since when did that become evil?  Oh wait, religion led the way on
that with it's examples of greed over the years.

What's your point?

So did Richard Simmons and Jenny Craig, plus they all employ a lot of
people. :-)

--
Cheri

Hi Guy

Whether a person is as wealthy as Bill Gates or poor as a
Dharfur refugee has nothing to do with the worth of their
time on this planet or the value of the ideas they create
and the discoveries they make. Posterity judges that. In
material terms Atkins is now worth as much as both the
richest and poorest men that ever lived and died. As you and
I will some day.

To praise or denigrate Atkin's ideas based on science,
experience and logical argument is fine, but to discard them
because he became wealthy is not valid. In a century he will
be either forgotten or regarded as a pioneer.  Similarly,
the character of a person bears no relationship at all to
the worth of a valid scientific discovery. Some truly
wonderful advances have been spawned by some truly evil
people - not that I class Atkins in that group.

I have no problem with the existence of wealth in our
society; I do have problems with the way many of the wealthy
became that way, but I am grateful that some, for their own
reasons, give a little back. Of course, I have major
problems with the existence of poverty - but redistributing
the wealth of the few as a means of defeating poverty has
repeatedly been shown to be a false method during the
twentieth century. Instead of a few wealthy and a lot poor -
you just got even fewer rich, a lot more poorer, and
totalitarian states.

I also agree that you need a publicly funded health system
similar to ours; it's not perfect - but I'm glad I'm under
our system and not yours. It's a mix of public and private.
You need both for a healthy system.

There's a guy in the USA named Peter Karcher. He happens to
be very wealthy; he also happens to have been diagnosed with
the same cancer as I at almost the same time as I. But I
didn't have the financial ability to give $10 million to the
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; he did. We may
both benefit.

I'll guarantee if you start searching for them you will find
some very wealthy type 1's and type 2's out there, or their
relatives, whose support for research programs will benefit
you - and probably already has.

Without private and corporate wealth supporting separate
research programs, all research programs would be supported
by, and thus controlled and limited (both financially and
philosophically) by your government.

Think about that option. Think about it for a long time
before railing against wealth. Do you really want the ruler
of the day, and any religious or ideological baggage they
bring to the position, to decide what can and cannot be
funded for research? As it was in Eastern Europe and the
USSR, or is now in Cuba? How much stem cell research would
be occurring in the USA today?

I prefer the alternative. Remember - being a billionaire
does not stop a person having a type 1 child and deciding to
support research into the condition. I mentioned Gates
earlier. Whatever you think of him as a person, this is
worth reading:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants/default.htm

Not many, if any, governments have given $10 billion dollars
in grants, with half going to global health. Do you think
the mother of the kid somewhere who lives because of those
grants gives a damn how rich Bill Gates is, or how he made
his money?

So, Atkins made a lot of money.

Good.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
d&e, metformin 2x500mg

I read Atkins and implemented many of his ideas with remarkable
success. Just like with anything else, a person has to use a little
common sense and not go overboard...

For me going low carb, (avoiding potatoes, break, rice, cakes, pies,
and sugary candies and beverages) while eating lots of beans and
greens, some nuts and berries, things like mushrooms, onions, and
artichokes, striving for moderation in fats, focusing mainly upon
polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated, with total elimination of
transfats, and limited consumption of meat (4 oz of lean beef, fish,
poultry) 3-4 times per week is a good plan. (1200-1300 cal per day
being the norm).... That with moderate exercise (mostly walking) has
really worked well. Olive oil and canola oil are great for salads and
cooking. Berries, such as blueberries, are a real treat. All of the
above is consistent with Atkins.

I surmise that many of the Atkins bashers never really read his
books.... Just as it was a fad to go overboard on Atkins in years
past, now it is a fad to criticize. Only independent thinkers will win
at this game of controlling the ravages of diabetes, imho.... There is
no one sacred way to formulating a personal strategy for coping. We
need to get beyond the brands and labels, and focus upon science and
what works, according to our meters and personal situation.

Will, T2

So did Bill Gates.  And Steve Jobs.

But you can trust me--I'm poor.