GROUND ZERO, New York City, Apr. 18--As we salute the deaths of brave soldiers in Iraq who fought the Beast of Terror to liberate 24 million Iraqis from the oppression of tyranny, in the shadows of our tributes rests another Hero of Terrorism.   He is known by millions as the "Fat Warrior."
      He died yesterday, April 17, in Manhattan, not too far from Ground Zero where the Terrorist attack took place on September 11, 2001.

      His death will not be heralded by the press as a man who gave his life for the freedom of millions, and the odds are when the handfuls of dirt are thrown on his casket by loved ones, there will be others who will consider him a "Health Terrorist," a man who recklessly attacked the human body's "weapons of mass destruction."
      Some might even liken him to George Bush, claiming he unilaterally invaded a known Terrorist sovereign state without approval of his peers, for like George W. Bush, he defied the "United Nations of Health" and, as a result, has suffered criticism throughout his career.

      The "Fat Warrior" went by the name of Robert C. Atkins, a cardiologist who devised a hotly debated weight loss plan favoring steak and eggs over spaghetti and spinach.   He died as a result of a fall on April 8 on the sidewalk in front his Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in Manhattan.
      Dr. Atkins is credited with helping more than 30 million Americans shed the Terror of excess fat and for gathering the criticism of thousands of medical "experts" who trounced his diet as reckless and unproven.
       Nevertheless, his eulogy includes, at bare minimums, the loss of 300 million pounds of fat from overweight bodies around the world, especially here in America.
       In 1972, Dr. Atkins published his "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution."   The book has sold more than 15 million copies, making it one of the best-selling of all time.
      His process of weight loss flies in the face of most medical practitioners.  It emphasizes the consumption of fats and the elimination or massive reduction of carbohydrate intake--at least two-thirds fat in the diet versus the health community recommending a balance not to exceed 30 percent fat.
       He literally stole his diet from nature, the great teacher of all cures.  It involves lowering the insulin level in the human body.   Carbohydrates ultimately are sugar.    Breads, pastas and other carbohydrate-laden foods convert to sugar in the chemical breakdown.   Excess sugar in the system, regulated by insulin, turns such foods into fat storage.

     Atkins, paralleling the chemistry of hibernating bears, proposed that by eliminating the "sugar" intake (carbohydrates), the insulin level would drop.  Once "normalized," insulin not stimulated by excess sugar intake would signal the body to burn fat, just as it does a hibernating bear's body.
       Essentially, reducing "carbs" and increasing "fats" tricks the body into thinking it needs to burn fat.  Body metabolism, according to Atkins and basic chemistry, starts to chew up the excess fat cells that makes the stomach pooch out, the jowls expand, and the thighs to squish when you walk.
       Critics opposed the diet because they claimed the excess fats clogged the veins, endangering the body by increasing fat blockage in veins and arteries, thus expanding the potential of heart attacks.   They also claimed that going off the diet accelerated weight gain, for eager to reclaim the "stored fat," the body hungrily converted carbs back to fat at an ever increasing rate.

       Carbohydrate consumption became Dr. Atkins' "weapons of mass destruction.  He claimed the medical and health professions advocacy of "low-fat" diets was essentially a "Terrorist plot," to seduce people into thinking they were controlling their weight by eliminating fat while ignoring the real body Terrorist:  carbohydrates (sugar).
         The facts were on his side.   The Journal of the American Medical Association reported last October that the proportion of overweight Americans had increased to 64.5 percent from 55.9 percent in 1994.
         Opposing the staid medical world's concrete stance on low-fat diets created jealousy against Dr. Atkins by the medical world just as surely as President's Bush's anti-Saddam Hussein "evil axis" policy ruffled the conciliatory feather of the United Nations Security Council--principally France, Germany and Russia. On the Atkins side, the medical pundits claimed Atkins was acting unilaterally, without the endorsement, support or evidence by the medical and health fields that his diet worked.  The attacks were akin to the U.N. admonishing President Bush for attacking Iraq without proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

        But like Bush, Atkins only had to look at the world with unfogged glasses.  Fat people were everywhere, struggling to lose weight under "medically sanctioned" low-fat diets that warned little, if at all, about fat content.   Atkins acted despite his medical cronies, and for that reason was considered an outcast--a commercial predator more interested in capturing a share of the $35 billion-a-year weight loss market than protecting the health of the community.  While Bush's protestors argued he was going to war "for oil," Atkins critics claimed he was waging war on fat for "fame and fortunes."    Little was touted about how well his diet worked for those who liked to eat and couldn't lose weight.
        In President Bush's case, the evidence of Saddam Hussein's brutality and defiance against the world body was prima facia evidence of the Terrorist threat to the world.   Saddam had killed tens of thousands of his own people, and butchered and dragged his grandchildren's fathers through the streets of Baghdad for opposing him.   Then, there were the "weapons of mass destruction," and Saddam's vows to "rule the world" as he saw it.   Bush, like Atkins, didn't wait around for the rubber stamp approval of his peers.

       Terrorism is Terrorism, whether it be torture and rape chambers in Iraq, or fat cells multiplying in millions of American bodies.
        By anti-Terrorism standards, Dr. Atkins was a Warrior of Vigilance.  He was a true TerrorHunter.  He was not infected by the looming fear of peer approval, but instead, more concerned with helping others shed both unwanted and dangerous pounds of flesh that limited not only their mobility and appearance, but endangered their health.  
        From a risk management viewpoint, weight unattended could kill just as quickly as any danger a diet might.   At least the subject had a fighting chance under a diet, and none if he or she continued to be victimized by the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency of obesity.

        Dr. Atkins was vigilant rather than reckless in his attack on Terrorism.  He carefully noted to his diet users the dangers of fat-dominated diets.  He offered users supplementary vitamins to compensate for the lack of a "balanced diet."   He also addressed the key cardiac issue--how to "lubricate" the veins with flax to keep them from becoming clogged from fat intake.   His diet was also not a panacea to weight loss.  Once losing the "Terror Pounds," he suggested the user drift towards a more balanced diet.   Like President Bush, he sought to plug the hold in the dyke, but also knew reconstruction was necessary if weight management was to be successful long-term.
         Still, he raised controversy among the medical and health pundits, for his entire theory was so far removed from the common medical and food industry standard chatter--i.e., low-fat, forget-about-the-carbs promotions.  The medical world offered little Vigilance about carbohydrates, but beat the drums over fat management.
         Had he had his way, Dr. Atkins would have labeled all food with the warning:  "Danger:  Carbohydrates May Be Dangerous To Your Health & Turn You Into A Fat Slug.  P.S.--Carbohydrates Are Sugar Terrorists.   Eating A Piece Of Bread Is Liking Eating Spoonfuls Of Sugar!"
          The rancor never stopped over the decades of Dr. Atkins' fame.   Like President Bush, Atkins weathered the assaults accusing him of being a "social radical," one who opposed the collective conscious and took the road less traveled.

         Atkins, like Bush, had little respect for the sovereignty of the medical world that demanded health advocates seek medicine's blessing.  It can be reasonably presumed Atkins thought of the American Medical Association in similar ways President Bush thought of  the United Nations Security Council--an inert body of "old guarders" who didn't want to "rock-the-boat" and who chided any and all who chose to stand above the crowd.
          Atkins, like Bush, thumbed his nose at their demands to kowtow.
          For Atkins, Fat Cells were Terrorist Cells.    He attacked them with passion. They were killing people right and left.   Complacency by the medical and health world, and the protection of low-fat diets were Atkins' September 11.   George Bush looked at Saddam Hussein the same, clear, cold way--a Terrorist is a Terrorist is a Terrorist and unless somebody catches the ball and makes the outs, the Terrorists keeps hitting, running the bases and scoring while everyone watches.
          Unfortunately, as of yesterday, one of the great Fat Warriors is dead.
          It is likely that few will mourn his death in the medical world, and fewer in the general public will recognize his death as the loss of a Great American TerrorHunter.
          I will.  Dr. Atkins is, without doubt, one of the great Fat TerrorHunters.   He is the Frank Buck of Fat Cells.
          I have lost hundreds of pounds over the years using Dr. Atkins' diet.   Being fat is like having a Terrorist inside you--at least for me.  And, I know for countless millions of others. 

           Fat makes you feel ugly.   It drives away your energy.  It shrinks your clothes at night while you sleep so when you wake up you can't button your trousers.  Excessive weight turns you into an emotional slug.  You become the victim of Terrorism's Triad--Fear, Intimidation and Complacency--and watch your body melt into an amorphous shape, a bulging teardrop of a once firm shape.   Pounds of unwanted weight bear down on your knees causing them to ache as if all the oil in your joints had dried up.   You grunt when you bend over.  Pants split on you.   You feel like you're carrying on your shoulders the Beast of Terror and all his children.  Your knees buckle.  You wheeze and cough.
         So what do you do?   You do what all fat people do.  You eat.  You eat and eat, because you have given up hope.  Diets don't work because you can't eat, and fat people love to eat.  
         I'm 6-4.  I love food. I always have.   In my younger years, I could eat anything, but age slows down everything, especially metabolism.   Suddenly, I ballooned.

         But like any prisoner in any torture chamber, there is no escape.   Your body is the rack.  Each morsel you eat is your tormentor, for it doesn't leave.   "Once on the lips, always on the hips," screams in your ears like sirens as you fight the endless losing battle to de-Terrorize yourself.   All you hear is the laughter of the Beast of Terror and the words:  "Loser!  Loser!  Loser!"

          Dr. Atkins gave me and millions like me a way to fight fat.  He told me I could eat steaks and eggs, and lavish all the hearty foods I love but with one simple caveat:  no carbs!

        So I sacrificed the bagel with jelly, or the Ben & Jerry's, or the steaming mashed potatoes - for meat and cheese, and balanced my diet with supplements.   I made chocolate with half-and-half and Sweet & Low to sate the desire for sweets, and munched on delicious cheese, and ate salads along with my steaks, giving up corn (full of carbs) in return for a slimmer waist.   London broil, lobster, butter, porterhouse--all great fare with no fat.
        Lo and behold, the weight dropped.   I returned to normal size.  The guy in the mirror was no longer an old, fat slob with sags and wrinkles from excessive fat layers.
        I was no longer an Ugly Fat American.  
        But the Terror was still there.  It lurked at every corner.  It boldly stood out in every neighborhood, luring the unaware into minefields of fat.
        One of the most insidious Fat Terrorists is McDonalds.  It lures our children into the Golden Arches and stuffs them full of carbs.   There are 30,000 McDonalds, about as many of them as there were Elite Special Republican Forces protecting Saddam Hussein.   McDonald's is the premier Fat Terrorist, for it seduces the young to come to their Fat Warehouses not because the food is good, but because of the "prizes," and "gifts" and funny faces.  Behind the Ronald McDonald mask, however, is the face of the Beast of Fat Terror.

          Each day, millions of parents trundle their children into McDonalds and other fast food outlets, seduced by free toys.  Complacent parents let the children eat the world's worst food that only adds to their future obesity.   If the parents knew their children were being fed pounds of sugar disguised in hamburger buns and French fries, they might not walk into the Jaws of McDonald's Beast of Fat Terror.  Sugar is the real enemy, but few protest it.  Per capita consumption of sugar in the United States is over 130 pounds, an average of 20 teaspoons a day.   A non-diet soft drink, for example, has 9 teaspoons of sugar per can.
        But refined sugar is not the only problem.  Sugar takes many nefarious forms.  It is like the Iraqi sniper, putting the unsuspecting into his crosshairs.

        Flour converts to sugar in the body.  Flour consumption--the core of most carbohydrate consumption (bread, pasta, etc.)--rose by 64 pounds per capita between 1960 and 1980.  But the medical and health world didn't shoot up red flags, declaring an increase of "weapons of mass carbohydrate destruction."  Terrorism's Complacency ruled, plus the righteous indignation of the health world who castigated Atkins' principles.
        Even though he didn't have the benefit of the United Nations of Medical Experts voting on his side, Atkins was supported by bears--even the grizzlies.
        Bears live off their fat cells.   The body burns fat when the insulin level isn't jacked out of proportion by sugar.
        Using the chemistry of the bears as his yardstick, Atkins saw carbohydrates as the "weapons of mass destruction" attacking America's waistline.  He saw the low-fat diet, endorsed by the medical profession, as a United Nations block denying and refusing to accept the impending threat of "carbohydrates."  He was a lone cry in the wind, not unlike the year-long attempt by President Bush and his Administration to rally U.N. military action to get Saddam Hussein to comply with the 1991 U.N. resolution that he remove his weapons of mass destruction.  

        Atkins, did however, have a few supporters.  While they did not directly link themselves to his diet, they promoted the same warning about sugar and its dangers to the growing obesity of America, and specifically to the children.  Michael F. Jacboson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in 1998, (link) said:  “With all the focus on fat, we’ve forgotten about sugar. It’s time to rethink our national infatuation with sweets."  He also warned of the increase in sugar consumption among the youth.   He might have been Atkins' Tony Blair.

       Currently, not all, but a vast majority of Americans are celebrating a victory in Iraq over Terrorism.  There are those, however, who see Iraq as nothing more than an arrogant war fought by greedy capitalists for oil.   It's sad the acidic viewpoints see through such fogged glasses.   What the war on Iraq was all about, just as Dr. Atkins' War on Fat was all about, was the courage to defy Complacency, and the Conviction to stand up to Intimidation.   
        Dr. Atkins took on the United Nations of Medicine with his diet.   The jury is still out for many, but for millions who have been liberated from fat, as I have, I salute him.  
        President Bush also took on the United Nations with his diet.   He took the carving knife to the belly of the Beast of Terror, and sliced off a big chunk of Terrorism's Fat Belly.   The jury is still out for him around the world, but for 24 million Iraqis, they breathe a little safer these days.   The tyranny of a leader who threatened their liberty is gone, just as the fat around the belly of a society disappeared by the millions of pounds when Dr. Atkins stepped up to the plate and swung his anti-carb bat.
         I offer Atkins my kudos, however meager they may be.
         Despite the critics, Dr. Atkins and President Bush are both Sentinels of Vigilance in my book.  
         They both fought Terrorism against a world trying to Intimidate them, to make them wrong, to make them the Beasts they fought.

         Let's hope the Beast of Terror eventually starves, and that we, as a Nation of Vigilant people, don't ever get so fat in our thinking we're unwilling to stand up to Terrorism because our bellies are so full of Complacency we can't rise to the occasion.
        We can keep trim against Terrorism by taking the Pledge of Vigilance.  It's our assurance that the Carbs of Terror won't attack when we least expect.

April 17--Dogs of War:  K-9 Sentinels of Vigilance

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