A low-carbohydrate diet is suitable for weight loss and diabetes control. However, over the past 50 years, medical and public health experts have embraced a low-fat diet instead. This is becausesaturated fatty acids on cardiovascular risk factorssuch as increased LDL cholesterol. As a result, low-fat and fat-free foods have proliferated, many of which are high in processed carbohydrates. Now, the authors of a new clinical study recently questioned these concerns. The results show that low-carbohydrate diets are better for health than low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet plans, despite the higher proportion of saturated fat.
How a low-carb diet affects the body
Surprisingly, the low-carb diet did not negatively affect “bad” LDL cholesterol, although saturated fat levels were well above current recommendations. The study authors wanted to test the idea that a low-carbohydrate diet improves the risk profile compared to a low-fat diet. To do this, they recruited 164 adults who were overweight or obese and who had lost 10 to 14 percent of their body weight on a calorie-restricted diet. Participants then followed one of three weight loss diets for five months. In all three diets, 35 percent of the fat consumed was saturated fat. This meant that the low-carb diet contained three times as much saturated fat as a high-carb diet. The remarkable thing, however, was that the low-carb diet was not a ketogenic diet. Compared to a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, the low-carbohydrate diet improved the profiles of a number of blood lipids linked to cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. This also increased the hormone adiponectin, which protects against atherosclerosis.
Foods like white bread, white rice, breakfast cereals, and highly processed snacks cause blood sugar and high insulin levels, which slow metabolism, increase hunger, and set the stage for weight gain. Although the clinical trial was conducted on adults, a low-carbohydrate diet is appropriate for children, the authors said. In addition, a diet with reduced carbohydrate content could be prescribed to children depending on individual needs. According to the researchers, pediatric cardiologists also rely on a low-carbohydrate diet because the roots of heart disease lie in childhood. A moderate change in diet could therefore lead to a major benefit when children reach middle age.This studyshows that early development of healthy eating habits appears to shift the life course of heart disease risk.
