Notes on "The Park Avenue Diet Show: Controversies in Weight Loss"; March 27, 2011

From its very earliest days the world of weight loss has been filled with controversy. The very first diet doctor was Banting, and he wasn't even a physician. Banting was an undertaker in the mid-1800's who invented a primitive form of the low carbohydrate diet. In fact the term "banting" was synonymous with dieting for many decades. Just as Dr. Robert Atkins did in the late 1960's, Banting advocated eating a disproportionate amount of protein. Most modern nutritionists would find this alarming, for among other things this program increases the risk of gout and kidney stones. When he was the on-site physician for Bell Telephone, Dr. Atkins adapted Banting's philosophy into a more concise set of recommendations. Controversy followed Dr. Atkins throughout his professional career. And the arguments still rage eight years after his death. You can buy Atkins Bars virtually everywhere, but are they correctly utilized by purchasers in the context of a low carbohydrate diet or assumed to have magical weight loss properties despite the high fat content? The Kempner Rice Diet, the bill of fare at the same-named institute at Duke University, seems like a sensible therapy. You check in prepared to eat nothing but steamed rice for several weeks and hope that the pounds melt off as quickly as possible. Sounds like a winner, no? But as Dr. Atkins himself told me, the "patients" must leave a urine sample in a jug outside their door at the end of every day. Lab technicians will test the urine for protein, something that is totally absent in steamed rice. But where would such protein be coming from? A tech-savvy patient could use his or her smart phone to find any one of dozens of gourmet restaurants surrounding the Kempner Institute. Dr. Atkins told me that the overweight comedian Buddy Hackett used to switch his urine sample with that of his neighbors after a delicious forbidden meal. Fast forward to 2011 when obese individuals who have had lap band surgery have devised a multitude of ways to have their liquified cake and eat it. Who is being cheated by this type of irrational behavior? The manufacturer of the lap band? The surgeon? The insurance company that paid for the procedure in the first place? The other policy holders in that insurance plan who must contribute additional moneys in their premiums to support such behavior? The scientific community encourages healthy debate in order to find the objective truths in the areas of health care of most benefit to society. You'll find very little objectivity in the world of weight loss. From banting to bariatrics, controversy have raged for almost two hundred years. Plus ca change, plus la meme chose.