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Press Releases | In the Press For Immediate Release Contact: Heather Cable/Laura Feragen 215-793-4666 heather@toplin.com laura@toplin.com DR. ROBERT C. ATKINS FOUNDATION AWARDS MORE THAN HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR NUTRITION RESEARCH AND PROGRAMS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN JENKINTOWN, Pa. -Sept. 6, 2006 - The Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation recently awarded $535,940 in new grants for health research and nutrition education geared toward young people. The Foundation awarded $87,000 to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center for a two-year extension of its "Office-Based Low Carbohydrate Diet Intervention in Adolescents" study. The research is investigating the effectiveness of a low carbohydrate diet in obese children who have failed to lose weight on a low calorie diet in a pediatric primary care setting. Also funded by the Foundation is the Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia's "The Efficacy of a Low Carbohydrate Diet in Treatment of Adolescents with Type II Diabetes." The $98,940 grant examines the relationship between diet and diabetes management in young people. In addition to these two research grants, the Foundation also recently awarded $350,000 to "Life in Action," a nutritional education program of the Canada-based Free the Children youth empowerment organization, which helps teach young people how to make healthy food choices for themselves. These recent grants are part of the Foundation's ongoing commitment to children's health. Previous children-focused grants from the Foundation have funded organizations such as the Sesame Workshop, for its study of Sesame characters' influence on children's healthy food choices, and the University of Southern California, for its family-based nutritional research into childhood obesity and Lifestyles Intervention Lab for adolescents. "These recent awards are especially close to my heart," said Veronica Atkins, chair of the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation. "Both obesity and diabetes are serious heath issues confronting our society today, and unfortunately children are no exception. My dream is to be able to see the eradication of childhood Type II diabetes and obesity within my lifetime, and that will happen only with an ongoing commitment to focused research and educational programs such as the ones the Atkins Foundation has recently funded. It is my hope that these grants will help to shape and improve future clinical practices and prevent tomorrow's health problems today, by teaching our children to eat right." # # # Established with a $40 million gift in August 2003, the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation provides grants to support independent scientific, evidence-based and clinical research that examines the role of metabolism and nutrition in obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other serious health concerns. One of the few grant-making organizations dedicated to research in this arena, it also supports educational programs and endowed professorships at leading academic medical centers. The Atkins Foundation, which is not affiliated with and operates independently of Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., is governed by a board of directors as a supporting organization of the National Philanthropic Trust, an independent public charity that manages more than $500 million in charitable assets and has disbursed more than $365 million in grants to charities around the globe. |
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The Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation c/o National Philanthropic Trust, 165 Township Line Road, Suite 150, Jenkintown, PA 19046-3593 |