Counting Carbs
Despite promising new studies, concerns abound over high-fat diets
By Janet Raloff
One in six U.S. households includes a low-carbohydrate dieter, according to an ACNielsen poll conducted earlier this year. Until last October, Jody Gorran of Delray Beach, Fla., was among them. Despite having followed a sensible, low-fat diet most of his life, Gorran says that by his 50s, “middle-age spread” was developing. So, he decided to try a new diet. Picking up a book by Robert Atkins, Gorran embraced the low-carb lifestyle and avoided foods containing sugars and starches. For 2 1/2 years, he says, he lost weight, felt great, and bragged about his diet to anyone who would listen.
That was until Gorran experienced chest pain last fall, and an X-ray scan of his heart showed 99 percent blockage in a coronary artery that had been clear a few months before he started on the Atkins diet. Gorran underwent balloon angioplasty to clear the artery, and then on May 26, he filed suit against the Atkins company and Atkins’ estate. The Atkins diet “gave me heart disease,” he claims.