Cholesterol Rises with Low-Carb Diet at Diet Trials : Paul McKenna

Cholesterol Rises with Low-Carb Diet

Published by Diet Trials February 16th, 2006 in Diet Articles

According to NutraIngredients-usa.com is has been found that if you stay on a low carb diet like the Atkins diet in the long term then it could raise cholesterol levels and increase the risks of heart attacks. The Atkins style diet does show more weight loss than a low fat diet over six months but there are these risks involved.

Recent stats show that in Europe, 26% of people are actively trying to lose weight. In Europe there are 14 million people who are obese or overweight with a staggering 3 million of that figure children. That’s a lot of people….but in the USA up to 45% of women and 30% of men are dieting.Worldwide there are over 300 million people that are obese.

On the Atkins diet, as you may well know, your energy mainly comes from protein and fat, and this has raised concerns in the past about the risk of heart disease. A study has been performed by a team of researchers from Switzerland who have been comparing diets for the last few years in terms of weight loss and cholesterol levels.

They have reported that on average, people on the Atkins style diet lost 3.3kg more that those on low fat diets, but after 12 months there was no real difference. It was found though that the Atkins dieters had higher levels of cholesterol, including the low density lipoprotein bad cholesterol. This study supports the theory that the low carb, high fat/protein diet like the Atkins can cause long term complications, but does confirm that in the short term weight loss is significant. I used to be a regular Atkins dieter but knew in the back of my mind really that it couldn’t be good for you as you cut out what I would say are good carbs like fruit.