New Opinion On Low Carb, High Fat Diets

Researchers Tracked Thousands Of Women For Over Two Decades

(AP)  Eating a low-carb, high-fat diet for years doesn't raise the risk of heart disease, a longterm study suggests, easing fears that the popular Atkins diet and similar regimens might set people up for eventual heart attacks.

The study of thousands of women over two decades found that those who got lots of their carbohydrates from refined sugars and highly processed foods nearly doubled their risk of heart disease.

At the same time, those who ate a low-carb diet but got more of their protein and fat from vegetables rather than animal sources cut their heart disease risk by 30 percent on average, compared with those who ate more animal fats.

The findings came from researchers at Harvard University's schools of medicine and public health who reviewed records of 82,802 women in the ongoing Nurses' Health Study over 20 years. The women were not dieting to lose weight. In fact, on average they were slightly overweight and increased their body-mass index roughly 10 percent during the study.

Conventional wisdom says risk of heart disease should increase for those eating the lowest-carb, highest-fat diet, said lead author Thomas Halton.

"It didn't, which was a little eye-opening," he said.

Halton said that may be because the women eating the fewest carbs were compared directly to the group eating the highest-carb, lowest-fat diet.

"Neither diet is ideal," he said. "You need to take the best of both."

The findings, reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, came from an analysis of food questionnaires the nurses filled out every two to four years starting in 1980. The nurses also reported their use of aspirin, vitamins and hormones for menopause symptoms, and on any history of smoking and heart problems.

The researchers calculated the percentage of calories coming from carbohydrates and animal and vegetable fats and proteins, then divided the nurses into ten groups, from the lowest to the highest calorie percentage from carbs.

The lowest-carb group ate carbohydrate amounts similar to the maintenance program of the Atkins diet, less extreme than the early phase of the diet, said dietitian Geri Brewster, former nutrition director at the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in Manhattan.

Still, she said most women in this study ate fewer carbohydrates than traditional diets recommend. While she thinks the Atkins diet allows too much animal fat, Brewster said reducing carbohydrates works because it forces the body to convert stored fat into an energy source and can curb appetite.

American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Susan Moores, a dietitian in St. Paul, Minn., said that because the study only included women, many going through menopause and taking hormones, it is unclear how it applies to men.

For Moores, the key finding was that women reduced heart disease risk by eating more protein and fat from vegetable sources.

"That was the biggest, "Aha!"' she said.

Dr. Robert Eckel, immediate past president of the American Heart Association, said the study was well done, but noted that the nurses' recall of what they ate likely isn't perfect.

Eckel, an endocrinologist at University of Colorado School of Medicine, said many studies have shown heart disease risk is cut by eating less fat and more whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables - the approach of the government's food pyramid. He said medical guidelines won't be changed by the new study, although it raises questions about the role of refined sugar.

[mymomisafish]

The Atkins diet has an induction phase of two weeks which include certain leafy vegetables, tomatoes, etc which keep people from becoming constipated. No one seems to get past the part of the book which discusses the induction phase and the vegetables allowed during this period. Dr. Atkins did not claim that this was a life long period, but the beginning of a period of ketosis (the waste found in urine when body fat is burned). Long term it is dangerous. Short term and responsible, very helpful. The diet also calls for daily exercise for those who don't like to read or move. Point: Read the whole book, which does not mean skimming it.

Metabolism depends on your ability to produce enzymes and integrate them to produce fats, collagen, and other chemicals. This daily process uses storable and non-storable ingredients. So, our need for food varies every day, depending on the amount of different foods we have ingested recently. Ideally we should learn to interpret our bodies needs. Your body tells you what you need.
Fats are not just fats. There are good fats and bad fats. Proteins are not just proteins. There are many different types of proteins that are used by our body with very different efficiencies. Albumin is the most usable protein, while corn protein is extremely difficult to use. Usable proteins will easily be converted to collagen, while difficult to use proteins will end up as fat.
Sugar, highly processed or not, is the most important nutrient we take. Glucose and glucosamine are at the heart of collagen creation and of all metabolic processes. Sugar's bad rap is that most of the time it is consumed with hydrogenated fats.
After the doctor told me that my diet was killing me, I chose to learn how my metabolism works, and how food becomes "me". Doing this, I found that the our society is simply on an oversimplification ride when it comes to dieting. All diets are the rave of short term users, but are not good in the long term. Even the food pyramid diet is only partly good. The negative effects of the food pyramid diet are very slow, so we associate them with aging.

[cinbad66]

One more thing to add to my comment....my husband is a Medical Doctor and he monitored me throughout the first 2 weeks of the extreme induction stage of Atkins etc and he noticed various differences that were not so healthy (spilling ketones for too long...the bodies response to not enough carbs, then it starts eating the fat for energy)...he became concerned and urged me to begin eating "correctly" when my sugars were TOO low and I became "stopped up", amongst other things .....but I did lose the extra weight. My recommendation...MODERATION.

[cinbad66]

Low carb diet WORKS....it was the one and only diet where I could/can eat and go from a (plateau weight) of a size 8 to a size 4. I couldn't get there until I went Atkins. I DO eat vegetables and carbs also....It's all about being healthy and eating everything in moderation.

[redstripe12]

I don't think this study concludes any benefit of the Atkins / Low-carb diets. I think it reaffirms the benefits of avoiding refined sugars and processed foods and the benefits of eating more vegetables vs. animal fats.

Most Atkins disciples I know rave about being able to eat steaks, bacon, sausage and other fun meats. I don't see them raving about eating broccoli or other vegetables. Atkins = still bad for you. Vegetables = still good for you as we knew before Atkins. Myth=busted.

[bluestardad]

HEY MEDICAL FIELD, CURE SOMETHING THEN WE WILL DECIDE IF WE WILL LISTEN TO YOUR EVER CHANGING BS!