A six-month-old stay on a high-profile lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals was automatically lifted by the company’s emergence from bankruptcy protection yesterday. The suit, which alleges that the high-fat Atkins diet caused a near-fatal cardiac event in a Florida man, will now go forward in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Following extensive reorganization in bankruptcy, Atkins Nutritionals has emerged as a purveyor of power bars, pulling back from its aggressive promotion of the high-fat, meat-heavy diet formulated by founder Robert Atkins. Numerous scientific studies, including recent findings by researchers at Oxford University, have linked low-carb diets to heart disease and other serious illnesses. After a steady decline in popularity, the Atkins company filed for bankruptcy protection in July of last year.

Find out more about the lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals at http://www.healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8138.