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Advocate for Atkins
The official champion of the popular diet is a Philadelphia surgeon who says it worked wonders for him.
By Marian Uhlman
Inquirer Staff Writer
Stuart Trager knew exactly what he wanted for lunch and made a beeline for the salad bar. He piled on lettuce, sprinkled cheddar cheese, tossed in cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers, and crowned his one-pound salad with roast turkey.
It seemed like an unusual choice for a man who is the new face of the popular Atkins diet. But the Philadelphia doctor was making a point.
"We don't sit around and just eat meat and cheese," said Trager, 42, who typically eats a salad at lunch. Atkins is about choosing whole foods and skipping highly refined and processed carbohydrates loaded with sugar. "It's that simple," he said.
Trager, medical director and primary spokesman for Atkins Nutritionals, is making it his mission to get that message out, from Capitol Hill to the talk-show circuit. He's intent on telling others why they, too, should consider the Atkins approach. And whenever possible, he's trying to set the record straight about the diet, as he recently illustrated with his ample portion of vegetables.
Trager, a highly regarded hand surgeon at Pennsylvania Hospital, didn't plan to be a diet doctor. He became a believer in the low-carb approach only after it helped him shed more than 20 pounds and get into the best shape of his life.
The Atkins approach "is truly something that I feel incredibly passionate about," Trager said.
Since its founder died unexpectedly more than a year ago, Trager has become the medical conscience for the company. But he winces at any suggestion that he's the new Dr. Robert Atkins. He's trying to carry on the message, not embody it.
The Atkins approach requires dieters to watch the amount and type of carbohydrates they eat and to choose - especially at the beginning of the diet - mostly proteins and fats. Dieters may gradually add a wide variety of carbs to their plates.
For years widely ridiculed, the diet - along with other low-carb approaches - has such a widespread appeal that food companies have created a new menu of low-carb options, from bagels to candy.
Sales of Atkins Nutritionals' food products have more than tripled in the last year to $224 million, according to Information Resources Inc., which tracks food trends.
But the diet's emphasis on protein and fat still generates plenty of criticism. The American Heart Association says hundreds of studies show that diets high in saturated fats are associated with an increased risk of heart disease. And many experts question whether the diet works in the long run.
"My experience is: People who have been on it can lose a tremendous amount of weight, and gain most of it back, just like any other diet," said Marion Nestle, a New York University nutrition professor and author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. "As soon as they start to eat a balanced diet... the weight comes right back."
Trager, who speaks in subdued tones, is always ready with a retort for naysayers. In the last few months, he's rebutted research suggesting low-carb diets cause bad moods, and handled more than 30 major interview requests - including Larry King Live and Good Morning America - emphatically denying news reports that Atkins was overweight when he died at age 72.
On Friday, a news crew for Germany's largest TV station came to his tidy Center City office for an interview. Dressed in a black suit, Trager was surefooted answering the questions.
When asked about new research suggesting that a high-protein diet lowered fertility in mice, Trager said it would be wrong to apply the findings to women.
"This is a bigger problem for mice who want to get pregnant," he quipped.
Trager became a staunch Atkins defender for a simple reason. It worked for him.
He discovered the diet five summers ago while sailing on Chesapeake Bay with a friend, Philadelphia reproductive endocrinologist Ben Gocial. Trager noticed "in wide-eyed amazement" that Gocial had lost quite a bit of weight, but was eating plenty of tasty-looking food - spareribs, fish, omelettes and crabs.
Trager was counting calories and running as much as 40 miles a week, but was making little progress toward losing more than 20 pounds.
Still, he wanted to slim down from about 180 pounds, believing it would help him run faster and qualify for the Boston Marathon. It was an ambitious athletic goal for him. Trager never had starred in sports. As a high school swimmer in Allentown, he was technically good, but never particularly fast.
Shortly after his weekend with Gocial, Trager switched to Atkins. Almost immediately, he saw the pounds peel off. He started feeling more energetic and enjoyed running more.
He made the Boston qualifying time in March 2000 and soon entered the grueling Ironman competition - a one-day event that includes a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a marathon. He has competed in seven such events since then - twice in the Ironman World Championship. He now carries about 150 pounds on his 5-foot-7 frame.
He credits Atkins and training.
"This helped me get in control of my body and life," said Trager, who lives in Villanova with his wife and two young children.
As he toned up, he wanted to find out more about the science behind the diet. He drove to New York City to meet with Atkins and members of his staff in the summer of 2000.
"I was going up there as skeptically as possible," said Trager, a graduate of the Medical College of Pennsylvania. "I was truly shocked. I remember driving back thinking that these people were truly determined to help people and to change the way the world was eating."
He became a consultant.
In December 2001, Trager invited Atkins to speak at the opening of his new wellness program.
It was the first time Trager had seen Atkins in a professorial role. He was patient and passionate. He explained to the audience how his approach could make a difference in the soaring rates of diabetes and obesity. As Trager listened, Atkins' message resonated.
He knew then that he wanted to do more to help Atkins with his mission.
Trager soon began to take on a more public role, even joining Atkins on the Phil Donahue Show. He spoke at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in 2003. And in the spring, he became the company's medical director.
Trager spends much of his time talking. He has met with government officials, from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on down, trying to demystify the diet. Trager helped develop an Atkins version of the Food Guide Pyramid as a tool to explain the diet and promote it.
His dedication comes as no surprise to several high-profile doctors who know him.
"Stuart is a very smart guy, trained in the basic tenets of research," said Warren Breidenbach, Trager's mentor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and the first American surgeon to perform a hand transplant. The fact that "he doesn't have a formal education in nutrition really doesn't have anything to do with it."
Robert Booth, chief of orthopedics at Pennsylvania Hospital, said he had never met an orthopedist like Trager.
"He is much more holistic," said Booth, who helped recruit Trager 18 months ago from Graduate Hospital.
Trager's vision goes beyond repairing injured bones to promoting wellness, Booth said. He wants to help people become "healthier, lighter and physiologically functional," to avoid medical problems later.
Trager remains active in his orthopedic practice, while devoting a chunk of each workweek to Atkins.
His focus is on the emerging science behind Atkins and helping people understand it. He has an advisory role in the company's in-house research, he said, but is not involved in a separate foundation set up by Atkins. The Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation funds outside research, and recently received $40 million from the Atkins estate.
Already, Trager said, 31 recent small studies indicate that people can lose weight using the approach without increasing risks for cardiovascular or metabolic problems.
The recent studies "have been so much more positive than the mainstream thinking was," he said.
They help clear up misconceptions, he said, and drive the diet - and the company - forward.
"Everybody said this didn't work. Now it is clear we must be taken seriously."
_________________
Cheri
Began Atkins: 06/03/04
Restart date: 5/15/06; 3/19/07
Height: 5'5" Age: 41
221/218/160?
March 19: 221
April 1: 221
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