Low Carb Poses No Arterial Health Risks
Will a Low-carb, High-fat Diet Clog Your Arteries?
The evidence against dietary fat has always been flimsy, and based mainly on studies more suited to developing a hypothesis than coming to a conclusion. Now evidence is mounting that much of what we have heard is wrong. A report in the Johns Hopkins University Gazette states:
Overweight and obese people looking to drop some pounds and considering one of the popular low-carbohydrate diets, along with moderate exercise, need not worry that the higher proportion of fat in such a program compared to a low-fat, high-carb diet may harm their arteries, suggests a pair of new studies by heart and vascular researchers at Johns Hopkins.
“Overweight and obese people appear to really have options when choosing a weight-loss program, including a low-carb diet, and even if it means eating more fat,” said the studies’ lead investigator, exercise physiologist Kerry Stewart.
Johns Hopkins and Low Carb Diets
Johns Hopkins has been at the forefront of research into various low carb diets, and has been successful in treating various conditions with a low carb, high fat ketogenic diet. They have found them safe in their studies of children with seizure disorder.
Low Carb Age first reported on the new study in our June report on the growing mass media acceptance of low carb diets.
The researchers stress that the direct comparison of a low carb and low fat diet in this study included moderate exercise for both groups. Like many modern press accounts conceding that a low carb diet works, the authors stress the efficiency of the low carb diet in losing weight without killing you. Unspoken, but implied, is the suggestion that once you lose the weight you can return to a higher carb diet.
Why Not Abandon Low Carb After Reaching your Weight Goal?
Abandoning the low carb way of eating after reaching your weight goal is a prescription for disaster, causing the familiar American model of yo-yo dieting. A much better approach is to view a low carb, high fat diet as being a permanent change in lifestyle.
That’s already the case for Hollywood stars like Courtney Thorne-Smith and country singers like Dolly Parton. The significance of Courtney and Dolly is that they represent the top two groups of people who biologically have the hardest time losing and then maintaining weight: pre- and post-menopausal women.
Eventually, mass media will recognize the long term benefits of reducing carbs, eating mainly foods you prepare yourself, and avoiding highly process, artificially sweetened frankenfoods.
“Abandoning the low carb way of eating after reaching your weight goal is a prescription for disaster…”
Man, you got that right. I have been obese for most of my adult life. It’s taken me a bit more than a year to lose 35 pounds, with about 60 pounds to go, using a pretty much carb-free menu.
I’ve read on a couple of blogs that people with seriously abused metabolisms, such as mine, should probably plan to be very low-carb for the rest of their life. I’ve experimented with a high carb meal, re: Tim Ferriss’s “The 4-Hour Body,” and everytime I do it I am sick for a week and gain 4 to 7 pounds just from the one meal. My third, and last, experiment was four days ago: I ate a stack of pancakes and blueberry syrup. I’m still experiencing some negative effects.
I am through with the experiments and I am through with carbs. I eat meat, eggs, butter, bacon, etc. I don’t do a lot of vegetables because I don’t like them, never have, and they cause, um, intestinal distress. Being carb-free has caused my blood pressure to drop dramatically, I am no longer “pre-diabetic” with blood glucose readings ranging from 78 to 95, and I haven’t had a gout attack in over a year. If I can’t get a meal that is not, at most, very-low carb, I just fast until I can get a carb-free meal. Carb-free is now my mantra. (Heh, given my moderate obsessive personality, it’s easy to do.)
Great progress, James! Interesting about the gout too; one of the “concerns” about low carb dieting is that people with gout may not be able to do it due to the acid in red meat. But I’ve often wondered if gout, like GERD and so many other problems, are related more to inflammation (which is exacerbated by eating carbs, especially wheat).
Like you, I’m very low carb to lose or maintain weight. I looked at the 4HB plan, but most of the focus I see is on the “cheat days”. I can’t really handle that. Part of it might be my age too; I’m 55, so a lot of what I used to be able to get away with is no longer possible. Men, like women, have a harder time with diet and that sort of thing in their 50′s.
The carbs I get are from nuts and berries, and cheese. I do like broccoli, green beans, cauliflower and salads, so I have more variety in my menu. I have discovered a few low carb veggies that I like; I just tried making a meat sauce and using spaghetti squash for “noodles”; I actually liked them. Not much taste (like pasta), but with a bit of a crunch almost like Chinese noodles.
Eating out is a challenge; even steaks are sometimes loaded with sugar (things like TGI Friday’s Jack Daniels Steak have a very sweet sauce). Eggs at iHOP have pancake batter in them. In a pinch, I’ve found that Denny’s “Build Your Own Grand Slam” works … I get two eggs, four bacon, and two sausages for my 4 choices. Certainly not gourmet, but edible, and it does satisfy.
Frank,
I am now recovering from a minor attack of gout. I blame the high carb content of the pancake breakfast.
You may be familiar with Dr. Robert H. Lustig’s rather long youtube video called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” ( http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM). In it he lays gout attacks directly at the feet of High Fructose Corn Syrup as well as the high intake of refined sugar. If you haven’t watched it, set aside an hour and a half to view it. The video is most enlightening.
I don’t remember the details but shortly after World War II a study was done about the effects of semi-starvation suffered by POWs. Some of the test subjects, after rapid weight loss, started having gout attacks; even those that had never had gout. The study was discontinued at that point, the scientists postulating the rapid weight loss caused stored toxins to be released into the system faster than the body could get rid of them.
I have gone through this same situation. If I lose more than, say, 5 pounds in a week, one of my ankles or a toe joint will be sore for a couple of days. I don’t get a full blown attack but the offended joint lets me know it is definitely unhappy.
Eating out is indeed a challenge. Fajitas are my favorite “mexican” food so I just eat the meat, sauteed veggies, and guacamole, abstaining from the flour tortillas and the so-called sour cream most restaurants use. Cheeseburgers are my all time favorite food; I can tell you all the places for a really good cheeseburger within a hundred miles of my house. Today I order a “double,” avoid the bun, forego the french fries and, sadly, the cheese. (Real cheese that is. I cannot abide the chemical stuff known as American Cheese. A “dairy” product not requiring refrigeration is evil.) I had considered Denny’s “Build Your Own…” breakfast but the eggs are no doubt cooked in the cheapest vegetable/seed oil available. As a former foodie, I consider such probably rancid oils an abomination, not to mention their deleterious effect on my health. Generally, in a restaurant, I eat only those foods cooked over an open flame such as steaks, ground beef, etc. Bacon or sausage cooked on a griddle is acceptable since cheap oil is not used in the cooking process.
As of this morning I weigh 249 pounds, a loss of 39 pounds.
Ancel Keys managed the starvation study, and I have notes on it somewhere, but I didn’t know about the link with gout. I do remember my early days of low carbing, and some very strange things that happened in the first 6 – 8 weeks. Rashes and nasal congestion primarily, and a few people told me it could be due to the release of the toxins stored in fat tissue. The Drs. Eades mention that in their opinion, giving blood during this time is an excellent idea, as it helps the body rid itself of the toxins.
I don’t have the same sensitivity to veggie oils, but have worked to eliminate them when possible. You can request the eggs be cooked in butter at Denny’s, and they nod and off they go to the kitchen … but do they really cook them in butter? And I’m sure that even if they do, they don’t clean the grill before doing so, and some of the “canola” oil is still there (Dr. Mike Eades broke down the content of commercial canola oil used in even high end restaurants, and it is partially hydrogenated oil.)
I’m currently reading a copy of Dr. Davis’ “Wheat Belly” to review here on the site, and finding a lot of confirmation about what I call “hidden sensitivity” to wheat among those of us who don’t have outright allergies. It does bring back my GERD with a vengeance even at 20 – 30 grams a day, so I have mostly eliminated it.
Are you blogging anywhere? I think your experience is compelling.
I’m always going to be on a LCHF diet. I’ve gone from 251lb (33.1 BMI)(Feb 19th, 2012) to 216lb (28.5 BMI)(Jun 17th 2012) . So yes I have more to go before I can say I’m healthy. Yet I know I don’t want to go back to a traditional western diet once I’m down to where I want to be. When there is links to Cancer and heart desires to Insulin levels makes me want to keep my Insulin levels down. Yet what it will mean is that I can go out and have a Pizza every once and awhile. I used to eat Pizza every week on top of all the other Carbs I eat. So if I have a Pizza once a month with no other carbs that month I’ll be ok, I think. Yet I’ve found other ways to get my pizza craving so why even then? My family is full of Type 2 Diabetics and people with heart problems; then again what American can’t say that? So if you can say that why would you go back to what was putting you at risk?