Dieter Sues Atkins Estate and Company

By MARIAN BURROS

Published: May 27, 2004

New York Times

A 53-year-old man sued the estate of Dr. Robert C. Atkins and the
company that promotes his diet yesterday. The suit says following the
Atkins diet for two years raised the man's cholesterol so much that his
arteries became clogged and required a medical procedure to open them.

The suit is apparently the first to involve the diet, the most
prominent and controversial low-carbohydrate regimen and the one most
associated with assertions that followers could eat all the red meat
and saturated fat they wanted and still lose weight.

The plaintiff, Jody Gorran, who is being assisted by the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group that supports a
vegan diet, is seeking $28,000 in damages. Mr. Gorran said he was using
the suit to tell other people about the dangers of the diet and to have
its promoters include warnings in books, other products and Web sites.

Mr. Gorran, of Delray Beach, Fla., said that in 2001, when his weight
crept up to 148 from 140 he turned to the diet, specifically, the 1999
edition of "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." After two months he said,
his cholesterol shot from 146, well within the normal range, to 230,
considered in the hazardous range.

In October 2003, after three episodes of chest pain, doctors found that
Mr. Gorran had a 99 percent blockage in a major artery and performed
angioplasty and inserted a stent to keep it open. Before starting the
diet, he said, tests showed that his arteries were clear.

In responding to a request for comment, a representative for Atkins
Nutritionals and the estate of Dr. Atkins said they stood by "the
science that has repeatedly reaffirmed the safety and health benefits
of Atkins."

Speaking of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Nutrition, the
statement says that the organization, "a well-known vegan and animal
rights group, has a long history of initiating these kinds of scare
tactics that are designed to convince the American public to stop
eating animal protein of any sort."

Dr. Frank M. Sacks, a professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at
the Harvard School of Public Health who is a critic of the diet and who
looked at Mr. Gorran's medical records at the request of The New York
Times, said he was not surprised by the increase in cholesterol.

"It could happen in two weeks," Dr. Sacks said. "There are definitely
people that happens to, though it is not a majority."

The American Heart Association said it would not comment on the suit,
but issued a statement saying, "Eating large amounts of high-fat foods
for a sustained period raises the risk of coronary heart disease,
diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer."

Mr. Gorran said in his suit that after his cholesterol had increased he
was encouraged to continue the plan by a passage in the book that
acknowledged that cholesterol would increase for about one in three
dieters. The book says those people should "eat only the lean proteins
- turkey roll, skinless chicken breast, fish, farmer cheese, lean cuts
of meat and so on - but do not increase your carbohydrate intake more
than 5 grams. However, if you are not happy on the low-fat version of
the diet or get hungry, or don't feel well on it, then don't bother
with it; go back to the regular Atkins diet that you enjoyed more."

"I contend there ought to be a warning on this diet," Mr. Gorran said
in a telephone interview from Florida, where he filed the suit. "I'm
seeking an injunction to prevent them from selling their products,
books, or having their Web site without a warning, because they know
one-third of the people on the diet will have what Atkins referred to
as 'less favorable cholesterol.' "

Within two months after going off the Atkins diet, where his favorite
foods were cheese every day and cheesecake three times a week, his
cholesterol dropped to 146.

Mr. Gorran, a wealthy owner of a manufacturer of solar panels for
swimming pools, said he enlisted the physicians' organization "because
they are familiar with publicity.''

"The whole thing is based on getting the word out,'' he said. "Even if
the suit never gets anywhere, we'll be out there and people will start
to think."

A law professor who read the complaint said he did not think that it
would get anywhere.

"The lawsuit has two serious shortcomings from the legal point of
view," said the professor, Benjamin Zipursky, who teaches torts and
product liability law, said. "Tort law generally does not permit a
cause of action or lawsuit based on bad theories put out in a book, and
most courts would recognize a valid First Amendment defense here. I
would be surprised if the case were not eventually dismissed before
getting to a jury."

Professor Zipursky said that the suit was "chock-full of information
about criticism of the Atkins diet.''

"So it really reads as if it were done by someone who is doing it for
reasons of publicity rather than private gain,'' he added. "Not only is
each claim for relief less than $15,000, it does not ask for punitive
damages, which I think is appropriate and a sign of their seriousness."

The suit is not the first against a diet book. In 1989, a suit against
the publisher of "The Last Chance Diet," by Robert Linn, a doctor of
osteopathy, said someone died following the liquid protein diet in the
book. A judge threw out the suit.