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Research Highlights
Low-Carbohydrate Diet Outperforms Low-Fat Diet in VA Study
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated June 9, 2003
According to a VA study published in the May 22 New England Journal of Medicine, obese patients on a low-carbohydrate diet for six months lost more weight and fared better on certain cardiovascular and diabetes measures than patients on a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet. The study is one of several in recent years to suggest that low-carbohydrate diets may offer some advantages over the low-fat regimen advocated by doctors and nutritionists since the 1970s.
Lead author Frederick F. Samaha, MD, chief of cardiology at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, cautioned against discarding the low-fat approach, which he said has been shown to cut the risk of heart attack, but said more attention should be paid to the harmful effects on body chemistry of carbohydrate-rich diets.
The study included 132 men and women who were randomly put on either a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet for six months. On average, the low-carbohydrate group lost about 13 pounds, compared to 4 pounds for the low-fat group. The low-carbohydrate dieters reduced their triglycerides by 20 percent, versus 4 percent for the low-fat group. Seven diabetic patients in the low-carbohydrate group were able to reduce their dose of insulin or other medication to control blood sugar, versus only one patient in the low-fat group. There were no significant changes in cholesterol or blood pressure levels in either group.
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