I AM SOMETHING OF AN ATKINS DIET SKEPTIC. But after listening to NPR in the car a few minutes ago, I can understand why Atkins boosters claim that the medical establishment and media are conspiring against them. The NPR story opened with a reference to this Duke study:

Westman studied 120 overweight volunteers, who were randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or the heart association’s Step 1 diet, a widely used low-fat approach. On the Atkins diet, people limited their carbs to less than 20 grams a day, and 60 percent of their calories came from fat.

“It was high fat, off the scale,” he said.

After six months, the people on the Atkins diet had lost 31 pounds, compared with 20 pounds on the AHA diet, and more people stuck with the Atkins regimen.

Total cholesterol fell slightly in both groups. However, those on the Atkins diet had an 11 percent increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a 49 percent drop in triglycerides. On the AHA diet, HDL was unchanged, and triglycerides dropped 22 percent. High triglycerides may raise the risk of heart disease.

Those are pretty impressive results, though I freely admit that one small study like this doesn’t really prove anything. But NPR’s story consisted of a couple of sentences on this study followed by a long interview with the President of the American Heart Association, who spent the whole time talking about the potential dangers of the Atkins diet and the superiority of the AHA diet without ever addresssing the study. How lame is that? You’d think that NPR would have at least had one of the people who conducted the study on, instead of a guy spinning against it.

I’m still just as skeptical of Atkins. But — though I think this is just sloppiness, not bias — this story reminds me of why I’m also skeptical of NPR.

UPDATE: While working out I saw Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN. In a similar amount of time he did a much better job. He noted that (1) the study was partly funded by the Atkins Foundation; and (2) many physicians are still skeptical, but also noted that other studies have shown similar results and talked about the findings of the Duke study. His discussion was much, much better than the NPR treatment. Advantage: CNN!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a more detailed story.