Low-carbohydrate diets are popular for weight loss and diabetes control.
However, medical and public health experts have instead embraced low-fat diets, concerned about the health effects of saturated fats on cardiovascular risk factors like LDL cholesterol.
As a result, low-fat and fat-free foods have proliferated—many of them high in processed carbohydrates.
But in a new study by Boston Children’s Hospital, researchers found that low-carb diets—even though higher in saturated fat—produce better heart and metabolic profiles than low-fat, higher-carb diets.
They found the low-carb diet did not adversely affect LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, despite having saturated fat levels far in excess of current recommendations.
While high LDL cholesterol is the traditional risk factor for heart disease, a group of other risk factors is increasingly being tied to both heart disease and diabetes:
High triglycerides, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, chronic inflammation, a tendency toward blood clotting, and fatty liver.
These factors are hallmarks of metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance syndrome because the body’s cells lose their sensitivity to signals from insulin to take up sugars from the blood.
Mounting evidence implicates increased consumption of carbohydrates, especially highly processed carbs like refined grains and added sugars.
As people switch to low-fat diets, carbohydrates make up more and more of what we eat. This is one reason why metabolic syndrome is rising—while obesity remains an epidemic.
In the study, the team tested 164 adults with overweight or obesity who had lost 10%-14 % of their body weight on a reduced-calorie diet.
The participants then followed one of three weight-loss maintenance diets for five months, including Low-carb diet (20 percent carbs, 60 percent fat, 20 percent protein), Moderate-carb diet (40 percent carbs, 40 percent fat, 20 percent protein), and High-carb diet (60 percent carbs, 20 percent fat, 20 percent protein)
In all three diets, 35 percent of the fat consumed was saturated fat.
The team found the low-carb diet improved the profiles of a range of blood lipids related to heart disease and insulin resistance.
It also increased adiponectin, a hormone made by fat cells that promotes sensitivity to insulin and protects against atherosclerosis (the formation of fatty plaques in the arteries).
They also found that the low-carb diet reduced lipoprotein(a), an under-appreciated risk factor for atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke that previously was not thought to be influenced by diet.
In a related paper, the team specifically implicates refined carbohydrates—not excess calories—as fueling the obesity epidemic.
Foods like white bread, white rice, most breakfast cereals, and highly processed snack foods cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin that slow metabolism, increase hunger, and set the stage for weight gain.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about heart disease can be found in the eyes and findings of a new early warning sign for heart disease.
For more information about heart disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about newer diabetes drug can protect kidney and heart health and results showing that this cheap drug combo could reduce heart disease death by one-third.
The study is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. One author of the study is David Ludwig, MD, Ph.D.
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