Atkins Foundation Establishes Yet Another Endowed Chair For Obesity, Diabetes Research
Although several years have passed since the untimely passing of the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins, the generosity and dedication of his gracious wife Veronica Atkins to push for more low-carb research to continue on for many years to come is something the namesake of the Atkins diet would be so very proud of if he were still around today and I believe is helping solidify the lasting legacy that this one man has made on the history of diet, nutrition and health worldwide.
This Dallas Morning News story reports that Veronica Atkins has agreed to donate $2 million through her New York-based Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center so they can create the "Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Chair in Obesity and Diabetes Research."
Respected molecular genetics and internal medicine researcher Dr. Jay Horton has been announced as the benefactor of that chair, whose team of 23 other researchers are busy looking at the behavioral, metabolic and molecular mechanisms that lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome. The research dollars with Dr. Horton and his team will be money well spent in furthering the science behind low-carb into the foreseeable future.
For those who are unaware of what The Atkins Foundation is and does, it was established three years ago with a $40 million gift as part of the independent public charity called the National Philanthropic Trust. The Atkins Foundation was started by Veronica Atkins to provide money for the ongoing research into the role of nutrition and metabolism in managing major issues involving public health, namely obesity and Type 2 diabetes. These were two issues that Dr. Atkins was most passionate about throughout his career and now Mrs. Atkins is carrying on that tradition speaking out about dealing with diabetes with low-carb as well as defending the low-carb lifestyle that millions of people have used to lose weight and get healthy.
In fact, since 2004, a total of $15.5 million has been donated through The Atkins Foundation to endow seven other academic chairs at various medical centers across the country, the most recent one was another $2 million chair set up at Dr. Atkins' alma mater, The University of Michigan, last month.
Serving as the chairwoman of The Atkins Foundation, Veronica Atkins said each these donations which have been made are sorely needed at this time to fund quality research facilities where "accomplished individuals are pushing the envelope of conventional thinking – literally putting ideas under a microscope and applying acceptable scientific methods to test them."
This echoes exactly what Dr. Mary Vernon recently shared in her exclusive interview with me a couple of weeks ago. Without the monies provided by Veronica Atkins, low-carb research would, in essence, be dead as a doorknob and worst of all is nobody would even care either. That's why the National Insitutes of Health (NIH) needs to be lobbied to start funding some of this research if they are going to be serious about taking on the growing twin epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Call your Congressman and Senators and urge them to push for low-carb research today!
Speaking on behalf of the University of Texas Southwestern, school president Dr. Kern Wildenthal said the reality of obesity and its related diseases is one of "the biggest health problems facing developed countries" today.
"We are honored to have a chair named for Dr. Atkins, who was so passionate about obesity prevention, and we're very grateful to his wife, who is so successfully continuing his mission," Dr. Wildenthal remarked at the news of the donation.
Thank God for people like Veronica Atkins who stand strong in the face of the fatalists who were hoping low-carb would just mysteriously disappear from the face of the Earth. Because of her commitment to carry on the incredible legacy of her husband, those of us who are livin' la vida low-carb will be able to smile and celebrate in the years to come as study after study after study continues to point to the low-carb nutritional approach for fighting obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and much, much more.
It's gonna be exciting to watch it all unfold and we owe a big debt of gratitude to Mrs. Atkins and to the work that her husband began promoting over three decades ago. God bless this hero of low-carbers everywhere who was way ahead of his time with his belief in the low-carb lifestyle.
Decades from now when the low-fat ideology is merely a fading memory and low-carb is finally accepted as an equally effective way to manage both weight and health, medical students and the general public alike will be told about this man named Dr. Robert C. Atkins who bucked the trend throughout his career for the sake of sharing with people the truth about healthy living. It will be sweet vindication for a man who has been unfairly and maliciously maligned for daring to challenge the status quo. May we all have the courage to live our lives as fervently as Dr. Atkins did!
This Dallas Morning News story reports that Veronica Atkins has agreed to donate $2 million through her New York-based Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center so they can create the "Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Chair in Obesity and Diabetes Research."
Respected molecular genetics and internal medicine researcher Dr. Jay Horton has been announced as the benefactor of that chair, whose team of 23 other researchers are busy looking at the behavioral, metabolic and molecular mechanisms that lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome. The research dollars with Dr. Horton and his team will be money well spent in furthering the science behind low-carb into the foreseeable future.
For those who are unaware of what The Atkins Foundation is and does, it was established three years ago with a $40 million gift as part of the independent public charity called the National Philanthropic Trust. The Atkins Foundation was started by Veronica Atkins to provide money for the ongoing research into the role of nutrition and metabolism in managing major issues involving public health, namely obesity and Type 2 diabetes. These were two issues that Dr. Atkins was most passionate about throughout his career and now Mrs. Atkins is carrying on that tradition speaking out about dealing with diabetes with low-carb as well as defending the low-carb lifestyle that millions of people have used to lose weight and get healthy.
In fact, since 2004, a total of $15.5 million has been donated through The Atkins Foundation to endow seven other academic chairs at various medical centers across the country, the most recent one was another $2 million chair set up at Dr. Atkins' alma mater, The University of Michigan, last month.
Serving as the chairwoman of The Atkins Foundation, Veronica Atkins said each these donations which have been made are sorely needed at this time to fund quality research facilities where "accomplished individuals are pushing the envelope of conventional thinking – literally putting ideas under a microscope and applying acceptable scientific methods to test them."
This echoes exactly what Dr. Mary Vernon recently shared in her exclusive interview with me a couple of weeks ago. Without the monies provided by Veronica Atkins, low-carb research would, in essence, be dead as a doorknob and worst of all is nobody would even care either. That's why the National Insitutes of Health (NIH) needs to be lobbied to start funding some of this research if they are going to be serious about taking on the growing twin epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Call your Congressman and Senators and urge them to push for low-carb research today!
Speaking on behalf of the University of Texas Southwestern, school president Dr. Kern Wildenthal said the reality of obesity and its related diseases is one of "the biggest health problems facing developed countries" today.
"We are honored to have a chair named for Dr. Atkins, who was so passionate about obesity prevention, and we're very grateful to his wife, who is so successfully continuing his mission," Dr. Wildenthal remarked at the news of the donation.
Thank God for people like Veronica Atkins who stand strong in the face of the fatalists who were hoping low-carb would just mysteriously disappear from the face of the Earth. Because of her commitment to carry on the incredible legacy of her husband, those of us who are livin' la vida low-carb will be able to smile and celebrate in the years to come as study after study after study continues to point to the low-carb nutritional approach for fighting obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and much, much more.
It's gonna be exciting to watch it all unfold and we owe a big debt of gratitude to Mrs. Atkins and to the work that her husband began promoting over three decades ago. God bless this hero of low-carbers everywhere who was way ahead of his time with his belief in the low-carb lifestyle.
Decades from now when the low-fat ideology is merely a fading memory and low-carb is finally accepted as an equally effective way to manage both weight and health, medical students and the general public alike will be told about this man named Dr. Robert C. Atkins who bucked the trend throughout his career for the sake of sharing with people the truth about healthy living. It will be sweet vindication for a man who has been unfairly and maliciously maligned for daring to challenge the status quo. May we all have the courage to live our lives as fervently as Dr. Atkins did!
posted by Jimmy Moore at
6/27/2006 07:45:00 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for highlighting this. For obvious selfish reasons, I am glad that more research is being done in this area. My husband has had wonderful results managing his diabetes with low-carbing. One day, the research will have to stop denying the obvious.
Oh, the researchers have known this ever since the mid 1930's. It's the "scienticians" (cross-breeds between politicians and "scientists") that stay in their ivory towers and proclaim nonsense, instead of recognizing the truth. This attitude has cost countless millions dearly, over the years, and caused more deaths than the Holocaust. The reason for this seemingly irrational behavior? Powerful vested interests - and these scienticians are paid by those interests. It's like a Agatha Christie novel: follow the money and you'll find the villain :)
Congratulations with your husband. He'll live and long and healthy life this way, and limit (and perhaps even reverse) the glycative damage from his diabetic condition. From my research and experiences in the UK I can assure you that a low-carb diet is absolutely and incomparibly superior in terms of glycemic control to any other diet out there.
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