Low-Carb, High-Fat Diets May Not Pose Risk to Arteries

"It's pretty clear low-carb is effective for weight loss," said study author Kerry J. Stewart, director of clinical and research exercise physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart and Vascular Institute. "The concern has been that because you are eating more fat this is going to put stress on your blood vessels."

So, Stewart and his team evaluated the short-term effects of a low-carb, higher-fat diet after a single meal. The researchers also compared a low-carb diet with a low-fat diet in dieters. In each case, they found no ill effects on blood vessel health.

Stewart is due to present his findings Friday at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Denver.

However, one nutrition expert said longer-term research is needed before concluding that high fat intake doesn't hurt blood vessel health.

For the first study, Stewart's team looked at the effects of eating an extremely high-fat McDonald's breakfast. The breakfast had more than 900 calories and 50 grams of fat. "That's half of what you should eat in a whole day," Stewart said.

The researchers then evaluated a marker of arterial stiffness and another measure of blood vessel health, known as endothelial function. "Even after eating this one meal, we didn't find any vascular changes from before to after," he said.

The arterial stiffness, in fact, improved, he noted, although he is not sure why.

Neither study had industry funding; both were financed by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

For the diet study, Stewart assigned 55 men and women who were overweight or obese to the low-carb diet or a low-fat diet. They also had abdominal obesity and a large waist circumference (35 inches or more for women, 40 or more for men). Both are risk factors for heart disease.

The low-carb plan included up to 55 percent fat at the beginning, and phased down to about 40 percent. It had about 15 percent carbs initially, and then went to 40 percent. The other dieters followed the American Heart Association's low-fat diet, with no more than 30 percent fat a day.

Both groups had supervised exercise three times a week.

At the meeting, Stewart will report on 46 dieters, 23 from each group, who lost 10 pounds. "In the low-carb group, they reached the 10-pound loss at 45 days," he said. The low-fat group needed 70 days to shed 10 pounds.

Their calorie intake was similar, whichever diet they were on.

Ketogenic Diet Plans Could Assist With Weight Loss, Amongst Some ...

Ketogenic diet programs, also known as Ketosis diet programs, are diets that contain very small amounts of carbohydrates. One's body depends on carbs, as you probably know, as an essential source of energy. These are broken down and the particular energy will be used for the daily operation of your body. You ought to be careful not to lower your carbohydrate consumption too drastically, because with little or no supply of energy for your body you could die. However, your body is sensible. As soon as there are virtually no carbs to burn, your body switches over to using up fats instead as a primary energy source. If perhaps youre following this properly your eyes may be lighting up right now. It just makes sense that any diet plan that causes your body to seek out and consume body fat for energy can help you lose weight. Well, this is correct, nevertheless to really make it work you still have to stick to the main rule that calories in must equal calories out.Some individuals say that ketogenic diet programs are hazardous. They're really not risky, and plenty of individuals get mixed up with both the term ketogenic and ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis is quite dangerous and only happens in those who have diabetes, once the amount of sugars in their blood goes out of control. Mixing up those two terms is undoubtedly a critical error. Ketosis has been shown to not only aid in your struggle in losing weight, but it also helps reduce the chances of illness.Plenty of studies have been performed on ketogenic diets when it comes to obesity. In a great many of these tests, subjects who have been on the ketogenic regimen stated they seemed to not be as hungry as they were before. Certainly, this has something to do with the reality that diet programs based on ketogenics are usually naturally extremely high in protein. Healthy proteins is shown to make individuals feel full which is the reason ketogenic diet programs curb your appetite. Furthermore, scientists found that people eating some sort of low fat diet needed to actively suppress their calorie intake, while the individuals eating a low carbohydrate diet plan got the same results as those in the low fat group however they didnt have to actively keep an eye on their calorie intake.Numerous standard low carb diets generally have plenty of saturated fats, which as you may know are certainly not good for us.

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