[Sca-cooks] The eating of meat in America

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach CorwynWdwd at aol.com:
>In a message dated 2/12/2004 7:50:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>ahrenshav at yahoo.com writes:
>I just heard a news story that Dr. Atkins died of
>heart problems due to being overweight.  They say
>he was about 280 when he died.  So Dr. Atkins
>couldn't keep on his own diet?  Ironic.
>I've been waiting for this.... Dr. Atkins died of hitting his head falling on
>an icy sidewalk. His heart condition, which partially inspired him to develop
>his diet, was the result of a virus infection.
>
>When he died, he had been in hospital for some time (unconscious BTW) and had
>been retaining water, almost all the additional weight was in fact retained
>water.
>
>Just setting the record straight.
>
>Corwyn

What I read was that when he went into the hospital he weighed 195, 
and gained 60 pounds. He also went in due to head and brain injuries 
(he had suffered a fall and hit his head). Under those conditions, 
it's possible to have a stroke and go into cardiac arrest 
simultaneously, and while no responsible hospital official or coroner 
would announce that such a patient died of a heart attack due to 
obesity, it's quite conceivable that an unscrupulous physician with 
an agenda might start such a rumor.

As for not keeping to his own diet, being unconscious in the hospital 
will do that.

I don't know for sure what he was like before the injury, or to what 
extent the rumors of obesity may or may not be true, but I've seen 
the man a few times, both in person and in photos and on the TV news, 
and he never looked especially fat or especially skinny. What I do 
know for sure is that plenty of fat people have strong hearts and 
plenty of slim people die of heart attacks. Surely the weight puts an 
unnecessary strain on the heart, but it's not the only factor.

Adamantius