Low-Carb Diets Can Raise Heart Risk
Bread lovers, rejoice: There’s yet another reason to skip a low-carb, high-protein, high-fat diet.
Eating more fat and protein and less carbohydrates might lead to an increase in cholesterol and risk for cardiovascular disease, a 25-year study of 140,000 Swedish adults found.
An effort to eat low-carb didn’t improve study participants’ body mass index (BMI), either: After adjusting for the aging study population, researchers found BMI actually continuously increasedover the course of the study, even as participants tried to eat healthier foods.
“While low carbohydrate/high fat diets may help short-term weight loss,” cautioned researcher Ingegerd Johansson, PhD, in a release, “these results … demonstrate that long-term weight loss is not maintained, and that this diet increases blood cholesterol which has a major impact on risk of cardiovascular disease.”
The study, published in Nutrition Journal, tracked the results of a regional and national efforts to reduce the fat intake and improve the heart health of adults living in Northern Sweden. The Västerbotten Intervention Programme (VIP) — which included a push for better food labeling, nutrition information, cooking demonstrations, and health examinations and counseling — began in 1985 after Swedish health officials noticed that rates of heart disease were higher in Northern Sweden, and for men, among the highest in the world.
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