CIA-RDP79-00999A000300030029-8

677
New Scientist 22 March 1973
Less than six months afterApproved For Release 2003/03/284 CIA-RDP79-00999A009300038829-8
the book has achieved an unprecedented
sale of more than 750 000 hard-cover
copies. But, along with the public ac-
claim, Dr Atkins has found himself
increasingly a pariah in establishment
les. Earlier this month, both the
American Medical Association and the
New York County Medical Society-
the former the equivalent of the BMA,
the latter a local body that in theory has
disciplinary authority over Dr Atkins-
went on record with public statements
that denounced the diet as unrevolu-
tionary, unbalanced, and possibly unsafe.
The Atkins diet is a high-protein, low-
carbohydrate combination that for the
first week denies users all access to
carbohydrates-fruits, juices and vege-
tables as well as cake and ice cream-
and thereafter allows them to eat only
small amounts of favourite vegetables and
fruits. At the same time, patients are
encouraged to cat as much meat, eggs,
butter and similar fatty products as they
wish. The purpose of the diet is to put
the body in a state known as ketosis: in
this state, incompletely metabolised fats
leave the body via the breath and urine.
The effect, Atkins claims, is to allow the
dicter whose self-control leaves a lot
to be desired to consume many more
calories than he would under a normal
reducing diet without the penalty of put-
ting on extra pounds.
Atkins states that he has tried out the
dict successfully on more than 10 000
patients in his private practice, but
medical authorities dispute both the
idity and safety of the regimen. In an
unusual intervention, the AMA's Council
on Foods and Nutrition issued a state-
ment describing the diet as "grossly un-
balanced" and "unlikely to produce a
practical basis for long-term weight re-
duction". One basic concern of the
Council was the unlimited consumption
of foods rich in saturated fats and
cholesterol allowed by the diet. Such
consumption, the Council declared, can
increase the dieter's risk of suffering circu-
latory discase or heart attacks. A week
after this attack, the other shee dropped.
The New York County Medical Society
issued its own rebuttal of the diet with
the comment that "the adverse effects of
a ketogenic diet include weakness, lack
of stamina for prolonged exertion, loss
of appetite, hyperlipidema and hyperuri-
cemia with their potentially harmful
effects on the body".
. . ..
...
.. .
In reply Atkins pointed out that neither
body had reviewed the unpublished
records of his own clinical investigations
of obese patients he had put on the diet,
and added that the AMA and the Society
had not in fact studied any group of
patients that had faithfully followed the
diet. He also suggested that in many
cases the diet led to falls in the levels
of cholesterol in the dieter. Obviously
there is little common ground between
the two sides and, as in many scientific
Werences of opinion, the public is loft in
a general state of confusion. What is all
but certain, though, is that obese Ameri-
`ans are sitting ducks for the next diet to
come along that offers thinning without
thinking.
The other example of the scientific
the general public, h
subject-parapsychology-is one of great
interest in student circles. While the
paranormal still carries the aura of
charlatanry and stage magicianship that
it has borne for nearly a decade, it is
becoming more respectable as a topic of
study in scientific laboratories. In carly
March two physicists from the Stanford
Research Institute presented a Columbia
University
Physics
Department
col-
loquium with a report on recent studies
involving two psychics.
The colloquium had all the trappings
of a grand scientific occasion. The hall
was crowded with physics professors, the
parapsychology establishment of New
York, journalists, and graduates and
undergraduates
attracted
cither
by
genuine interest or cultish .curiosity.
Murmurings of excitement greeted the
appearance of the SRI physicists-Russel
Targ and Harold Putoff. Their presenta-
tion was certainly spectacular in a
scientific sense-a brief description of
experiments in which New York artist
and psychic Igno Swann influenced the
readings of a shielded magnetometer
simply by thinking, followed by a film of
Israeli psychic (and stage magician) Uri
Geller in action. Geller's profession is
designed to raise the hackles of critics of
parapsychology, who claim that scientists
are simply too naive to cope with adept
stage performers but, according to Targ,
he and his colleague took just about
every precaution imaginable -- including
consulting with a professional magician-
to make the experiments cheat-proof. For
example, they monitored Geller with a
magnetometer before and after every
experiment, and conducted many of the
studies in double-blind fashion. Neverthe-
less, Geller recorded 100 per cent success
on a variety of studies that included
reading figures concealed in double
sealed envelopes, detecting hidden ob-
jects in aluminium film cans, and causing
a laboratory balance to respond as if a
force were being applied to it.
The audience was generally friendly,
and questions were concerned more with
improving the experimental procedures
than with attacking the concept of study-
ing psychics in the laboratory. Targ was
.equally subdued in his conclusion: "We
do not claim that either man has psychic
powers," he said. "We draw no sweeping
conclusions as to the nature of these
phenomena or the need to call them
psychical. We have observed certain
phenomena with the subjects for which
we have no scientific explanation. All we
can say at this point is that further
investigation is clearly warranted." With
a cautious approach of this nature, it
could be that parapsychology will finally
undergo a genuinely disinterested study
of its validity.
Peter Gwynne
Goodbye to
Brillat-Savarin ?
.
Is France slowly becoming a British
colony and will French technology, in
some fields at least, play "Indian" to
British masters? The whole idea of Great
Britain taking France over in certain
fields may sound both ludicrous and
absurd, but the F'rench are taking it vory
seriously. An organisation called
CACEPA, which keeps a wary eye on
French food technology, has drawn up a
report for French agricultural coopera-
tives making it clear that if the present
penetration of British capital continues
France will, eventually, just supply the
raw materials from the fields, and the
British will carry out its transformation
into supermarketable goods.
Britain is not the only country within
the Common Market which has sensed
possibilities for expansion in food tech-
nology. The Dutch, too, are well in
evidence in France. But Britain leads
with 63 per cent of commercial takeovers'
against 26 per cent by the Dutch.
Foreigners are now running about 20 per
cent of the French food industry.
In 1972 foreigners invested no less
than £52 million in the French food
industries against £ll million five years
ago; this could be because French in-
vestors are not prepared to take a chance
on their own food technology, which still
remains steeped in tradition and is cer-
tainly riddled with prejudice. Dominated
by the idea that French cuisine and
gastronomy hold a preponderant position
the average Frenchman finds it difficult
to reconcile himself to bottled sauces. For
example, tomato sauce is still almost
impossible to find in French restaurants.
Frenchmen do not take marmalade for
breakfast and have not yet become en-
deared to pork pies. But the super-
markets stock them and sell them as
they do dried soups, the popularity of
which is ever increasing.
French epicures never go within 700
yards of a supermarket but even in this
country of connoisseurs, food habits are
changing and packages are replacing the
"fonds de veau" which take hours to
prepare. Here, perhaps, is the main
reason why French fosa technology is
giving way to Britain How will work is
and few will believe it, but the evidence
is clear.
*
The termination of the Vietnam war has
Approved For Release 2003/09/28 : CIA-RDP79-00999A000306030029-grance as in every
other country, although not particularly