MR_F_AVERAGE
Mitglied
Für die unter Euch, die des Englischen ausreichend mächtig sind, nachfolgend eine Abschrift des Interviews mit Dr. Atkins in der Larry King Show vom 06. Januar 2003, nur ein paar Monate vor seinem Unfalltod. Er hatte noch viel vor, wie man liest... Dort beantwortet er hochstpersönlich viele Fragen. Ich füge ebenfalls ein Foto an. Ebenfalls relativ kurz vor seinem Tod entstanden. Er war definitiv NICHT übergewichtigt. Jedenfalls nach meinen Standards.
Gruß,
Frank.
========================================================
From CNN
Larry King Interview with Robert Atkins
Interview With Robert Atkins
Aired January 6, 2003 - 21:00 ET
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Dr. Robert Atkins, the world's
most controversial diet guru, criticized for years. He may
have been right after all. He's here for the hour and he'll
take your calls. Dr. Robert Atkins next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's always good to see him. We've been interviewing him
many, many times over the years, locally in Miami,
nationally on radio and now with us on television and radio
via CNN. Dr. Robert Atkins is a cardiologist and founder of
the Atkins Center for Complimentary Medicine. His books
have been number one on the "New York Times" list often.
His new book is "Atkins for Life." There you see its cover.
"The Complete Controlled Carb Program for Permanent Weight
Loss and Good Health."
You can get him as well and reach him at the
Atkinscenter.com on his Web site or get the book, or
whatever. He has become internationally famous. Always very
controversial. Now a lot of medical institutions are saying
that maybe he was right.
First, let's get an update on your own health. I know that
you had a cardiac arrest a year ago. What happened and how
are you?
DR. ROBERT ATKINS: Well, it didn't last very long. And then
I continued to get better and better and played a lot of
tennis. And I'm probably in better health than I've been in
the past 10 years.
KING: What was it that happened to you, though?
ATKINS: We don't know, but I know that I had an infection
in my heart, and it caused an arrhythmia and so it must
have been an arrhythmia that sort of took off, and that was
it.
KING: Not related to your diet?
ATKINS: Definitely not. You don't catch an infection from
my diet. But this was an infection.
KING: How in the world does a cardiologist in a world of we
hate fat and high cholesterol, worry about all those
things, suddenly turn the opposite route? How did that
happen?
ATKINS: Well, it was really very simple. I needed to go on
a diet back in 1963. I was gaining a lot of weight. Yes, I
was practicing cardiology, but I was gaining weight. And
there was an article in the AMA journal that said, by the
way, you don't have to go on a low calorie diet, you can go
on a low carbohydrate diet. And I thought, oh, how
wonderful that is. So I went on a diet. It was very, very
exciting. And I not only lost a lot of weight very easily,
but I needed a lot less sleep. I used to need eight and a
half hours sleep, and by the end of two months, I needed
five and a half hours sleep, which, by the way, for the
last 40 years, that's about all I needed.
So it really changed my energy level and it changed a lot
of things. And so I decided to put other people on it.
KING: And the rest is history. Explain to me something...
ATKINS: Yes, I'd say that.
KING: We need carbohydrates, do we not? We must have
carbohydrates in our system.
ATKINS: A lot of people don't need carbohydrates.
KING: Don't need any?
ATKINS: Well, certainly the people way up in the northern
Alaska where they don't grow carbohydrates manage to
survive. So obviously you can survive without
carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are valuable because of many
of the things that they contain. So our diet really is not
a zero carbohydrate diet.
KING: You take carbohydrates?
ATKINS: I eat a lot of vegetables. And those are the most
valuable carbohydrates. But from the very beginning we had
to focus on what are the healthy carbohydrates and stay
away from the unhealthy ones.
KING: All right. Let's get the most important. What are
some things you will not consume? What are unhealthy
carbohydrates?
ATKINS: Well, basically, it's about refined carbohydrates.
That's sugar and flour, those are the refined
carbohydrates.
KING: That means you do not eat bread?
ATKINS: We now eat bread because we make bread without
refined carbohydrates.
KING: Mean we -- you mean, you make your own bread?
ATKINS: A lot of companies make low carbohydrate bread now.
Certainly we're one of them.
KING: So that's what you would recommend, low carbohydrate
bread?
ATKINS: Yes. At various times. Now, we start off -- when
people start the diet, we start off very strict. And a lot
of people have felt, oh, that strict first two weeks of the
diet, that's the whole diet. They don't realize that the
diet is a 70-year diet. KING: But you do allow...
ATKINS: And who cares about two weeks when you're on it for
70 years.
KING: You do allow steaks and chops and...
ATKINS: All of the main courses. Seafood, chicken...
KING: Sauces?
ATKINS: Depends on the sauce. Depends on what is in it. And
certainly cheese and eggs and meat as well, because all of
those foods are without carbohydrates, basically.
KING: So enriched flour, if you cut out enriched flour...
ATKINS: Which we do.
KING: If everybody watching this show stopped all enriched
flour and all sweets, all -- like we're talking about
candies, right?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: Enriched flour, chocolates, candies, stopped it, they
would lose weight? No matter what they ate?
ATKINS: No, it doesn't -- no, they have to -- some people
wouldn't. But everybody would be healthier. Everyone would
be healthier if they didn't eat junk food. That's what junk
food is.
There were times, if we go back 100 years, we found out
that people in our country ate the same amount of protein,
fat and carbohydrate that they eat now, that they ate 30
years ago, but there wasn't a single heart attack. First
heart attack didn't come until 1912. The difference was 100
years ago we did not eat much in the way of refined
carbohydrates. We didn't eat much sugar or much flour.
That's what changed. That's what caused the whole epidemic,
that's what caused the whole 20th century group of
illnesses.
KING: But when you eat a cheeseburger, you don't eat the
roll.
ATKINS: That's for sure. I don't even let them give me a
roll.
KING: But you would eat the cheeseburger.
ATKINS: Yes, with a fork.
KING: OK. But how about the concept that every cardiologist
I had to talk to, and I've had heart disease, so I know --
I mean, I had a heart attack and heart surgery -- says fats
are bad because fat -- obviously, when you think of a fat,
it builds plaque, plaque is what constricts the system.
Bang, you're in trouble.
ATKINS: Well, that's what they say. But on the other hand,
there is a lot of evidence that shows that all of that
thing about fat was done on studies where there was a lot
of carbohydrate. Now, when there is a lot of carbohydrate,
your fat takes a different metabolic pathway than when
there is very little carbohydrate. When there is a lot of
carbohydrate, fat turns into triglyceride, which is bad for
your heart, and that's a bad thing. But when you don't eat
carbohydrate, then it turns into energy.
KING: So in other words, you have the steak but you don't
have the bread. That's a whole different concept occurring
in your system.
ATKINS: And you don't have the potatoes either, for that
matter.
KING: Here is about getting respect. Listen to this, "The
New York Times" magazine article in July of 2002, by the
way, you made the cover of "TIME" magazine.
ATKINS: Yes?
KING: They don't leave Atkins out.
ATKINS: I know that now.
KING: Here is what the "New York Times," July 2002. "If the
members of the American medical establishment were to have
a collective finding yourself standing naked in Times
Square type nightmare, this might be it. They spent 30
years ridiculing Robert Atkins, accusing the Manhattan
doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the
unrepentant Atkins was right all along." Now, the article
didn't say it was right, but it suggests you were right,
but suggested the possibility that you were right. Do you
have a feeling of I told you so?
ATKINS: Sure. I've had that feeling all along.
KING: But now that you've got...
ATKINS: Finally, finally somebody has now recognized that
there were so many studies which confirmed what I've said
and no studies which ever let them come to the conclusion
that the opposition has come to.
KING: The argument against you, wasn't it, Bob, that you
were doing all these things without any clinically approved
studies until later on? (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ATKINS: Well, I would never do a study because I'm a
practicing physician. I mean, all I do is treat people.
KING: But you funded the study at Duke?
ATKINS: Yes, but it was a long time before I was able to do
that. And so for many, many years, I had to rely on
everybody else's studies. It was everybody else's studies
that got me to go on my diet in the first place.
KING: But didn't everybody else's studies say don't eat
fat? ATKINS: No, they didn't do that when they looked at
low carbohydrate intake. All of the studies that said don't
eat fat were done with diets where there was a lot of fat
and a lot of carbohydrate. That's completely different.
KING: We're going to be taking a lot of calls for Robert
Atkins tonight. His new book is "Atkins for Life: the
Complete Controlled Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss
and Good Health." You can get to him at the
atkinscenter.com as well on the Web site. We'll be talking
with him and taking a lot of phone calls for Dr. Atkins.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. We'll be going to calls shortly for Dr.
Robert Atkins. You funded -- the foundation you head funded
research done at Duke; 120 overweight volunteers, randomly
assigned to follow the Atkins diet or the American Heart
Association diet.
ATKINS: Right.
KING: The data on the 63 participated reported Atkins
participants on an average lost more weight, lowered bad
cholesterol and increased good cholesterol.
However, Dr. Dean Ornish, a critic of yours, knows this was
only a six-month study, that the heart association diet was
not very low in fat or simple carbs and only Atkins
patients were given fish oil and flaxseed oil, which
automatically lowers triglycerides. How do you react to
that?
ATKINS: Well, of course, none of that is really the case.
And point of fact, our diet took off 31 pounds against 20
pounds that the comparison diet did. The triglycerides
dropped 49 percent on our diet and only 22 percent on the
others and the good cholesterol went up 12 percent on ours
and didn't go up at all on the American Heart Association
diet.
KING: Do you use fish oil? Is that part of your...
ATKINS: Fish oil was used but it was used in a very small
quantity. Now what's more important is that the
triglycerides have been lowered on this diet going all the
way back to 1966. And in every study it has been dropped
something like 50 percent or pretty close to it when it's
low. And fish oil was not used. It's quite true that fish
oil is in my view the No. 1 therapy for lowering
triglycerides. But even without it, you get the result from
the diet.
So that is not -- is just not true. As far as how many
people -- well, six months is pretty long. But I can tell
you this, I've treated tens of thousands of patients for a
lot more than six months. A lot of them have come back 10
and 20 years later and I can tell you this, that their lab
work gets better and better the longer they stay on it.
KING: Now we hear that critics I'm told will admit that you
have short-term weight loss, great results with short-term
weight loss but they worry about the long-term health
impact.
ATKINS: They do indeed but there is no reason to. Why would
anybody worry about it when -- six months is a long time.
And in mainstream medicine, when people are on a diet,
after about six months things don't look so well. But on
our diet they continue to lose as long as you stay on it.
KING: The American Journal of Kidney Diseases, August of
2002, said people on your diet lose large amounts of
calcium in the urine, 65 percent higher than normal, 55
percent in maintenance, possibly could lead to
osteoporosis.
ATKINS: Well, the calcium loss is very short-term. After
about two weeks, there is -- the calcium level back to
normal. So that's a short-term abnormality.
KING: Is part of your diet a lot of vitamins?
ATKINS: Well, that's what I like it to be. In the book it
doesn't really demand a lot of vitamins. People read the
book, may just take one or two types of vitamins a day. If
they went to my practice in New York, I would give -- and
doesn't have to be my diet, could be anybody. I just know
that vitamin therapy is a great alternative to drug
therapy.
KING: And medicine fought that a long time, didn't they?
ATKINS: They're still fighting that. We're not talking
about that because as far as the diet is concerned, if --
see, everybody benefits from vitamins. Doesn't make any
make any difference what diet they're on. You take the
healthiest diet in the world, if you gave those people
vitamins, they would be twice as healthy. So vitamins are
valuable. Nonetheless, the diet doesn't require vitamins
any more than any other diet.
KING: Are a lot of the substitutes very good? There are
chocolates -- you tasted some before the show -- that are
low in carbs.
ATKINS: Yes, there's a lot of that. Oh, yes, they're
delicious.
So that -- but what this really means is there is a whole
new generation now. Before when people went on my diet and
they have to stay on it for life, at least the low carb
lifestyle so that at least they stay enough in carbs that
they don't gain it back, but they had to not have any
candy, they couldn't have any bread they couldn't have any
ice cream and things like that.
KING: That's terrible.
ATKINS: But now they're there are many, many companies that
are putting out low carb versions of high carb foods.
Because of it, it is so easy now to stay on a low carb
lifestyle, which is exactly what millions of people are
doing.
KING: Are some under risk switching to low carb? ATKINS:
Very few people. I would say it shouldn't happen to a
pregnant woman or a woman who is feeding her infants. It
shouldn't happen to a person who already has kidney
disease. But a few statements like that which we make, but
basically other than that, very, very few people get in
trouble from carbohydrate restriction.
KING: We'll take calls in the next segment. A lot of calls
tonight. Give me an Atkins day, what you eat. In the
morning. Typical.
ATKINS: I like to have omelets, maybe with -- would either
be an omelet or scrambled eggs.
KING: cheese omelet?
ATKINS: Wonderful. I'll have that a lot of times or with
sausage...
KING: Bacon with it.
ATKINS: Or bacon or ham or something of that nature. And no
side dishes...
KING: My cardiologist just -- OK, go ahead.
ATKINS: But they shouldn't.
KING: OK. I know.
ATKINS: Because the evidence doesn't allow them to come to
that conclusion. All of the studies show a low carb diet
helps the cholesterol, is dramatically beneficial for the
triglycerides and helps the HDL compared to the LDL, the
good compared to the bad cholesterol.
KING: Lunch?
ATKINS: Oh, well, lunch I may just -- depends where I'm
having it. If I'm in the office, I'm just going grab some
nuts because I haven't got time for it.
KING: Nuts are OK?
ATKINS: Or I may have a bacon cheeseburger without the bun.
KING: You eat nuts? Like macadamia nuts?
ATKINS: Absolutely.
KING: Aren't they high in fat?
ATKINS: They're very low in carbohydrate. They're perfect.
And you have to understand that in the lifestyle, I'm on my
lifestyle, I don't have to lose any more weight, I just
want to keep from gaining it, which is tough enough, but it
does allow me to eat an awful lot of vegetables, a lot of
nuts and seeds. I can eat 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrate a
day and in the book, my new book we talk about that. I just
don't have to like tofu but I can have it.
KING: What's an Atkins dinner?
ATKINS: Well, now you're talking about my wife who is such
a great cook.
KING: She'll cook?
ATKINS: She has incredible fish, incredible fowl and all
kinds of meat, rack of lamb, lambchops.
KING: Eat the fatty part of lambchop too?
ATKINS: Yes, I eat the -- yes, I eat that. And just with a
lot of vegetables.
KING: Any potatoes?
ATKINS: No, not the potatoes but an awful lot...
KING: How about a sweet potato?
ATKINS: Rarely. I may take a bite of that but basically I
just have a lot of vegetables and mostly the green ones and
I eat about as many vegetables as the average vegetarian, I
would think.
KING: Dr. Atkins. The book is "Atkins For Life: The
Complete Control Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss and
Good Health." You can get him at the Web site, too.
Atkinscenter.com and you can talk to him right after these
words.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Atkins. We'll start taking your
phone calls. I'll intersperse some questions as we go
along. We start with Farmington, Connecticut. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Dr. Atkins, I've been following your plan
for two years. I'm actually in the maintenance part of the
plan. I have -- I take it only between 25 to 35 to 30 grams
of carbs a day. That's all my body can handle. And I've
gained a little weight. I stay within the five pounds, like
you've said, but I've gone -- I'm hitting that 10-pound
marker. I've gone back to induction and I am finding it's
not working for me. What can you suggest?
ATKINS: Well, we really have to find out why. Are you on
any medications or any hormones or anything like that?
CALLER: Nothing at all.
ATKINS: Nothing at all. Then the next thing -- see, the
main reason that people get stuck is because of
medications. This is the thing that really gets them in
trouble.
The second most important thing is the possibility of a
thyroid not being functioning as well as it should. Even if
your thyroid blood tests come out normal, there is still
one other thing that you have to look at. That would be
your temperature. Thyroid regulates your temperature. And
if your temperature is considerably below 98.6 when you
average it for the whole day -- you take it before
breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed time -- and if it comes
out about 97.8 or lower, there is a good possibility that
you should be taking thyroid, and -- which would require a
prescription, require you seeing a doctor and having them
agree with it.
KING: Why are so many people overweight?
ATKINS: Oh, that's so easy to explain. Back in 1970, we
didn't have a lot of obesity, but then it started to
increase. Now, this is what happened. In 1970, 40 percent
of our diet was fat. And by 2000, it became 32 percent of
our diet. But in those 30 years, according to the U.S.
government, there was an increase in the intake of sugar
per person by 30 pounds per year.
KING: That includes bread, right?
ATKINS: No, sugar.
KING: But bread ...
ATKINS: Bread comes next. Bread and other starches of that
-- of grains went up 64 pounds per person.
KING: In other words, we ate more wrong food.
ATKINS: Of course. Because everybody heard low fat, low fat
low fat, they had to eat more carbohydrates. That's what
caused the epidemic.
KING: Boston, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins?
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: Hi. about a year ago, exactly a year ago I started
cutting out sugar and white flour and lost over 100 pounds,
went down 10 sizes, and I have noticed -- and I have
noticed that a lot of like Suzanne Somers is following you
and she attributes you being the guru.
ATKINS: Yes, I saw her today. Yes.
CALLER: How do you feel about other diets and other diet
books that are now attributing you to being the guru?
ATKINS: Well, I think that's good. I think -- I think my
book, next one is coming out, "Atkins for Life" is going to
be very similar to what Suzanne Somers has done, which --
because we're talking about the maintenance of a lifestyle,
keeping the weight off now that you've lost it.
KING: That's harder than losing sometimes, isn't it?
ATKINS: It has been, but it shouldn't be because the diet
is actually easier -- maintenance diet is easier to follow
than weight loss diet, but for some reason people just go
off their diet and they have got to learn that.
KING: Moline, Illinois for Dr. Robert Atkins. Hello.
CALLER: Dr. Atkins, I'm a type II diabetic. Can I safely be
on this diet?
ATKINS: It's the optimal diet for a diabetic. The main
thing that I want to accomplish in life is putting an end
to the epidemic of diabetes and obesity, which I call
diabesity. That's really my number one function in life in
this next few years of mine.
KING: What percentage of your patients are either heart
patients or diabetic patients or both?
ATKINS: Oh, I would say between the diabetes and the heart
patients, about 60 percent now. Absolutely.
KING: To Milton, Wisconsin. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. I've been on the Atkins way of life for four
and a half months. I'm down over 30 pounds. But my blood
pressure is up and I was wondering why this might be
happening.
ATKINS: Well, that's very unusual, because it has been
shown by study after study and by our own experience as
well that restricting carbohydrates will drop the blood
pressure. So it's very unusual. You have to find out what
other than the diet could be responsible for that.
KING: The chief form of carbohydrates that you take come in
what?
ATKINS: Mostly vegetables. And nuts and seeds. Nuts and
seeds and vegetables.
KING: Cashew nuts?
ATKINS: That's the one I shouldn't have. That's the highest
one in carbohydrates.
KING: What's a good nut, macadamia?
ATKINS: That's the best. And I eat a lot of macadamia nuts.
KING: Why is it the best?
ATKINS: Well, I guess because it's the lowest in
carbohydrate and also because it tastes the best and
because macadamia nut butter is so good, and I mix it with
heavy cream and that becomes my dessert. That's what I...
KING: Macadamia nut butter with heavy cream? ATKINS: And I
stir it together, takes about 20 seconds, and then that's
my dessert.
KING: Dayton, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi. I have a 13-year-old daughter and I was
wondering how safe it would be for her to be on the diet?
ATKINS: I'm so glad you asked. Absolutely. As a matter of
fact, children who are overweight should start on the low
carbohydrate lifestyle as soon as they become overweight so
they don't get into these bad habits. But at the age of 13,
it is absolutely mandatory. How overweight is she?
CALLER: Oh, about 15 to 20 pounds.
ATKINS: Well, that's an easy thing. That means you should
be able to get her back to her ideal weight within five or
six weeks.
KING: Really?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: We'll be right back with more of Dr. Robert Atkins.
His new book is "Atkins for Life: the Complete Controlled
Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss and Good Health."
Example of someone losing weight, Sarah Ferguson, the
duchess of York is here tomorrow night. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Dr. Atkins said if you're going to drink, moderation
and if you had to pick one drink it would be red wine,
right?
ATKINS: Red wine is a very good choice.
KING: Chicago, hello.
CALLER: Hi there, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I'd like to understand whether or not alcohol has a
large impact on your diet.
KING: Just asked about alcohol. Does it have a large
impact?
ATKINS: It has a medium-sized impact. A lot of alcohol has
a large impact. But a little bit is usable.
We don't like to start people off with alcohol. We want to
get the thing started, but then for the ongoing weight loss
phase or the premaintenance or maintenance phase, which is
the rest of your life, we certainly would allow a moderate
amount of alcohol. Not the sweet ones.
KING: Unsweet is like, what, vodka?
ATKINS: Yeah, scotch, vodka.
KING: Do alcoholics tend to gain weight?
ATKINS: Some do and some don't.
KING: Hartford, Connecticut, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I have a question about keatosis(ph).
ATKINS: OK.
CALLER: I've been on induction for three weeks and I've
only been able to reach 15 milligrams on a keytone (ph)
stick and I want to know how can I accelerate the process
of keatosis?
KING: What is keatosis?
ATKINS: Keatosis means that she -- you put in a stick and
check your urine and you see it has keytones in it.
KING: And you want them in it?
ATKINS: I really do, but it isn't really necessary. You can
have keytones come out and not appear in your urine and you
would say, Gee, I don't have keytones. But in point of fact
you -- are you losing weight?
CALLER: I lost seven pounds in three weeks.
ATKINS: So it's still working. So you don't have to worry
if you can continue to lose -- how many pounds do you have
to lose all together?
CALLER: A hundred.
ATKINS: Oh, 100. Are you taking any medications?
CALLER: Just sinthroid (ph) for my thyroid.
ATKINS: All right. The probability is is that sinthroid is
not the best choice of thyroid. The probability is that you
need a balanced thyroid where you're getting T3 as well as
T4 or a natural form of thyroid and it's also highly
probable that you're not taking the right amount.
KING: Can you reverse heart disease?
ATKINS: Well, we reverse heart disease all the time. That's
what we do.
KING: That I'm told is impossible. I mean, you can control
it, but you can't reverse it. You can't make someone who...
ATKINS: Well, a lot of people who have been told that they
need bypass, come to us and we do a lot of things beyond
the diet. I must say, we use an awful lot of powerful
vitamin -- vitanutrients.
KING: Oh you do?
ATKINS: And there actually are some vitanutrients that are
better than drugs because they don't have any bad side
effects.
KING: Did you say you can avoid bypass surgery?
ATKINS: Well, we've done it hundreds and hundreds of times.
People have come to us and...
KING: And you take the blockage away?
ATKINS: Well, we took away the symptom complex and the
cardiologists who are -- told them they needed a bypass re-
evaluated and said, Well, I guess you don't because
everything is OK now.
KING: Sedona, Arizona, hello.
CALLER: Hi. Dr. Atkins...
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I was wondering if you're familiar with the eat
right for your type diet of Dr. Peter Dodomo, which is
based on blood types.
ATKINS: Well, I know a little bit about it. I know about
the role of blood types.
CALLER: Well, I'm curious what you think about that because
he says that the Type O very similar to yours...
ATKINS: Right.
CALLER: But for, like, types A and B, he says they can't
digest animal proteins and they should stay away from those
and maybe have more carbs. I just wondered what you think
about blood type and diet.
ATKINS: That can't be really because such a high percentage
of people, we're talking about 99 percent of people, go on
our diet and succeed with it. And this means that just
about every blood type is included in the group that
succeeds on it.
KING: Warren, Michigan, hello.
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead.
CALLER: Hi. I wanted to know -- I know you can eat eggs and
protein on your diet. Why not any milk? ATKINS: Well, milk
has got lactose in it. Whenever you hear a word with ose,
that's a sugar. So there is sugar in milk. And that's...
KING: Skim milk, too?
ATKINS: More so. Skim milk has even more because it doesn't
even have cream in it. So cream is about the one thing that
the cow puts out that doesn't have carbohydrate.
KING: If you would have -- you don't have cereal, do you?
ATKINS: Well, there are low some carbohydrate cereals now.
KING: You put sweet cream on it?
ATKINS: And I mix it with heavy cream, yes, I do, sir.
KING: It sounds..
ATKINS: Delicious.
KING: It sounds fattening. Oh, it's delicious. What's
better than sweet cream, man?
ATKINS: OK.
KING: But, you see, if it is that good it can't be good for
you, right?
ATKINS: It is pretty good for me.
KING: OK. I'll buy.
ATKINS: Helps my tennis.
KING: Branchville, New Jersey, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins. I was wondering if you miss eating
fresh fruit?
KING: Ah-ha.
ATKINS: Ah-ha. Well, I don't because I eat an awful lot of
berries. Berries are on my...
KING: Bluberries are a good food, right?
ATKINS: Blueberries are excellent. But then, I eat all the
berries. Just this morning I had four different kinds of
berries and then melon is good and then I'll have a bite
of...
KING: So fruits are good?
ATKINS: Fruit is definitely on the maintenance diet. It's
on the lifestyle diet. KING: Williamsburg, Virginia, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Atkins. I'm a Weight Watcher representative and
I wondered what you thought about -- do you not believe
that denying people normal carbohydrates on a daily basis
will eventually make them feel deprived, causing them
excess frustration and even causing them to go off their
diet completely because they haven't had those normal
carbohydrates such as pastas and rice and potatoes and
things that people really enjoy?
ATKINS: I think it's just the opposite.
CALLER: What about just eating in moderation?
ATKINS: I think when one looks at the long-term effect of
people who have been on Weight Watchers, such a high
percentage of those people gain back the weight, the reason
being no one wants to be hungry for a lifetime. Where as
with our diet, you're never hungry because you're not
allowed to be hungry. You just not allowed to keep your
quantities that small.
And so it's a better deal for almost everybody. They would
rather eat enough food that they're not hungry and that is
delicious and it is -- all of these foods that you talk
about, there are low carbohydrate versions of 90 percent of
them so that people are able to enjoy all of those foods.
It is a rare, rare person who doesn't like to stay on
Atkins.
KING: Ada, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: I'm a letter carrier and I walk 12 to 15 miles a
day and I was on your diet. I lost two to three pounds a
day the first two weeks. It scared me to death so I...
ATKINS: Well, you had to have lost water then.
CALLER: Was that all it was, water?
ATKINS: No, not all it was was water but, I mean, there was
some water along with a lot of fat that you lost.
CALLER: OK, because I've been carrying mail for four years
and that's why I was wondering.
ATKINS: Well, but it shows how effective the diet is. How
many pounds did you have to lose altogether?
CALLER: Well, I wanted to lose 50 pounds maybe.
ATKINS: Well, all right, so you got a good start but
eventually you'll switch on to ongoing weight loss anyway
and you'll get to the point where you only lose one pound a
week. KING: But the diet is in stages, right? As you
explain it...
ATKINS: The diet is in four stages. The induction works
very fast but you don't stay on it very long. It is just to
get things started.
KING: Then there's a...
ATKINS: Then ongoing weight loss is really where you find
out what your critical carbohydrate level for losing is.
And it is a different level for different people.
KING: How important is exercise?
ATKINS: Exercise is important to everybody whether they
diet or not. I don't think there is ever a person that says
exercise is not good for people. Everybody agrees with
that.
KING: But is it essential?
ATKINS: Well, if you can't exercise, you'll still lose
weight, but it's extremely valuable to be healthy.
KING: We'll be back with Dr. Robert Atkins and more on his
new book "Atkins For Life." A lot more of your phone calls.
Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Robert Atkins. I'm Larry King.
The caller is from Saline, Michigan. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
ATKINS: How did dr. Atkins explain the fact that the best
marathoners in the world that have maybe 5 percent body fat
eat diets that are 65 percent to 70 percent complex
carbohydrates?
ATKINS: Well, that's perfectly fine because these people --
there is no reason you shouldn't do that if you're that
active. That's an incredibly active way to go through life.
Those would be -- that would be one group of people who
wouldn't need to be on my diet although studies have been
done showing that people who, let's say were cyclists, that
they went on my diet to see if -- how their speed would
work. And for about two weeks, they ran behind and then at
the end of two weeks, they were just as good as ever.
So that we know that the -- and that's just the
introduction to the diet. So that once you've been on the
diet more than two weeks, you're able to handle things.
KING: Ashland, Kentucky, for Dr. Atkins. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry. KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: Is it possible to lose too much weight on your
diet?
ATKINS: I guess it's possible, but I wouldn't think very
many people would do that.
KING: You can get -- you can do the reverse of bulimia,
right? Or you can -- or could you -- not the reverse, could
you come bulimic. Could you suddenly start to say, I love
it, I'm going waste away to nothing, I'm going to be buried
in the box the pills came in.
ATKINS: Well, I've treated about 40, 000 people who were
overweight and I never had that happen yet. So it has to be
a pretty rare event.
KING: OK. Aurora, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hello. Hi.
I have just had a baby two and a half months ago and
wondered why it wasn't safe for me to do the Atkins diet.
ATKINS: Well, it is safe for you to do the maintenance
level of the diet. But you don't want to give the keytones
to an infant if you're feeding them breast milk.
KING: And she would be getting the keytones from what?
ATKINS: From being on a strict version of the diet. But you
wouldn't be getting them if you're just on a low
carbohydrate maintenance level.
KING: Rushville, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: I'm 35 years old and had my kidney removed shortly
after birth.
ATKINS: OK.
CALLER: I had gone to my doctor to get permission to go on
the Atkins diet and test my kidney function and it was
fine.
After two weeks of the induction diet, I went into a kidney
infection. Is there a modified version of the induction
diet that I could do and still be safe for my kidneys --
for my kidney?
ATKINS: Well, I would say so. The kidney infection had
nothing to do with the diet. And there is no question that
people with one kidney can follow the diet if that kidney
is normal. There is no question. It has been done thousands
of times.
KING: What's the toughest part of starting?
ATKINS: Well, the toughest part of starting for some people
is getting rid of your addictions. In other words, some
people are addicted to sweets and they have to go through
withdrawal symptoms. Some people are addicted to alcohol.
They have to go through withdrawal symptoms for that. A few
other things.
KING: But you have some substitutes you could do?
ATKINS: Well, when I really have a person like that I tell
them to just gradually decrease it and then by the seventh
day they could be on the induction level because they would
have gotten down slowly to zero.
KING: What about sweeteners? The NutriSweet and...
ATKINS: I like sucralose, which is in Splenda. I consider
that to be...
KING: It's the yellow package, right?
ATKINS: The aspertame is the one that I think can cause
some problems. The others are healthy if you like them.
KING: Colas?
ATKINS: Colas.
KING: Diet Coke.
ATKINS: Well, if a Diet Coke has aspartame, it's not as
good as if it has sucralose and there are diet colas that
do have sucralose.
KING: So you would look for sucralose?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: Peoria, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hello. In your book you say that you should not eat
bacon or sausage with sodium nitrate. How important is it
to stay away from sodium nitrate?
ATKINS: All right. That's a minor point, because that's
just a -- to talk about the fact that nitrates -- nitrates
are a little dangerous.
KING: What are nitrates?
ATKINS: That's one of the ingredients that if you eat a lot
of them, you can run into some medical problems.
KING: Did you say don't eat sausage and bacon or do eat
sausage and bacon?
ATKINS: Well, I allow a moderate amount because I don't
think it has enough -- when you can get the organic type
without the nitrates in it you can have all you want.
KING: Where do you get organic...
ATKINS: In the health food stores.
KING: You get organic bacon?
ATKINS: Well, you get the kind of free range bacon that
doesn't have nitrates in it, yes.
KING: OK. Macon, Georgia, hello.
Hello?
Macon, are you there?
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead. Speak up.
CALLER: Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: Before I started your diet, I used to have to take
heartburn and acid reflux medication every night. But once
I started your diet, I no longer had to take that. Does
your diet have anything to do with me not having the
heartburn and the acid reflux any longer?
ATKINS: Oh, that's very, very common. Of course it has to
do with that. There's no question if you went off the diet,
you would get your heartburn again.
KING: Because?
ATKINS: We don't know why but we assume there is something
in carbohydrate that would aggravate the stomach function.
Because that's the one thing that's restricted.
KING: It's very hard, though to get people to think that
high fat is good because...
ATKINS: You think so?
KING: Yes, I'll tell you why. Because fat is a bad word.
Fat means fat. Fat equals -- I'll be fat if I eat fat.
Two, fat is too good. And something that good for your --
you're telling me put sweet cream on my Special K and
that's better than skim milk on my Special K. Sounds weird
to me.
ATKINS: It's good. You've got the answer. It is good. It is
enjoyable and it doesn't have carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is
the bad guy. You have to see that. You told people go on
low fat diet, look at how much more carbohydrate they began
eating and that's what caused the epidemic of obesity and
of diabetes.
KING: So in other words, what you're saying is, we have an
epidemic of obesity caused by people pushing low fat diets.
ATKINS: Exactly. A hundred percent correct. May I shake
your hand? That's perfect.
KING: Where did I go right? I don't know what I'm saying.
It just seems that the fact -- I've had people say it's a
rule that if it tastes good, it is bad for you.
ATKINS: Oh, have you got that wrong. If it tastes good, you
can stay on it for life. Just pick a healthy food that
tastes good and that's what Atkins does.
KING: What do people tell you is the hardest thing for them
to give up?
ATKINS: Oh, boy. Everybody has -- everybody has their
favorite.
KING: I would guess bread.
ATKINS: Well, maybe. A lot of people say bread. A lot of
people say pasta. A lot of people say sweets.
KING: So you're telling me when you order spaghetti and
meatballs, you just eat the meatballs.
ATKINS: I wouldn't order spaghetti and meatballs, I would
just order the meatballs.
KING: That was a joke. A little levity.
OK. We'll be back with our remaining moments with Dr.
Robert Atkins. Get some more phone calls in after these
words.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Atkins. one of our crew had an
outstanding question. What about portions? Can you eat all
the steak you want?
ATKINS: Well, the portions should be just enough that
you're not hungry. Because we don't want anybody hungry,
but we don't want anybody to just eat beyond that. So, It
is just perfect. Nobody will be hungry. For a lifetime now,
you never going to be hungry. That's the superiority of our
diet.
KING: Cleveland, Ohio, hello. CALLER: Yes, Dr. Atkins,
first I wanted to thank you. I've been on your diet for
three years now. I've lost over 150 pounds. I've been able
to keep it off. So that's very important to me. My wife,
however, has a concern and that is she's been reading a lot
about the mad cow disease that is being held in beef and
I'm curious if you had any comments about that?
ATKINS: We haven't had any mad cow disease in the United
States. So it is really nothing to worry about. It doesn't
affect anybody -- hasn't...
KING: How many died altogether? Did many die in Europe?
ATKINS: That I don't know. It is pretty rare.
KING: Pensacola, Florida, hello.
CALLER: Yes. Thank you. Dr. Atkins, first I want to tell
you thank you for sticking to your guns. I've been on the
program since February 4 and I've lost 55 pounds.
ATKINS: Good year.
CALLER: My question is, whenever I try find my critical
carbohydrate level for losing, and I get to the -- you
know, you tell us about the five pound mark, well, if I add
an extra bowl of brock broccoli to my supper, I'm getting
that five pounds back. What is going on?
ATKINS: Well you actually are a slower loser than you
should be. So you're not on any medications are you.
CALLER: No, sir, I'm not.
ATKINS: OK, then which I stop one of our first callers, you
should really check your temperature to see if perhaps you
don't have a sluggish thyroid because that may be the
answer.
KING: Staten Island, New York. Hello.
CALLER: Yes, Hi.
Dr. Atkins my husband has been on the diet for six months
and lost 30 pounds. He's been on medication from the
beginning, blood pressure medication and cholesterol
medication. His blood work is wonderful now. But he's on a
plateau now. He can't seem to lose for the last month.
ATKINS: What is the hypertensive medication he's on?
CALLER: I'm not sure the name of it.
ATKINS: Well, basicly most of the hypertensive medications
prevent weight loss or slow it down and he probably has a
perfectly normal blood pressure. Since you live in Staten
Island, you should really -- come and see me in Manhattan.
At the Atkins Center. Because we -- we get people off of
their medication all the time.
KING: People fly in to see you, I know.
ATKINS: Yes.
KING: You can contact the Atkins Center in New York.
ATKINS: All over the world, not just the U.S..
KING: Living right there that is what I would do.
North Brook, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hi, gentlemen.
I'm interested in the Atkins products and how you feel that
they may inhibit or help the weight loss program.
KING: You sell products?
ATKINS: Yes. Atkins Nutritional sells products. And it's
some very good products. We're not the only company that
does it.
KING: Where do you get it, health food stores?
ATKINS: Health food stores carry them. You can logon to the
website and call Atkins Nutritionals.
KING: What kind of products?
ATKINS: Well, we have chocolate things and they're called
Advantage Bars, protein bars. We have about 80 different
products. I mean, the whole breakfast, a lot of -- we have
low carb bread. We have chocolate drinks and other drinks
that are delicious and we will have ice cream in a few
months.
KING: You ship it out?
ATKINS: Shipped out right away.
KING: New York City, hello.
CALLER: New York, New York.
KING: New York, New York.
CALLER: I have an event coming up in two weeks and I would
like to lose a quick ten pounds. What is the surest and
fastest way to do that.
ATKINS: Well, the average weight loss of our induction is
about ten pounds in two weeks.
KING: You live in New York, go see him tomorrow.
ATKINS: Not tomorrow. I'll be flying back to New York. No,
go on the diet because you only have two weeks. It should
take off ten pounds in two weeks. That's all you have to
do.
KING: How do you feel now? We have about a minute left, do
you feel like -- well, yes, I told you so?
ATKINS: Yes, definitely feel that way. And I must say I
feel very happy having spent the hour with you. Really
makes me feel good. And in general I feel that I've got to
do the next step of my life which is to put an end to the
epidemic proportions of diabesity. And that's the book
after this one...
KING: About diabesity.
ATKINS: Yes.
KING: Because diabetes is our third most killer, right.
ATKINS: And that definitely comes from carbohydrates. Check
your blood sugar after a regular meal and see how many
points it goes up and after one of our meals and see how
few points it goes up and you'll see right away that is
what you should do.
KING: Always great seeing you.
ATKINS: Good. Always great being here.
KING: Dr. Robert Atkins, cardiologist, founder of the
Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, author of "Atkins
For Life, the Complete Control Carb Program For Permanent
Weight And Good Health" and you can website him at the
atkinscenter.com. I'll be back in a minute to tell you
about tomorrow night. Don't go way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Tomorrow night on LARRY KING LIVE, Sarah Ferguson,
the Duchess of York will be flying in from New York to
appear with us. We look forward to that.
Gruß,
Frank.
========================================================
From CNN
Larry King Interview with Robert Atkins
Interview With Robert Atkins
Aired January 6, 2003 - 21:00 ET
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Dr. Robert Atkins, the world's
most controversial diet guru, criticized for years. He may
have been right after all. He's here for the hour and he'll
take your calls. Dr. Robert Atkins next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's always good to see him. We've been interviewing him
many, many times over the years, locally in Miami,
nationally on radio and now with us on television and radio
via CNN. Dr. Robert Atkins is a cardiologist and founder of
the Atkins Center for Complimentary Medicine. His books
have been number one on the "New York Times" list often.
His new book is "Atkins for Life." There you see its cover.
"The Complete Controlled Carb Program for Permanent Weight
Loss and Good Health."
You can get him as well and reach him at the
Atkinscenter.com on his Web site or get the book, or
whatever. He has become internationally famous. Always very
controversial. Now a lot of medical institutions are saying
that maybe he was right.
First, let's get an update on your own health. I know that
you had a cardiac arrest a year ago. What happened and how
are you?
DR. ROBERT ATKINS: Well, it didn't last very long. And then
I continued to get better and better and played a lot of
tennis. And I'm probably in better health than I've been in
the past 10 years.
KING: What was it that happened to you, though?
ATKINS: We don't know, but I know that I had an infection
in my heart, and it caused an arrhythmia and so it must
have been an arrhythmia that sort of took off, and that was
it.
KING: Not related to your diet?
ATKINS: Definitely not. You don't catch an infection from
my diet. But this was an infection.
KING: How in the world does a cardiologist in a world of we
hate fat and high cholesterol, worry about all those
things, suddenly turn the opposite route? How did that
happen?
ATKINS: Well, it was really very simple. I needed to go on
a diet back in 1963. I was gaining a lot of weight. Yes, I
was practicing cardiology, but I was gaining weight. And
there was an article in the AMA journal that said, by the
way, you don't have to go on a low calorie diet, you can go
on a low carbohydrate diet. And I thought, oh, how
wonderful that is. So I went on a diet. It was very, very
exciting. And I not only lost a lot of weight very easily,
but I needed a lot less sleep. I used to need eight and a
half hours sleep, and by the end of two months, I needed
five and a half hours sleep, which, by the way, for the
last 40 years, that's about all I needed.
So it really changed my energy level and it changed a lot
of things. And so I decided to put other people on it.
KING: And the rest is history. Explain to me something...
ATKINS: Yes, I'd say that.
KING: We need carbohydrates, do we not? We must have
carbohydrates in our system.
ATKINS: A lot of people don't need carbohydrates.
KING: Don't need any?
ATKINS: Well, certainly the people way up in the northern
Alaska where they don't grow carbohydrates manage to
survive. So obviously you can survive without
carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are valuable because of many
of the things that they contain. So our diet really is not
a zero carbohydrate diet.
KING: You take carbohydrates?
ATKINS: I eat a lot of vegetables. And those are the most
valuable carbohydrates. But from the very beginning we had
to focus on what are the healthy carbohydrates and stay
away from the unhealthy ones.
KING: All right. Let's get the most important. What are
some things you will not consume? What are unhealthy
carbohydrates?
ATKINS: Well, basically, it's about refined carbohydrates.
That's sugar and flour, those are the refined
carbohydrates.
KING: That means you do not eat bread?
ATKINS: We now eat bread because we make bread without
refined carbohydrates.
KING: Mean we -- you mean, you make your own bread?
ATKINS: A lot of companies make low carbohydrate bread now.
Certainly we're one of them.
KING: So that's what you would recommend, low carbohydrate
bread?
ATKINS: Yes. At various times. Now, we start off -- when
people start the diet, we start off very strict. And a lot
of people have felt, oh, that strict first two weeks of the
diet, that's the whole diet. They don't realize that the
diet is a 70-year diet. KING: But you do allow...
ATKINS: And who cares about two weeks when you're on it for
70 years.
KING: You do allow steaks and chops and...
ATKINS: All of the main courses. Seafood, chicken...
KING: Sauces?
ATKINS: Depends on the sauce. Depends on what is in it. And
certainly cheese and eggs and meat as well, because all of
those foods are without carbohydrates, basically.
KING: So enriched flour, if you cut out enriched flour...
ATKINS: Which we do.
KING: If everybody watching this show stopped all enriched
flour and all sweets, all -- like we're talking about
candies, right?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: Enriched flour, chocolates, candies, stopped it, they
would lose weight? No matter what they ate?
ATKINS: No, it doesn't -- no, they have to -- some people
wouldn't. But everybody would be healthier. Everyone would
be healthier if they didn't eat junk food. That's what junk
food is.
There were times, if we go back 100 years, we found out
that people in our country ate the same amount of protein,
fat and carbohydrate that they eat now, that they ate 30
years ago, but there wasn't a single heart attack. First
heart attack didn't come until 1912. The difference was 100
years ago we did not eat much in the way of refined
carbohydrates. We didn't eat much sugar or much flour.
That's what changed. That's what caused the whole epidemic,
that's what caused the whole 20th century group of
illnesses.
KING: But when you eat a cheeseburger, you don't eat the
roll.
ATKINS: That's for sure. I don't even let them give me a
roll.
KING: But you would eat the cheeseburger.
ATKINS: Yes, with a fork.
KING: OK. But how about the concept that every cardiologist
I had to talk to, and I've had heart disease, so I know --
I mean, I had a heart attack and heart surgery -- says fats
are bad because fat -- obviously, when you think of a fat,
it builds plaque, plaque is what constricts the system.
Bang, you're in trouble.
ATKINS: Well, that's what they say. But on the other hand,
there is a lot of evidence that shows that all of that
thing about fat was done on studies where there was a lot
of carbohydrate. Now, when there is a lot of carbohydrate,
your fat takes a different metabolic pathway than when
there is very little carbohydrate. When there is a lot of
carbohydrate, fat turns into triglyceride, which is bad for
your heart, and that's a bad thing. But when you don't eat
carbohydrate, then it turns into energy.
KING: So in other words, you have the steak but you don't
have the bread. That's a whole different concept occurring
in your system.
ATKINS: And you don't have the potatoes either, for that
matter.
KING: Here is about getting respect. Listen to this, "The
New York Times" magazine article in July of 2002, by the
way, you made the cover of "TIME" magazine.
ATKINS: Yes?
KING: They don't leave Atkins out.
ATKINS: I know that now.
KING: Here is what the "New York Times," July 2002. "If the
members of the American medical establishment were to have
a collective finding yourself standing naked in Times
Square type nightmare, this might be it. They spent 30
years ridiculing Robert Atkins, accusing the Manhattan
doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the
unrepentant Atkins was right all along." Now, the article
didn't say it was right, but it suggests you were right,
but suggested the possibility that you were right. Do you
have a feeling of I told you so?
ATKINS: Sure. I've had that feeling all along.
KING: But now that you've got...
ATKINS: Finally, finally somebody has now recognized that
there were so many studies which confirmed what I've said
and no studies which ever let them come to the conclusion
that the opposition has come to.
KING: The argument against you, wasn't it, Bob, that you
were doing all these things without any clinically approved
studies until later on? (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ATKINS: Well, I would never do a study because I'm a
practicing physician. I mean, all I do is treat people.
KING: But you funded the study at Duke?
ATKINS: Yes, but it was a long time before I was able to do
that. And so for many, many years, I had to rely on
everybody else's studies. It was everybody else's studies
that got me to go on my diet in the first place.
KING: But didn't everybody else's studies say don't eat
fat? ATKINS: No, they didn't do that when they looked at
low carbohydrate intake. All of the studies that said don't
eat fat were done with diets where there was a lot of fat
and a lot of carbohydrate. That's completely different.
KING: We're going to be taking a lot of calls for Robert
Atkins tonight. His new book is "Atkins for Life: the
Complete Controlled Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss
and Good Health." You can get to him at the
atkinscenter.com as well on the Web site. We'll be talking
with him and taking a lot of phone calls for Dr. Atkins.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. We'll be going to calls shortly for Dr.
Robert Atkins. You funded -- the foundation you head funded
research done at Duke; 120 overweight volunteers, randomly
assigned to follow the Atkins diet or the American Heart
Association diet.
ATKINS: Right.
KING: The data on the 63 participated reported Atkins
participants on an average lost more weight, lowered bad
cholesterol and increased good cholesterol.
However, Dr. Dean Ornish, a critic of yours, knows this was
only a six-month study, that the heart association diet was
not very low in fat or simple carbs and only Atkins
patients were given fish oil and flaxseed oil, which
automatically lowers triglycerides. How do you react to
that?
ATKINS: Well, of course, none of that is really the case.
And point of fact, our diet took off 31 pounds against 20
pounds that the comparison diet did. The triglycerides
dropped 49 percent on our diet and only 22 percent on the
others and the good cholesterol went up 12 percent on ours
and didn't go up at all on the American Heart Association
diet.
KING: Do you use fish oil? Is that part of your...
ATKINS: Fish oil was used but it was used in a very small
quantity. Now what's more important is that the
triglycerides have been lowered on this diet going all the
way back to 1966. And in every study it has been dropped
something like 50 percent or pretty close to it when it's
low. And fish oil was not used. It's quite true that fish
oil is in my view the No. 1 therapy for lowering
triglycerides. But even without it, you get the result from
the diet.
So that is not -- is just not true. As far as how many
people -- well, six months is pretty long. But I can tell
you this, I've treated tens of thousands of patients for a
lot more than six months. A lot of them have come back 10
and 20 years later and I can tell you this, that their lab
work gets better and better the longer they stay on it.
KING: Now we hear that critics I'm told will admit that you
have short-term weight loss, great results with short-term
weight loss but they worry about the long-term health
impact.
ATKINS: They do indeed but there is no reason to. Why would
anybody worry about it when -- six months is a long time.
And in mainstream medicine, when people are on a diet,
after about six months things don't look so well. But on
our diet they continue to lose as long as you stay on it.
KING: The American Journal of Kidney Diseases, August of
2002, said people on your diet lose large amounts of
calcium in the urine, 65 percent higher than normal, 55
percent in maintenance, possibly could lead to
osteoporosis.
ATKINS: Well, the calcium loss is very short-term. After
about two weeks, there is -- the calcium level back to
normal. So that's a short-term abnormality.
KING: Is part of your diet a lot of vitamins?
ATKINS: Well, that's what I like it to be. In the book it
doesn't really demand a lot of vitamins. People read the
book, may just take one or two types of vitamins a day. If
they went to my practice in New York, I would give -- and
doesn't have to be my diet, could be anybody. I just know
that vitamin therapy is a great alternative to drug
therapy.
KING: And medicine fought that a long time, didn't they?
ATKINS: They're still fighting that. We're not talking
about that because as far as the diet is concerned, if --
see, everybody benefits from vitamins. Doesn't make any
make any difference what diet they're on. You take the
healthiest diet in the world, if you gave those people
vitamins, they would be twice as healthy. So vitamins are
valuable. Nonetheless, the diet doesn't require vitamins
any more than any other diet.
KING: Are a lot of the substitutes very good? There are
chocolates -- you tasted some before the show -- that are
low in carbs.
ATKINS: Yes, there's a lot of that. Oh, yes, they're
delicious.
So that -- but what this really means is there is a whole
new generation now. Before when people went on my diet and
they have to stay on it for life, at least the low carb
lifestyle so that at least they stay enough in carbs that
they don't gain it back, but they had to not have any
candy, they couldn't have any bread they couldn't have any
ice cream and things like that.
KING: That's terrible.
ATKINS: But now they're there are many, many companies that
are putting out low carb versions of high carb foods.
Because of it, it is so easy now to stay on a low carb
lifestyle, which is exactly what millions of people are
doing.
KING: Are some under risk switching to low carb? ATKINS:
Very few people. I would say it shouldn't happen to a
pregnant woman or a woman who is feeding her infants. It
shouldn't happen to a person who already has kidney
disease. But a few statements like that which we make, but
basically other than that, very, very few people get in
trouble from carbohydrate restriction.
KING: We'll take calls in the next segment. A lot of calls
tonight. Give me an Atkins day, what you eat. In the
morning. Typical.
ATKINS: I like to have omelets, maybe with -- would either
be an omelet or scrambled eggs.
KING: cheese omelet?
ATKINS: Wonderful. I'll have that a lot of times or with
sausage...
KING: Bacon with it.
ATKINS: Or bacon or ham or something of that nature. And no
side dishes...
KING: My cardiologist just -- OK, go ahead.
ATKINS: But they shouldn't.
KING: OK. I know.
ATKINS: Because the evidence doesn't allow them to come to
that conclusion. All of the studies show a low carb diet
helps the cholesterol, is dramatically beneficial for the
triglycerides and helps the HDL compared to the LDL, the
good compared to the bad cholesterol.
KING: Lunch?
ATKINS: Oh, well, lunch I may just -- depends where I'm
having it. If I'm in the office, I'm just going grab some
nuts because I haven't got time for it.
KING: Nuts are OK?
ATKINS: Or I may have a bacon cheeseburger without the bun.
KING: You eat nuts? Like macadamia nuts?
ATKINS: Absolutely.
KING: Aren't they high in fat?
ATKINS: They're very low in carbohydrate. They're perfect.
And you have to understand that in the lifestyle, I'm on my
lifestyle, I don't have to lose any more weight, I just
want to keep from gaining it, which is tough enough, but it
does allow me to eat an awful lot of vegetables, a lot of
nuts and seeds. I can eat 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrate a
day and in the book, my new book we talk about that. I just
don't have to like tofu but I can have it.
KING: What's an Atkins dinner?
ATKINS: Well, now you're talking about my wife who is such
a great cook.
KING: She'll cook?
ATKINS: She has incredible fish, incredible fowl and all
kinds of meat, rack of lamb, lambchops.
KING: Eat the fatty part of lambchop too?
ATKINS: Yes, I eat the -- yes, I eat that. And just with a
lot of vegetables.
KING: Any potatoes?
ATKINS: No, not the potatoes but an awful lot...
KING: How about a sweet potato?
ATKINS: Rarely. I may take a bite of that but basically I
just have a lot of vegetables and mostly the green ones and
I eat about as many vegetables as the average vegetarian, I
would think.
KING: Dr. Atkins. The book is "Atkins For Life: The
Complete Control Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss and
Good Health." You can get him at the Web site, too.
Atkinscenter.com and you can talk to him right after these
words.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Atkins. We'll start taking your
phone calls. I'll intersperse some questions as we go
along. We start with Farmington, Connecticut. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Dr. Atkins, I've been following your plan
for two years. I'm actually in the maintenance part of the
plan. I have -- I take it only between 25 to 35 to 30 grams
of carbs a day. That's all my body can handle. And I've
gained a little weight. I stay within the five pounds, like
you've said, but I've gone -- I'm hitting that 10-pound
marker. I've gone back to induction and I am finding it's
not working for me. What can you suggest?
ATKINS: Well, we really have to find out why. Are you on
any medications or any hormones or anything like that?
CALLER: Nothing at all.
ATKINS: Nothing at all. Then the next thing -- see, the
main reason that people get stuck is because of
medications. This is the thing that really gets them in
trouble.
The second most important thing is the possibility of a
thyroid not being functioning as well as it should. Even if
your thyroid blood tests come out normal, there is still
one other thing that you have to look at. That would be
your temperature. Thyroid regulates your temperature. And
if your temperature is considerably below 98.6 when you
average it for the whole day -- you take it before
breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed time -- and if it comes
out about 97.8 or lower, there is a good possibility that
you should be taking thyroid, and -- which would require a
prescription, require you seeing a doctor and having them
agree with it.
KING: Why are so many people overweight?
ATKINS: Oh, that's so easy to explain. Back in 1970, we
didn't have a lot of obesity, but then it started to
increase. Now, this is what happened. In 1970, 40 percent
of our diet was fat. And by 2000, it became 32 percent of
our diet. But in those 30 years, according to the U.S.
government, there was an increase in the intake of sugar
per person by 30 pounds per year.
KING: That includes bread, right?
ATKINS: No, sugar.
KING: But bread ...
ATKINS: Bread comes next. Bread and other starches of that
-- of grains went up 64 pounds per person.
KING: In other words, we ate more wrong food.
ATKINS: Of course. Because everybody heard low fat, low fat
low fat, they had to eat more carbohydrates. That's what
caused the epidemic.
KING: Boston, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins?
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: Hi. about a year ago, exactly a year ago I started
cutting out sugar and white flour and lost over 100 pounds,
went down 10 sizes, and I have noticed -- and I have
noticed that a lot of like Suzanne Somers is following you
and she attributes you being the guru.
ATKINS: Yes, I saw her today. Yes.
CALLER: How do you feel about other diets and other diet
books that are now attributing you to being the guru?
ATKINS: Well, I think that's good. I think -- I think my
book, next one is coming out, "Atkins for Life" is going to
be very similar to what Suzanne Somers has done, which --
because we're talking about the maintenance of a lifestyle,
keeping the weight off now that you've lost it.
KING: That's harder than losing sometimes, isn't it?
ATKINS: It has been, but it shouldn't be because the diet
is actually easier -- maintenance diet is easier to follow
than weight loss diet, but for some reason people just go
off their diet and they have got to learn that.
KING: Moline, Illinois for Dr. Robert Atkins. Hello.
CALLER: Dr. Atkins, I'm a type II diabetic. Can I safely be
on this diet?
ATKINS: It's the optimal diet for a diabetic. The main
thing that I want to accomplish in life is putting an end
to the epidemic of diabetes and obesity, which I call
diabesity. That's really my number one function in life in
this next few years of mine.
KING: What percentage of your patients are either heart
patients or diabetic patients or both?
ATKINS: Oh, I would say between the diabetes and the heart
patients, about 60 percent now. Absolutely.
KING: To Milton, Wisconsin. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. I've been on the Atkins way of life for four
and a half months. I'm down over 30 pounds. But my blood
pressure is up and I was wondering why this might be
happening.
ATKINS: Well, that's very unusual, because it has been
shown by study after study and by our own experience as
well that restricting carbohydrates will drop the blood
pressure. So it's very unusual. You have to find out what
other than the diet could be responsible for that.
KING: The chief form of carbohydrates that you take come in
what?
ATKINS: Mostly vegetables. And nuts and seeds. Nuts and
seeds and vegetables.
KING: Cashew nuts?
ATKINS: That's the one I shouldn't have. That's the highest
one in carbohydrates.
KING: What's a good nut, macadamia?
ATKINS: That's the best. And I eat a lot of macadamia nuts.
KING: Why is it the best?
ATKINS: Well, I guess because it's the lowest in
carbohydrate and also because it tastes the best and
because macadamia nut butter is so good, and I mix it with
heavy cream and that becomes my dessert. That's what I...
KING: Macadamia nut butter with heavy cream? ATKINS: And I
stir it together, takes about 20 seconds, and then that's
my dessert.
KING: Dayton, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi. I have a 13-year-old daughter and I was
wondering how safe it would be for her to be on the diet?
ATKINS: I'm so glad you asked. Absolutely. As a matter of
fact, children who are overweight should start on the low
carbohydrate lifestyle as soon as they become overweight so
they don't get into these bad habits. But at the age of 13,
it is absolutely mandatory. How overweight is she?
CALLER: Oh, about 15 to 20 pounds.
ATKINS: Well, that's an easy thing. That means you should
be able to get her back to her ideal weight within five or
six weeks.
KING: Really?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: We'll be right back with more of Dr. Robert Atkins.
His new book is "Atkins for Life: the Complete Controlled
Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss and Good Health."
Example of someone losing weight, Sarah Ferguson, the
duchess of York is here tomorrow night. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Dr. Atkins said if you're going to drink, moderation
and if you had to pick one drink it would be red wine,
right?
ATKINS: Red wine is a very good choice.
KING: Chicago, hello.
CALLER: Hi there, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I'd like to understand whether or not alcohol has a
large impact on your diet.
KING: Just asked about alcohol. Does it have a large
impact?
ATKINS: It has a medium-sized impact. A lot of alcohol has
a large impact. But a little bit is usable.
We don't like to start people off with alcohol. We want to
get the thing started, but then for the ongoing weight loss
phase or the premaintenance or maintenance phase, which is
the rest of your life, we certainly would allow a moderate
amount of alcohol. Not the sweet ones.
KING: Unsweet is like, what, vodka?
ATKINS: Yeah, scotch, vodka.
KING: Do alcoholics tend to gain weight?
ATKINS: Some do and some don't.
KING: Hartford, Connecticut, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I have a question about keatosis(ph).
ATKINS: OK.
CALLER: I've been on induction for three weeks and I've
only been able to reach 15 milligrams on a keytone (ph)
stick and I want to know how can I accelerate the process
of keatosis?
KING: What is keatosis?
ATKINS: Keatosis means that she -- you put in a stick and
check your urine and you see it has keytones in it.
KING: And you want them in it?
ATKINS: I really do, but it isn't really necessary. You can
have keytones come out and not appear in your urine and you
would say, Gee, I don't have keytones. But in point of fact
you -- are you losing weight?
CALLER: I lost seven pounds in three weeks.
ATKINS: So it's still working. So you don't have to worry
if you can continue to lose -- how many pounds do you have
to lose all together?
CALLER: A hundred.
ATKINS: Oh, 100. Are you taking any medications?
CALLER: Just sinthroid (ph) for my thyroid.
ATKINS: All right. The probability is is that sinthroid is
not the best choice of thyroid. The probability is that you
need a balanced thyroid where you're getting T3 as well as
T4 or a natural form of thyroid and it's also highly
probable that you're not taking the right amount.
KING: Can you reverse heart disease?
ATKINS: Well, we reverse heart disease all the time. That's
what we do.
KING: That I'm told is impossible. I mean, you can control
it, but you can't reverse it. You can't make someone who...
ATKINS: Well, a lot of people who have been told that they
need bypass, come to us and we do a lot of things beyond
the diet. I must say, we use an awful lot of powerful
vitamin -- vitanutrients.
KING: Oh you do?
ATKINS: And there actually are some vitanutrients that are
better than drugs because they don't have any bad side
effects.
KING: Did you say you can avoid bypass surgery?
ATKINS: Well, we've done it hundreds and hundreds of times.
People have come to us and...
KING: And you take the blockage away?
ATKINS: Well, we took away the symptom complex and the
cardiologists who are -- told them they needed a bypass re-
evaluated and said, Well, I guess you don't because
everything is OK now.
KING: Sedona, Arizona, hello.
CALLER: Hi. Dr. Atkins...
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: I was wondering if you're familiar with the eat
right for your type diet of Dr. Peter Dodomo, which is
based on blood types.
ATKINS: Well, I know a little bit about it. I know about
the role of blood types.
CALLER: Well, I'm curious what you think about that because
he says that the Type O very similar to yours...
ATKINS: Right.
CALLER: But for, like, types A and B, he says they can't
digest animal proteins and they should stay away from those
and maybe have more carbs. I just wondered what you think
about blood type and diet.
ATKINS: That can't be really because such a high percentage
of people, we're talking about 99 percent of people, go on
our diet and succeed with it. And this means that just
about every blood type is included in the group that
succeeds on it.
KING: Warren, Michigan, hello.
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead.
CALLER: Hi. I wanted to know -- I know you can eat eggs and
protein on your diet. Why not any milk? ATKINS: Well, milk
has got lactose in it. Whenever you hear a word with ose,
that's a sugar. So there is sugar in milk. And that's...
KING: Skim milk, too?
ATKINS: More so. Skim milk has even more because it doesn't
even have cream in it. So cream is about the one thing that
the cow puts out that doesn't have carbohydrate.
KING: If you would have -- you don't have cereal, do you?
ATKINS: Well, there are low some carbohydrate cereals now.
KING: You put sweet cream on it?
ATKINS: And I mix it with heavy cream, yes, I do, sir.
KING: It sounds..
ATKINS: Delicious.
KING: It sounds fattening. Oh, it's delicious. What's
better than sweet cream, man?
ATKINS: OK.
KING: But, you see, if it is that good it can't be good for
you, right?
ATKINS: It is pretty good for me.
KING: OK. I'll buy.
ATKINS: Helps my tennis.
KING: Branchville, New Jersey, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins. I was wondering if you miss eating
fresh fruit?
KING: Ah-ha.
ATKINS: Ah-ha. Well, I don't because I eat an awful lot of
berries. Berries are on my...
KING: Bluberries are a good food, right?
ATKINS: Blueberries are excellent. But then, I eat all the
berries. Just this morning I had four different kinds of
berries and then melon is good and then I'll have a bite
of...
KING: So fruits are good?
ATKINS: Fruit is definitely on the maintenance diet. It's
on the lifestyle diet. KING: Williamsburg, Virginia, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Atkins. I'm a Weight Watcher representative and
I wondered what you thought about -- do you not believe
that denying people normal carbohydrates on a daily basis
will eventually make them feel deprived, causing them
excess frustration and even causing them to go off their
diet completely because they haven't had those normal
carbohydrates such as pastas and rice and potatoes and
things that people really enjoy?
ATKINS: I think it's just the opposite.
CALLER: What about just eating in moderation?
ATKINS: I think when one looks at the long-term effect of
people who have been on Weight Watchers, such a high
percentage of those people gain back the weight, the reason
being no one wants to be hungry for a lifetime. Where as
with our diet, you're never hungry because you're not
allowed to be hungry. You just not allowed to keep your
quantities that small.
And so it's a better deal for almost everybody. They would
rather eat enough food that they're not hungry and that is
delicious and it is -- all of these foods that you talk
about, there are low carbohydrate versions of 90 percent of
them so that people are able to enjoy all of those foods.
It is a rare, rare person who doesn't like to stay on
Atkins.
KING: Ada, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: I'm a letter carrier and I walk 12 to 15 miles a
day and I was on your diet. I lost two to three pounds a
day the first two weeks. It scared me to death so I...
ATKINS: Well, you had to have lost water then.
CALLER: Was that all it was, water?
ATKINS: No, not all it was was water but, I mean, there was
some water along with a lot of fat that you lost.
CALLER: OK, because I've been carrying mail for four years
and that's why I was wondering.
ATKINS: Well, but it shows how effective the diet is. How
many pounds did you have to lose altogether?
CALLER: Well, I wanted to lose 50 pounds maybe.
ATKINS: Well, all right, so you got a good start but
eventually you'll switch on to ongoing weight loss anyway
and you'll get to the point where you only lose one pound a
week. KING: But the diet is in stages, right? As you
explain it...
ATKINS: The diet is in four stages. The induction works
very fast but you don't stay on it very long. It is just to
get things started.
KING: Then there's a...
ATKINS: Then ongoing weight loss is really where you find
out what your critical carbohydrate level for losing is.
And it is a different level for different people.
KING: How important is exercise?
ATKINS: Exercise is important to everybody whether they
diet or not. I don't think there is ever a person that says
exercise is not good for people. Everybody agrees with
that.
KING: But is it essential?
ATKINS: Well, if you can't exercise, you'll still lose
weight, but it's extremely valuable to be healthy.
KING: We'll be back with Dr. Robert Atkins and more on his
new book "Atkins For Life." A lot more of your phone calls.
Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Robert Atkins. I'm Larry King.
The caller is from Saline, Michigan. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
ATKINS: How did dr. Atkins explain the fact that the best
marathoners in the world that have maybe 5 percent body fat
eat diets that are 65 percent to 70 percent complex
carbohydrates?
ATKINS: Well, that's perfectly fine because these people --
there is no reason you shouldn't do that if you're that
active. That's an incredibly active way to go through life.
Those would be -- that would be one group of people who
wouldn't need to be on my diet although studies have been
done showing that people who, let's say were cyclists, that
they went on my diet to see if -- how their speed would
work. And for about two weeks, they ran behind and then at
the end of two weeks, they were just as good as ever.
So that we know that the -- and that's just the
introduction to the diet. So that once you've been on the
diet more than two weeks, you're able to handle things.
KING: Ashland, Kentucky, for Dr. Atkins. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry. KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: Is it possible to lose too much weight on your
diet?
ATKINS: I guess it's possible, but I wouldn't think very
many people would do that.
KING: You can get -- you can do the reverse of bulimia,
right? Or you can -- or could you -- not the reverse, could
you come bulimic. Could you suddenly start to say, I love
it, I'm going waste away to nothing, I'm going to be buried
in the box the pills came in.
ATKINS: Well, I've treated about 40, 000 people who were
overweight and I never had that happen yet. So it has to be
a pretty rare event.
KING: OK. Aurora, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hello. Hi.
I have just had a baby two and a half months ago and
wondered why it wasn't safe for me to do the Atkins diet.
ATKINS: Well, it is safe for you to do the maintenance
level of the diet. But you don't want to give the keytones
to an infant if you're feeding them breast milk.
KING: And she would be getting the keytones from what?
ATKINS: From being on a strict version of the diet. But you
wouldn't be getting them if you're just on a low
carbohydrate maintenance level.
KING: Rushville, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Hi.
CALLER: I'm 35 years old and had my kidney removed shortly
after birth.
ATKINS: OK.
CALLER: I had gone to my doctor to get permission to go on
the Atkins diet and test my kidney function and it was
fine.
After two weeks of the induction diet, I went into a kidney
infection. Is there a modified version of the induction
diet that I could do and still be safe for my kidneys --
for my kidney?
ATKINS: Well, I would say so. The kidney infection had
nothing to do with the diet. And there is no question that
people with one kidney can follow the diet if that kidney
is normal. There is no question. It has been done thousands
of times.
KING: What's the toughest part of starting?
ATKINS: Well, the toughest part of starting for some people
is getting rid of your addictions. In other words, some
people are addicted to sweets and they have to go through
withdrawal symptoms. Some people are addicted to alcohol.
They have to go through withdrawal symptoms for that. A few
other things.
KING: But you have some substitutes you could do?
ATKINS: Well, when I really have a person like that I tell
them to just gradually decrease it and then by the seventh
day they could be on the induction level because they would
have gotten down slowly to zero.
KING: What about sweeteners? The NutriSweet and...
ATKINS: I like sucralose, which is in Splenda. I consider
that to be...
KING: It's the yellow package, right?
ATKINS: The aspertame is the one that I think can cause
some problems. The others are healthy if you like them.
KING: Colas?
ATKINS: Colas.
KING: Diet Coke.
ATKINS: Well, if a Diet Coke has aspartame, it's not as
good as if it has sucralose and there are diet colas that
do have sucralose.
KING: So you would look for sucralose?
ATKINS: Right.
KING: Peoria, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hello. In your book you say that you should not eat
bacon or sausage with sodium nitrate. How important is it
to stay away from sodium nitrate?
ATKINS: All right. That's a minor point, because that's
just a -- to talk about the fact that nitrates -- nitrates
are a little dangerous.
KING: What are nitrates?
ATKINS: That's one of the ingredients that if you eat a lot
of them, you can run into some medical problems.
KING: Did you say don't eat sausage and bacon or do eat
sausage and bacon?
ATKINS: Well, I allow a moderate amount because I don't
think it has enough -- when you can get the organic type
without the nitrates in it you can have all you want.
KING: Where do you get organic...
ATKINS: In the health food stores.
KING: You get organic bacon?
ATKINS: Well, you get the kind of free range bacon that
doesn't have nitrates in it, yes.
KING: OK. Macon, Georgia, hello.
Hello?
Macon, are you there?
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead. Speak up.
CALLER: Dr. Atkins.
ATKINS: Yes.
CALLER: Before I started your diet, I used to have to take
heartburn and acid reflux medication every night. But once
I started your diet, I no longer had to take that. Does
your diet have anything to do with me not having the
heartburn and the acid reflux any longer?
ATKINS: Oh, that's very, very common. Of course it has to
do with that. There's no question if you went off the diet,
you would get your heartburn again.
KING: Because?
ATKINS: We don't know why but we assume there is something
in carbohydrate that would aggravate the stomach function.
Because that's the one thing that's restricted.
KING: It's very hard, though to get people to think that
high fat is good because...
ATKINS: You think so?
KING: Yes, I'll tell you why. Because fat is a bad word.
Fat means fat. Fat equals -- I'll be fat if I eat fat.
Two, fat is too good. And something that good for your --
you're telling me put sweet cream on my Special K and
that's better than skim milk on my Special K. Sounds weird
to me.
ATKINS: It's good. You've got the answer. It is good. It is
enjoyable and it doesn't have carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is
the bad guy. You have to see that. You told people go on
low fat diet, look at how much more carbohydrate they began
eating and that's what caused the epidemic of obesity and
of diabetes.
KING: So in other words, what you're saying is, we have an
epidemic of obesity caused by people pushing low fat diets.
ATKINS: Exactly. A hundred percent correct. May I shake
your hand? That's perfect.
KING: Where did I go right? I don't know what I'm saying.
It just seems that the fact -- I've had people say it's a
rule that if it tastes good, it is bad for you.
ATKINS: Oh, have you got that wrong. If it tastes good, you
can stay on it for life. Just pick a healthy food that
tastes good and that's what Atkins does.
KING: What do people tell you is the hardest thing for them
to give up?
ATKINS: Oh, boy. Everybody has -- everybody has their
favorite.
KING: I would guess bread.
ATKINS: Well, maybe. A lot of people say bread. A lot of
people say pasta. A lot of people say sweets.
KING: So you're telling me when you order spaghetti and
meatballs, you just eat the meatballs.
ATKINS: I wouldn't order spaghetti and meatballs, I would
just order the meatballs.
KING: That was a joke. A little levity.
OK. We'll be back with our remaining moments with Dr.
Robert Atkins. Get some more phone calls in after these
words.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Dr. Atkins. one of our crew had an
outstanding question. What about portions? Can you eat all
the steak you want?
ATKINS: Well, the portions should be just enough that
you're not hungry. Because we don't want anybody hungry,
but we don't want anybody to just eat beyond that. So, It
is just perfect. Nobody will be hungry. For a lifetime now,
you never going to be hungry. That's the superiority of our
diet.
KING: Cleveland, Ohio, hello. CALLER: Yes, Dr. Atkins,
first I wanted to thank you. I've been on your diet for
three years now. I've lost over 150 pounds. I've been able
to keep it off. So that's very important to me. My wife,
however, has a concern and that is she's been reading a lot
about the mad cow disease that is being held in beef and
I'm curious if you had any comments about that?
ATKINS: We haven't had any mad cow disease in the United
States. So it is really nothing to worry about. It doesn't
affect anybody -- hasn't...
KING: How many died altogether? Did many die in Europe?
ATKINS: That I don't know. It is pretty rare.
KING: Pensacola, Florida, hello.
CALLER: Yes. Thank you. Dr. Atkins, first I want to tell
you thank you for sticking to your guns. I've been on the
program since February 4 and I've lost 55 pounds.
ATKINS: Good year.
CALLER: My question is, whenever I try find my critical
carbohydrate level for losing, and I get to the -- you
know, you tell us about the five pound mark, well, if I add
an extra bowl of brock broccoli to my supper, I'm getting
that five pounds back. What is going on?
ATKINS: Well you actually are a slower loser than you
should be. So you're not on any medications are you.
CALLER: No, sir, I'm not.
ATKINS: OK, then which I stop one of our first callers, you
should really check your temperature to see if perhaps you
don't have a sluggish thyroid because that may be the
answer.
KING: Staten Island, New York. Hello.
CALLER: Yes, Hi.
Dr. Atkins my husband has been on the diet for six months
and lost 30 pounds. He's been on medication from the
beginning, blood pressure medication and cholesterol
medication. His blood work is wonderful now. But he's on a
plateau now. He can't seem to lose for the last month.
ATKINS: What is the hypertensive medication he's on?
CALLER: I'm not sure the name of it.
ATKINS: Well, basicly most of the hypertensive medications
prevent weight loss or slow it down and he probably has a
perfectly normal blood pressure. Since you live in Staten
Island, you should really -- come and see me in Manhattan.
At the Atkins Center. Because we -- we get people off of
their medication all the time.
KING: People fly in to see you, I know.
ATKINS: Yes.
KING: You can contact the Atkins Center in New York.
ATKINS: All over the world, not just the U.S..
KING: Living right there that is what I would do.
North Brook, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hi, gentlemen.
I'm interested in the Atkins products and how you feel that
they may inhibit or help the weight loss program.
KING: You sell products?
ATKINS: Yes. Atkins Nutritional sells products. And it's
some very good products. We're not the only company that
does it.
KING: Where do you get it, health food stores?
ATKINS: Health food stores carry them. You can logon to the
website and call Atkins Nutritionals.
KING: What kind of products?
ATKINS: Well, we have chocolate things and they're called
Advantage Bars, protein bars. We have about 80 different
products. I mean, the whole breakfast, a lot of -- we have
low carb bread. We have chocolate drinks and other drinks
that are delicious and we will have ice cream in a few
months.
KING: You ship it out?
ATKINS: Shipped out right away.
KING: New York City, hello.
CALLER: New York, New York.
KING: New York, New York.
CALLER: I have an event coming up in two weeks and I would
like to lose a quick ten pounds. What is the surest and
fastest way to do that.
ATKINS: Well, the average weight loss of our induction is
about ten pounds in two weeks.
KING: You live in New York, go see him tomorrow.
ATKINS: Not tomorrow. I'll be flying back to New York. No,
go on the diet because you only have two weeks. It should
take off ten pounds in two weeks. That's all you have to
do.
KING: How do you feel now? We have about a minute left, do
you feel like -- well, yes, I told you so?
ATKINS: Yes, definitely feel that way. And I must say I
feel very happy having spent the hour with you. Really
makes me feel good. And in general I feel that I've got to
do the next step of my life which is to put an end to the
epidemic proportions of diabesity. And that's the book
after this one...
KING: About diabesity.
ATKINS: Yes.
KING: Because diabetes is our third most killer, right.
ATKINS: And that definitely comes from carbohydrates. Check
your blood sugar after a regular meal and see how many
points it goes up and after one of our meals and see how
few points it goes up and you'll see right away that is
what you should do.
KING: Always great seeing you.
ATKINS: Good. Always great being here.
KING: Dr. Robert Atkins, cardiologist, founder of the
Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, author of "Atkins
For Life, the Complete Control Carb Program For Permanent
Weight And Good Health" and you can website him at the
atkinscenter.com. I'll be back in a minute to tell you
about tomorrow night. Don't go way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Tomorrow night on LARRY KING LIVE, Sarah Ferguson,
the Duchess of York will be flying in from New York to
appear with us. We look forward to that.
![[30er Pack] 1-Fach Meal Prep Container mit Deckel - Boxen Wiederverwendbar Mikrowellengeeignet Spülmaschinenfest - Essensbox Lunchbox Luftdichter Deckelverschluss](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+i4Z0G3FL._SL500_.jpg)
![[10er Pack] 1-Fach Meal Prep Container Von Igluu - Essensbox, Lunchbox Mikrowellengeeignet, Spülmaschinenfest Und Wiederverwendbar - Luftdichter Deckelverschluss, BPA Frei](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ox-Nr18aL._SL500_.jpg)
![[10er Pack] 3-Fach Meal Prep Container Von Igluu - Essensbox, Lunchbox Mikrowellengeeignet, Spülmaschinenfest Und Wiederverwendbar - Luftdichter Deckelverschluss, BPA Frei](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OYdvCwfLL._SL500_.jpg)
![Runde Meal Prep Container Von Igluu [10er Pack] - Essensbox, Lunchbox Mikrowellengeeignet, Spülmaschinenfest Und Wiederverwendbar - Luftdichter Deckelverschluss, BPA Frei](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PSrQtVEZL._SL500_.jpg)
![[10er Pack] 2-Fach Meal Prep Container Von Igluu - Essensbox, Lunchbox Mikrowellengeeignet, Spülmaschinenfest Und Wiederverwendbar - Luftdichter Deckelverschluss, BPA Frei](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yPNVtteuL._SL500_.jpg)
![Keto Egg Fast Diet Recipe & Cookbook [With Easy Mix And Match Meal Plan]: High Protein Keto & Carnivore Diet Cook Book For Women Over 50 [Beginners ... 5 Day Transition Plan & Dairy Free Plan](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419HHH4CGzL._SL500_.jpg)
