Michele Catalano has the details on an insidious campaign to discredit the Atkins diet because, apparently, Dr. Atkins himself suffered from heart disease. Notes Michele:

Enter the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. They somehow received a copy of the medical examiner’s report on Dr. Atkins. The ME’s office said they received it by mistake. How that kind of mistake happens (oh, here’s an autopsy report. Oops!). The Committee then gave the ME report to the Wall Street Journal and then the whole world was remarking upon the fatty death of the diet man.

Only to drop the bomb on what was too good to be true, at least for the anti-Atkins folks, by quoting a news article unveiling exactly what that commitee is about:

The late Dr. Robert Atkins is being smeared for his alleged obesity at the time of his death, by a phony doctors organization that has been exposed as a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and has been censured by the American Medical Association (AMA). The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has taken in over $1 million from PETA and the animal rights movement. PCRM and PETA also share office space, board members, and staff.

News like this always astounds me as to how low zealots can go to advance an agenda. Oh, and for the record, just because Dr. Atkins had heart disease doesn’t mean squat about his diet. Boo!