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Shotzie
130 Posts
It's possible to be well educated and still wrong about a topic.
Very low carb diets, 10 grams or less a day, tend to be very high fat and were some of the first high protein diets (low carb) that were suggested. Those tended to cause problems for many people.
The newer versions of "low carb" diets like the South Beach Diet and Atkins for Life, stress healthy, lower fat protein options and "good" carbs like fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and legumes and soy products. They discourage simple sugars, processed grains and over processsed foods.
There is nothing in a low carb diet that would cause the kind of cardiac damage that was described.
Here's a recent article from the Fort lauderdale NAASO conference on diet and obesity
Controversies Regarding Diet Compositions Used for Weight Loss
As overweight and obesity increases in the United States, people have turned to popular diets as well as evidence-based interventions. One of the greatest controversies involves low-carbohydrate diets, which receive enormous amounts of attention in the lay press. There is substantial debate regarding the safety and efficacy of these low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets. Several popular diets fall into this category (ranging from 27% to 34% protein content), including Atkins, the Zone, Protein Power, and Sugar Busters.[12-15]
Gary Foster, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the authors of a recent weight-loss study of the Atkins diet. He gave an overview at the NAASO meeting[16] of his study and the other 2 studies released in 2003 that addressed the safety and efficacy of low-carbohydrate diets.
The first study, by Brehm and colleagues,[17] compared a very low-carbohydrate diet and a calorie-restricted low-fat diet on body weight and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy women. Subjects were randomized to 6 months of either a very low-carbohydrate diet or a calorie-restricted diet with 30% of the calories as fat (a typical low-fat diet). The 42 women who completed the trial reduced calorie consumption by comparable amounts at 3 and 6 months. The very low-carbohydrate diet group lost more weight (8.5 ± 1.0 vs 3.9 ± 1.0 kg; P
The second study reviewed was from Samaha and colleagues.[18] Seventy-nine subjects completed the 6-month study. The study subjects followed a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-fat diet. Subjects on the low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight than those on the low-fat diet (-5.8±8.6 kg vs -1.9±4.2 kg; P = .002) and had greater decreases in triglyceride levels (mean, -20±43% vs -4±31%; P = .001). The LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol levels showed similar changes at 6 months. Insulin sensitivity, measured only in subjects without diabetes, also improved more among subjects on the low-carbohydrate diet (6±9% vs -3±8%, P = .01). The amount of weight lost (P
Dr. Foster's group performed the third study.[19] This 1-year trialstudied 63 obese male and female subjects who were randomly assignedto either a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diet ora low-calorie, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Subjects on the low-carbohydrate diet lost moreweight than subjects on the conventional diet at 3 months (-6.8 ± 5.0 vs -2.7 ± 3.7%of body weight; P = .001) and at 6 months (-7.0 ± 6.5vs -3.2 ± 5.6% of body weight, P = .02), butthe difference at 12 months was not significant (-4.4 ± 6.7vs -2.5 ± 6.3% of body weight, P = .26). These studies suggest that the low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets are safe in the short term and bring about greater weight loss than the traditional low-fat diet does at 6 months.
Six-Month Study Shows Low-Carb Diet Is More Effective Than Low-Fat Diet
News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Author: Bernard M. Sklar, MD, MS
Authors and Disclosures
Release Date: April 29, 2003; Valid for credit through April 29, 2004
Credits Available
Physicians - up to 0.25 AMA PRA category 1 credit(s)
April 29, 2003-Women eating ad lib on a low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight than those on a calorie-restricted low-fat diet even though the calorie load was similar, according to the results of a randomized trial published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. There were no adverse effects from either diet during the six-month study period.
"Untested alternative weight loss diets, such as very low carbohydrate diets, have unsubstantiated efficacy and the potential to adversely affect cardiovascular risk factors," write Bonnie J. Brehm, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Cincinnati and Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.
Of 53 healthy obese female volunteers (mean body mass index, 33.6 ± 0.3 kg/m2), who were randomized to six months of either an ad libitum very low carbohydrate diet or a calorie-restricted diet with 30% of the calories as fat, 42 women (79%) completed the trial.
Both groups reduced caloric intake by comparable amounts at three and six months. Compared with the low-fat diet group, the low-carbohydrate diet group lost more weight (8.5 ± 1.0 vs. 3.9 ± 1.0 kg; P
Mean levels of blood pressure, lipids, fasting glucose, and insulin were within normal ranges in both groups at baseline and improved during the study, but there were no differences between the two groups at three or six months. Beta-hydroxybutyrate increased significantly in the low-carbohydrate group at three months (P = .001).
The authors warn that these results should not be extrapolated to subjects with cardiovascular risk factors at baseline, and that longer studies are needed. This study suggested some recidivism during the last three months, and low calcium and fiber intake could prove to be problematic over longer periods.
"Based on these data, a very low carbohydrate diet is more effective than a low fat diet for short-term weight loss and, over 6 months, is not associated with deleterious effects on important cardiovascular risk factors in healthy women," the authors write. "There are important, interesting, and poorly understood effects of severe carbohydrate restriction that warrant further investigation as we seek effective therapeutic strategies to manage the epidemic of obesity."
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003;88:1617-1623