Triage Method Newsletter - 20/07/2020
|
|
In this week's newsletter, we share an excerpt from an article published on site this week, including the key take-home points for those on a low carb or ketogenic diet hoping to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.
Additionally, as always, we have a number of recommended resources, as well as the content we shared on our social media this week.
Enjoy!
- Gary
|
Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) Diets & Heart Disease?
Low carb and keto are popular dietary paradigms for individuals looking to lose weight and/or improve their health. However, one of the concerns for such individuals is whether or not increasing the amount of saturated fat consumed will increase their LDL cholesterol. Consistent evidence demonstrates that saturated fat increases LDL, but there is not much evidence about how this effect manifests in the context of a low-carb, high-fat diet that restricts
carbohydrates to < 5% total energy, as is often the case in well-constructed ketogenic diets.
Does LDL-C Increase on LCHF / Keto?
Retterstøl et al. (2018) sought to shed light on this question by putting 15 young, healthy adults on a LCHF diet for 3 weeks, with the following dietary instructions:
- Follow the guidelines described in Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution aiming to limit carbohydrate intake, and otherwise eat ad libitum.
- The amount of carbohydrate was restricted to < 20g/day or < 5% total energy.
- No specific requirements for energy distribution between the intake of protein and fat.
- Participants could eat unlimited quantities of poultry, meat, fish, seafood, eggs and vegetable oils.
- A partial limited intake existed for some food items such as whole-fat cheeses containing carbohydrates and vegetables with low carbohydrate content, such as spinach, sprouts, mushrooms, cucumber and avocado.
- Use of sweeteners such as sucralose, saccharin, cyclamate, acesulfame K, aspartame and erythritol was allowed.
- Due to diet restrictions on carbohydrates, beer, wine and liquor containing carbohydrate alcohol were naturally limited in the LCHF group but there were no restriction on alcohol intake as such.
- The 15 participants in the control group to which the LCHF group was compared were instructed to continue with their ordinary diet.
At the end of the 3-week study period, the researchers assessed changes in LDL cholesterol, as well as other important metrics related to cardiovascular risk. Of note, LDL cholesterol increased by 44% in just 3 weeks from 2.2 mmol/l to 3.1 mmol/l in the LCHF group, but stayed the same at 2.5 mmol/l in the control group. The dietary compositions are listed above, and most notably, saturated fat intake was 29% in the LCHF group, 3x the recommended
threshold.
Therefore, in the absence of evidence to suggest that elevated LDL-C does not confer cardiovascular risk in those who eat low carbohydrate diets, it is very difficult to ethically recommend this type of diet with high saturated fat as a means of reducing cardiovascular risk.
Until next time... Keep it 2ez.
|
|
If you want to check out more of our recommended resources, visit the link below, where we have archived all recommendations from previous newsletters.
|
Podcast Ep. 120 - A Summary of Diet, Lifestyle & Heart Disease
|
|
|
Podcast Q&A - Fatigue & Stress Management when Returning to the Gym
|
|
|
Leucine & mTOR
by Paddy Farrell
|
|
|
LCHF, Keto, Saturated Fat & LDL
by Gary McGowan
|
|
|
Triage Method YouTube Content
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
