Medicine: Wonder Diet Dangers

The A.M.A. last week added its voice to those already raised in warning (TIME, Aug. 6), against two widely publicized new "wonder" diets: the "Rockefeller" (low-protein) diet and the "fabulous formula" diet of corn oil, dextrose and evaporated milk. The A.M.A. Journal reports noted that both diets could drop the patient below the minimum protein requirement, thus upsetting the bodily nitrogen balance and leading to a variety of deficiency diseases. "Fortunately, few people will adhere to either of these diets for long . . . But there are compulsive dieters, just as there are compulsive drinkers . . . and in these subjects harm can be anticipated that . . . the ingenuity of the research scientists [cannot] correct."