Low Carb Diet Proves Successful in Cholesterol Lowering
In a new, and very extensive research study on the benefits to be had by the various popular diets out there today, including the still-popular Atkins style approach, the Meditteranean diet and the low fat diet, a conclusion has been reached that many doctors and nutritionists have not agreed with or conceded to at least over the last decade. That is that the low carb diet results in just as much, if not more, cholesterol level lowering as it’s other diet counterparts.
This is a significant win for those that advocate the low carb diet, specifically the Atkins approach which is a somewhat hard nosed approach to the low carb diet that I happen to not agree with fully because it limits certain foods that are high in antioxidant and disease prevention value.
The interesting part about the study is that it is actually the longest and most controlled one ever done on comparing diets like this, since it was done in an isolated environment and many of the participants stuck to their respective diets for two full years, which is almost unheard of on such a large scale.
The low carb diet and the Mediterranean (which in effect acts as a carb blocker, working to offset carb intake) resulted in the best and most consistent weight loss goals, while the low fat resulted in the lowest weight loss, however, they all resulted in a reduction of bad cholesterol levels, which is counter to what many thought about low carb diets, because they do not really limits fats that much, but instead focus solely on carbohydrate intake.
An interesting note though on that, is that the people on the low carb diets in the study actually were encouraged to try to make their protein a vegetable, rather than animal source, so I’m not really sure what impact that has on the whole outcome of the cholesterol testing. Another interesting note is that the women seemed to have more success on the Mediterranean diets in their weightloss, which was attributed to them having more experiences and knowledge about dieting and proper food selection.