July 18, 2008	Friday	Rajab 14, 1429

LOS ANGELES: A long-running comparison of three diet plans found that the low-carbohydrate Atkins regimen and a Mediterranean diet rich in fish and nuts produced slightly greater weight loss than a low-fat programme modelled on American Heart Association dietary guidelines.

The low-carb dieters who consumed generous amounts of saturated fat but avoided such staples as bread and pasta saw steeper increases in their HDL, or good, cholesterol, than people on either the Mediterranean or low-fat diets, according to a report in Wednesday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, funded in part by the Dr Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Research Foundation, was the latest to demonstrate the benefits of diets high in fat, protein and cholesterol, which have long been demonized as unhealthful.

“It is time to reconsider the low-fat diet as the first choice for weight loss and for cardiovascular health,” said study author Dr Meir J. Stampher of Harvard Medical School. “It is not the best.”

But Dr Robert Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Association and a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, said he was not ready to recommend an Atkins-type low-carb diet based on the results.

People on a low-carb diet increased their consumption of saturated fat, he said, which could not be good for them in the long run. LDL, or bad, cholesterol did not improve in any of the diet groups, said Eckel, who was not involved in the study.

The average weight loss in all three diet plans was small and participants regained some of their pounds before the two-year study was over. Atkins dieters lost an average of 12 pounds, those on the Mediterranean regimen which included consumption of nuts, fish and olive oil lost an average of 10 pounds, and people assigned to the low-fat programme lost an average of 7.3 pounds.

The study tracked 322 moderately obese people, all employees of a nuclear research facility in Israel, who were randomly assigned to one of the three diets. The average age of participants was 52, and most were men.

The Mediterranean and low-fat diets came with daily calorie restrictions. Men were limited to 1,800 calories and women to 1,500 calories. People on the low-carb diet had no calorie limit but were encouraged to choose vegetarian sources of fat, such as beans and nuts more than commonly associated with the Atkins diet. Their intake of carbohydrates was limited to 120 grams daily compared to 400 grams in the typical US diet.

To help participants stick to their programmes, the workplace cafeteria prepared special meals for them, and nutritional counselling was available. Spouses were trained to encourage participants and participants tracked what they ate.

By the end of the study, subjects in all groups were consuming fewer calories and exercising more.

People on low-carb diets saw the greatest improvements in the HDL cholesterol and in a key ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, which is used to assess cardiac risk. That ratio fell 20 per cent in low-carb dieters, 16 per cent in those on a Mediterranean diet and 11.5 per cent in low-fat dieters.

Every one per cent decline in the ratio represents a two per cent drop in overall odds of developing cardiovascular disease, said lead author Iris Shai of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, which also funded the study. “It is easy to identify the enemy it is bread, potatoes, pasta and rice,” she said.

For reasons not understood, women lost more weight on the Mediterranean diet while men did better on the low-carb diet, Shai said.

Although the study ended in June 2007, participants are being tracked to see how well they follow their diets under real-world conditions without special workplace meals and counseling, Shai said.—Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times