AR-News: (no subject)

[jim robertson]

Charity gains fortune to study Atkins diet plan
Foundation to focus on low-carb research espoused by doctor

Raja Mishra, Boston Globe
  Sunday, June 27, 2004



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



A charity founded by the late diet doctor Robert C. Atkins stands to inherit 
his vast fortune and plans to bankroll a barrage of studies championing his 
popular low-carbohydrate diet, positioning it to dominate diet research at a 
time when an unprecedented number of Americans are seeking weight loss 
guidance.

With Atkins' estate worth an estimated $600 million, the Robert C. Atkins 
Foundation will eventually become the largest private supporter of dieting 
research in the United States. Its budget could rival what the federal 
government now spends on studying diets.

After his death last year, Atkins' will called for his fortune to be held in 
a trust for his wife, Veronica, and instructed that it be transferred in 
chunks to the charity, with the entire remaining amount going to it upon her 
death, according to officers at the charity. This year, Veronica Atkins, 61, 
will give the charity $46 million, said the charity's officials, boosting 
its assets twentyfold.

The New York-based foundation's leadership, which includes Atkins' widow, 
says it intends to use the cash infusion to continue Atkins' crusade. Its 
sole stated mission remains the same as it was when Atkins founded it in 
1999 -- to fund research into low-carbohydrate diets.

The development marks a dramatic turnabout: Atkins was long marginalized by 
the nutrition research community, but critics now worry that the Atkins 
foundation's wealth and singular focus could distort the nation's dieting 
research agenda in a way that benefits Atkins Nutritionals, the for-profit 
company that sells Atkins diet products and that once had close ties to the 
charity.

"The studies they fund keep the Atkins name in your face," said Yale 
University nutritional specialist Dr. David L. Katz. "If you've got a 
product to sell, just being out there is worth it. The foundation can buy 
those headlines."

For instance, headlines worldwide last month trumpeted a scientific study 
demonstrating the short-term effectiveness of the Atkins diet. The study, 
conducted by Duke University researchers, had been funded three years 
earlier by the Atkins foundation. Executives for Atkins Nutritionals, who at 
the time sat on the charity's board, approved the research topic.

Atkins Nutritionals' medical director, Dr. Stuart L. Trager, said the 
company no longer has any role in the foundation, but acknowledged that its 
research could help the company. "As the science continues to validate the 
safety and efficacy of controlling carbs as a nutritional principal ... the 
interest in this (low-carbohydrate) approach will rise," he said.

Charity specialists interviewed could not cite another example like the 
Atkins case, where a charity and company have such a similar and narrow 
focus.

William Josephson, New York assistant attorney general in charge of 
charities, called the arrangement "rare" but said it violated no laws. "If 
it wasn't bona fide research, it would cross the line."

more: 
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/27/MNG6M7C3151.DTL



I would sooner expect a goat to succeed as a gardener than expect humans to 
become responsible stewards of the Earth. --
James Lovelock


It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the 
existence of Man. --
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon  1135-1204