News: New Studies Say Atkins Diet Seems Promising for Safe Weight Loss
Nov. 18, 2002 | CHICAGO (AP) -- Multitudes swear by the high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, and now a carefully controlled study backs them up: Low-carb may actually take off more weight than low-fat and may be
surprisingly better for cholesterol, too.
For years, the Atkins formula of sparing carbohydrates and loading up on taboo fatty foods has been blasphemy to many in the health establishment, who view it as a formula for cardiovascular ruin.
But now, some of the same researchers who long scoffed at the diet are putting it to the test, and they say the results astonish them. Rather than making cholesterol soar, as they feared, the diet actually appears to improve it, and volunteers take off more weight.
Still, the number of overweight people studied this way is small, and the research does not examine possible long-term ills or advantages, including how long people keep the pounds off.
So for now, the researchers say that much more research is necessary before the Atkins diet can be given an across-the-board endorsement, but at least they believe it is safe enough to take into much larger studies.
At least three formal studies of the Atkins diet have been presented at medical conferences over the past year, and all have reached similar results. The latest, conducted by Dr. Eric Westman of Duke University, was presented Monday at the annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association, long a stronghold of support for the traditional low-fat approach.
Westman, an internist at Duke's diet and fitness center, said he decided to study the Atkins approach because of concern over so many patients and friends taking it up on their own. He approached the Robert C. Atkins foundation in New York City to finance the research.
Westman studied 120 overweight volunteers, who were randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or the heart association's Step 1 diet, a widely used low-fat approach. On the Atkins diet, people limited their carbs to less than 20 grams a day, and 60 percent of their calories came from fat.
"It was high fat, off the scale," he said.
After six months, the people on the Atkins diet had lost 31 pounds, compared with 20 pounds on the AHA diet, and more people stuck with the Atkins regimen.
Total cholesterol fell slightly in both groups. However, those on the Atkins diet had an 11 percent increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a 49 percent drop in triglycerides. On the AHA diet, HDL was unchanged, and triglycerides dropped 22 percent. High triglycerides may raise the risk of heart disease.
While the volunteers' total amounts of LDL, the bad cholesterol, did not change much on either diet, there was evidence that it had shifted to a form that may be less likely to clog the arteries.
"More study is necessary before such a diet can be recommended," Westman said. "However, a concern about serum lipid (cholesterol) elevations should not impede such research."
No single study is likely to change minds the issue, especially since an initial weight loss is hard to maintain on any diet. Some answers could come from a yearlong study being sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
That experiment, being directed by Dr. Gary Foster of the University of Pennsylvania, will test the Atkins diet on 360 patients.
In the meantime, the heart association's president, Dr. Robert Bonow of Northwestern University, said the organization will reconsider the Atkins diet as more research results become available.
"Having our top academic centers look at this is wonderful," he said. "We are still dealing with small numbers of patients. We just need more data."
Dr. Sidney Smith, the heart association's research director, said it was a surprise that the Atkins diet did not raise LDL cholesterol. "One small study like this flies in the face of so much evidence. We can't change dietary recommendations on the spot," he said.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition expert at Tufts University, said she thinks too much is made of the amounts of carbohydrates and fats in people's diets as they try to shed weight.
"There is no magic combination of fat versus carbs versus protein," she said. "It doesn't matter in the long run. The bottom line is calories, calories, calories."
Among other reports at the meeting:
-- The heart association updated its guidelines on fish consumption, urging people with documented heart disease to eat one serving of oily fish, such as salmon, each day.
-- A 12-year follow-up of Harvard's Nurses Health Study found that women who increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables had a 26 percent lower risk of becoming obese.
-- Researchers from the University of Michigan found that older women who are overweight or have had frequent weight swings have impaired blood flow to the heart.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Concerned about the attention garnered by a small study of an Atkins-like low carbohydrate diet, the American Heart Association issued a statement Tuesday emphasizing their guidelines, which recommend fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish, poultry and low fat dairy products as part of a healthy diet.
"Media reports about a small study funded by the Robert C. Atkins Foundation may have created the erroneous impression that the American Heart Association has revised its dietary guidelines," according to the statements. "This is not the case."
The Association said it was concerned because the study was "very small" including only 60 participants on a high fat, low carbohydrate diet. The study seemed to suggest that the diet was not harmful, and possibly helpful in terms of heart health.
"This is a short term study, following participants for just 6 months. There is no evidence provided by this study that the weight loss produced could be maintained long term," the AHA said.
"People should not change their eating patterns based on one very small, short-term study," said Dr. Robert Bonow, president of the AHA. "Instead, we hope that the public will continue to rely on the guidance of organizations such as the American Heart Association, which looks at all the very best evidence before formulating recommendations."
TUESDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthScoutNews) -- It sounds like nutritional heresy, but eating a high-protein, whopping-fat diet can lead to more weight loss than heart-healthy meals while possibly improve cholesterol levels.
That's the word from a just-released study that compared the popular Atkins diet with dieting guidelines from the American Heart Association. The Duke University study found that people shed about 50 percent more pounds on the Atkins plan and also saw their HDL (or "good") cholesterol surge while levels of triglycerides -- fats linked to heart disease -- plummeted.
All that, despite the fact that adherents to the Atkins diet ate about 60 percent of their calories from fat, much of which was saturated fat from meat that experts consider perilous to cardiovascular health.
The new findings, presented this week at the American Heart Association's special sessions meeting in Chicago, haven't swayed the American Heart Association itself, however.
Dr. Robert Bonow, president of the association, said today his group is sticking to its recommendations about the importance of eating a low-fat diet.
"People should not change their eating patterns based on one very small, short-term study," Bonow said in a statement issued to clarify the association's position. "Instead, we hope that the public will continue to rely on the guidance of organizations such as the American Heart Association, which look at all the very best evidence before formulating recommendations."
The Atkins diet has been around since the 1970s, but in recent years it has undergone a renaissance in popularity. The regimen restricts carbohydrates and sugars -- like those in grains and fruit -- to less than 20 grams a day. Protein and fat are supposed to make up the rest of the caloric intake.
The new study compared the Atkins diet with a Heart Association-suggested plan in 120 men and women. After six months, those on the popular diet had shed 31 pounds, while those in the other group had lost 20. HDL levels in the Atkins group rose 11 percent, on average, while triglyceride levels dropped 49 percent. Those on the AHA diet saw no change in HDL and a 22 percent decline in triglycerides.
The National Institutes of Health is now funding a five-year trial of the Atkins diet, this one in 360 overweight men and women. Half will go on an Atkins diet and half will be put on a low-fat diet.
Despite the latest news on cholesterol, some doctors insist the Atkins plan causes other serious health problems. One recent study, for example, found that just six weeks on a high-protein, low-carb diet sharply increased the risk of kidney stones. Similar regimens have also been linked to osteoporosis from calcium loss, colon and prostate cancer, and heart disease.
The Atkins diet is "substantially more dangerous" than other diets, said Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which has spoken out in the past against the regimen.
Barnard said people on Atkins don't lose weight faster than those on other weight-loss diets, which the AHA meal plan is not. And the improvement in cholesterol is simply a function of reducing overall body fat, he said.
But Abby Bloch, a nutrition consultant for the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation, said the evidence of any risk in the diet is "muddy."
Studies that have shown health problems associated with high-protein and high-fat diets haven't separated the adverse effects of high carbohydrate consumption, said Bloch.
Bloch said the diet's ability to force bad blood fats lower, while raising HDL, comes from the fact that when people eat fewer carbohydrates their insulin levels wane. Insulin drives the production of both good and bad fats, she added.
Bonow noted, however, that another study reported at the AHA meeting found that women who ate diets high in fruits and vegetables were 26 percent less likely to become obese over time than those who consumed fewer of those foods.
What To Do
To learn more about the Atkins diet, try the Atkins Foundation. You can also try the American Heart Association's recommended diets.
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News: New Studies Say Atkins Diet Seems Promising for Safe Weight Loss 
