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Low-Carb Diet Being Tested
Excerpt
By Daniel Q. Haney, AP
CHICAGO (AP) -
After years of dismissing the high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins
diet, the medical establishment is at last putting it to a careful
test and finding it might not be the nutritional folly they long
assumed.
A small study released Monday found
that contrary to expectations, dieters' cholesterol levels do
not shoot through the roof, and they take off more weight —
at least in the short term — than do people on a standard
low-fat regimen.
"More study is necessary before
such a diet can be recommended," said Dr. Eric Westman of Duke
University. "However, a concern about serum lipid (cholesterol)
elevations should not impede such research."
Experts caution that the number
of overweight people studied on the Atkins diet is small, and
the research does not examine possible long-term ills or advantages,
including how long people keep the pounds off.
At least three formal studies of
the Atkins diet have been presented at medical conferences over
the past year, and all have reached similar results. The latest,
conducted by Westman, was presented at the annual scientific meeting
of the American Heart Association, long a stronghold of support
for the traditional low-fat approach.
Westman, an internist at Duke's
diet and fitness center, said he decided to study the Atkins approach
because of concern over so many patients and friends taking it
up on their own. He approached the Robert C. Atkins foundation
in New York City to finance the research.
Westman studied 120 overweight
volunteers, who were randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or the
heart association's Step 1 diet, a widely used low-fat approach.
On the Atkins diet, people limited their carbs to less than 20
grams a day, and 60 percent of their calories came from fat.
"It was high fat, off the scale,"
he said.
After six months, the people on
the Atkins diet had lost 31 pounds, compared with 20 pounds on
the AHA diet, and more people stuck with the Atkins regimen.
Total cholesterol fell slightly
in both groups. However, those on the Atkins diet had an 11 percent
increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a 49 percent drop in
triglycerides. On the AHA diet, HDL was unchanged, and triglycerides
dropped 22 percent. High triglycerides may raise the risk of heart
disease.
While the volunteers' total amounts
of LDL, the bad cholesterol, did not change much on either diet,
there was evidence that it had shifted to a form that may be less
likely to clog the arteries.
No single study is likely to change
minds on the issue, especially since an initial weight loss is
hard to maintain on any diet. Some answers could come from a yearlong
study being sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. That
experiment, being directed by Dr. Gary Foster of the University
of Pennsylvania, will test the Atkins diet on 360 patients.
In the meantime, the heart association's
president, Dr. Robert Bonow of Northwestern University, said the
organization will reconsider the Atkins diet as more research
results become available.
"Having our top academic centers
look at this is wonderful," he said. "We are still dealing with
small numbers of patients. We just need more data."
Dr. Sidney Smith, the heart association's
research director, said it was a surprise that the Atkins diet
did not raise LDL cholesterol. "One small study like this flies
in the face of so much evidence. We can't change dietary recommendations
on the spot," he said.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition
expert at Tufts University, said she thinks too much is made of
the amounts of carbohydrates and fats in people's diets as they
try to shed weight.
"There is no magic combination
of fat versus carbs versus protein," she said. "It doesn't matter
in the long run. The bottom line is calories, calories, calories."
On the Net:
Heart meeting: http://www.scientificsessions.org
Reference
Source 102
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