Tell me you didn’t see this coming (“Dieter Sues Atkins Estate and Company,” by Marian Burros, the New York Times):

A 53-year-old man sued the estate of Dr. Robert C. Atkins and the company that promotes his diet yesterday. The suit says following the Atkins diet for two years raised the man’s cholesterol so much that his arteries became clogged and required a medical procedure to open them.

The suit is apparently the first to involve the diet, the most prominent and controversial low-carbohydrate regimen and the one most associated with assertions that followers could eat all the red meat and saturated fat they wanted and still lose weight.

The plaintiff, Jody Gorran, who is being assisted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group that supports a vegan diet, is seeking $28,000 in damages. Mr. Gorran said he was using the suit to tell other people about the dangers of the diet and to have its promoters include warnings in books, other products and Web sites.

Gorran gained -- get this -- eight (that’s 8) pounds on the diet, weighing in at a staggering 148 pounds (that’s one hundred forty-eight), up from 140. He started the Atkins diet after gaining 8 pounds? Why?

His cholesterol level rose from 146 to 230. That’s a lot of clogging.