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No difference in heart disease risk from low-carb diet: study
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 8, 2006 CBC News

Low-carb diets defy traditional weight loss advice but do
not seem be linked
to a higher risk of heart disease in women, according to a
long-term study
published Thursday.

The Atkin's and other low-carb diets have long claimed to
prevent obesity
and heart disease, but nutrition experts questioned the
safety of
encouraging people to eat animal proteins that are high in
saturated fats
and cholesterol.

Low-carb diets, which encourage people to eat more proteins,
are popular for
weight loss.

Now researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health
have weighed in
after analyzing data collected over 20 years from more than
82,000 women
participating in the Nurses' Health Study.

In Thursday's issue of the weekly New England Journal of
Medicine, they
conclude the answer lies in the middle.

Low-Carbohydrate-Diet Score and the Risk of Coronary Heart
Disease in Women
Article Summaries
J New Egl J Med November 9, 2006
Article Summaries

In the Nurses' Health Study, the risk of coronary heart
disease during 20
years of follow-up was not increased among participants with
the lowest
levels of carbohydrate intake. It is not clear whether the
findings apply to
low-carbohydrate diets undertaken specifically to lose weight.

1. Low-Carbohydrate-Diet Score and the Risk of Coronary
Heart Disease in
Women
T. L. Halton and Others

Background Low-carbohydrate diets have been advocated for
weight loss and to
prevent obesity, but the long-term safety of these diets has
not been
determined.

Methods We evaluated data on 82,802 women in the Nurses'
Health Study who
had completed a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Data
from the
questionnaire were used to calculate a low-carbohydrate-diet
score, which
was based on the percentage of energy as carbohydrate, fat,
and protein (a
higher score reflects a higher intake of fat and protein and
a lower intake
of carbohydrate). The association between the
low-carbohydrate-diet score
and the risk of coronary heart disease was examined.

Results During 20 years of follow-up, we documented 1994 new
cases of
coronary heart disease. After multivariate adjustment, the
relative risk of
coronary heart disease comparing highest and lowest deciles
of the
low-carbohydrate-diet score was 0.94 (95% confidence
interval [CI], 0.76 to
1.18; P for trend=0.19). The relative risk comparing highest
and lowest
deciles of a low-carbohydrate-diet score on the basis of the
percentage of
energy from carbohydrate, animal protein, and animal fat was
0.94 (95% CI,
0.74 to 1.19; P for trend=0.52), whereas the relative risk
on the basis of
the percentage of energy from intake of carbohydrates,
vegetable protein,
and vegetable fat was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.56 to 0.88; P for
trend=0.002). A
higher glycemic load was strongly associated with an
increased risk of
coronary heart disease (relative risk comparing highest and
lowest deciles,
1.90; 95% CI, 1.15 to 3.15; P for trend=0.003).

Conclusions Our findings suggest that diets lower in
carbohydrate and higher
in protein and fat are not associated with increased risk of
coronary heart
disease in women. When vegetable sources of fat and protein
are chosen,
these diets may moderately reduce the risk of coronary heart
disease.