafe. But according to the NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y., impatient Americans are less interested in hearing about long-term lifestyle changes like reducing fat and increasing fiber content. They would rather hear quick-fix words like "diet" or "low-calorie," said Harry Balzer, NPD's vice president.

"Today it's all away from low fat and low cholesterol and more toward calorie control and weight loss," Mr. Balzer said. "Right now, as a marketer, the best place to be is in the very traditional calorie-reduced category."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/b...&partner=GOOGLE