Edition: U.S. / Global

Atkins for Animals

Published: September 23, 2003

To the Editor:

Re ''Survival of the Fattest: How Pets Got So Big'' (Sept. 16):

Dogs and cats have been getting fatter as pet owners have fed them more processed foods containing far too much carbohydrate from cheap grain fillers.

This is unnatural for carnivores like cats and dogs.

They have been on a natural Atkins diet long before commercial pet foods were developed and long before the Atkins diet was rediscovered for humans trying to lose weight.

There may be a scientific basis to the Atkins diet after all.


New York

The writer is a psychologist at the St. Luke's Roosevelt Obesity Research Center.