Did state of ketosis drive the former dictator to invade Kuwait?
International Red Cross workers have revealed that Saddam Hussein has adhered strictly to an Atkins-style diet for the last decade and a half. Scientists debate whether the state of ketosis might have influenced Hussein's decision to invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990, and his subsequent inaction on U.N. Security Resolutions aimed at disarming him.The American media has glorified, villified, and debated the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet intensely over the past year. Some scientists have produced evidence that the diet is healthy, while others have shown that the diet will cause a deterioration of mental and physical well-being. Those detractors of the diet have publicly speculated that Saddam's low-carb diet, which he began in 1989, may have set off-balance the dictator's brain chemistry, leading to his decision to invade Iraq in 1990.
The Red Cross medical staff performed a number of tests on a sample of Hussein's blood during their February visit with the dictator. The results indicated that the former dictator's body was in a state of ketosis. Coalition jailors in charge of the detention facility confirmed that Hussein refused to eat foods high in carbohydrates, and heeded his requests for low-carb food.
Hussein admitted to Red Cross staff that he has been a practicing Atkins dieter since he first purchased the book in 1989, but insists that the diet played no part in his invasion and claim of control of Kuwait.
Hussein was captured late in 2003. His regime was deposed by coalition forces, after Iraq's military surrendered or deserted in the face of the United State's Undead forces.
