Atkins Widow Upset by Mayors 'Fat' Comments

N E W   Y O R K, Jan. 23 -- New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg thought his off-the-cuff dinner comments about the late Dr. Robert Atkins were just between him and a few fire-fighting pals, but the cameras were rolling and now he might be wishing he had his mouth full.

Between bites of pasta at a Brooklyn firehouse dinner, Bloomberg dismissed the reported details of Atkins' death.

"I don't believe that bull----, that [Atkins] dropped dead slipping on the sidewalk," Bloomberg said to the firefighters during dinner earlier this week.

Atkins' widow said she was beside herself with anger when she saw the footage.

"I was very, very hurt and I was angry," Atkins said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Atkins died last spring at 72 from head injuries sustained from a fall on an icy New York City sidewalk.

Atkins low-carbohydrate diet, which stresses protein over pasta, bread and fruit, has remained wildly popular, even after his death.

Veronica Atkins said her husband's high-protein diet had nothing to do with the fall that killed him.

"His arteries were clear," Atkins said. "He died from severe trauma to his head."

Atkins'official death certificate lists his cause of death as "blunt impact injury of head."

During his firehouse dinner, the Bloomberg also called the diet guru "fat" and he insulted the food Atkins served at a fund raiser he attended a few years ago at the doctor's house in the Hamptons.

When reporters asked the mayor Wednesday about his comments, he said he "would never criticize someone about their waistline." His spokesman says the Bloomberg won't be extending an official apology.

Meanwhile, Veronica Atkins says the mayor should be ashamed of himself over the incident.

"I'm sick and tired of my husband always being maligned and his work being trivialized and mayor, you did it and I demand an apology for that," she said.