A low-carb diet approach has been around since the ’70 s since Dr Atkins brought out his first low carbohydrate diet book. In this era, there was a lot of assumptions going on that ‘too much fat is bad for you’ ‘all that saturate fat will contribute to a heart attack’
Since then there have been boatloads of data and research to show that low-carb diets are not damaging for cardiovascular health, but they are beneficial. (Bhanpuri, N.H. et.al 2018)
Such benefits also are suggested from Ohio State University Center and Translational Science:
‘’Dietary carbohydrate restriction improves metabolic syndrome independent of weight loss’’ [2]
The experiment involved 16 adults’ men and women between 21 and 65 years of age with having Metabolic syndrome defined to have 3 or more of the following characteristics:
(a) waist circumference > 102 cm (40 in) in men and 88 cm (35 in) in women
(b) triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dL
(c) HDL-C < 40 mg/dL in men, and < 50 mg/dL in women
(d) BP ≥ 130/85 mmHg; and (e) fasting glucose ≥ 100 mg/dL
It was a randomized crossover trial. (credible)
Following each diet for 4 weeks a low-carb, moderate carb and high carb diet. With 2 weeks reset period (where they returned to their ‘norm diet’).
In all 3 diet’s Total Calories and Protein remained equal. Fat and Carbs is what changed between diets. As seen below:
After the first 4 weeks on the low carb diet 9 out of 16 participants no longer met the criteria for metabolic syndrome compared to 3 after moderate carb diet and only 1 person after high carb diet.
Results:
-No changes in Blood pressure or fasting insulin between diets.
-Glucose level were lower on a low carb diet.
-No change in Fat % or Waist Circumference.
-Positive improvement in metabolic syndrome markers and cardiovascular risk factors from low carb-diet which were:
- Small dense LDL to Larger particles
- Decreased Triglycerides
- Increased HDL-C
Biggest improvements were on the Low carb diet.
The study delivered by Richard D Feinman (et.al 2006) suggests that Metabolic health can improve even when weight loss is absent [3].
Also as most people seem to believe that obesity is most often than not to be the blame for the cause of type 2 diabetes, MS, PCOS, non-alcoholic fatty liver and more but in reality anybody can develop these diseases doesn’t matter on weight or fat % .
So what does this tell us?
That metabolism and carbohydrate sensitivity is way more important.
Jeff Volek, PhD said:
‘’There’s no doubt that people with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes do better on low-carb diets, but they typically lose weight and one of the prevailing thoughts is that the weight loss is driving the improvements. That was clearly not the case here,”
“Our view is that restricting carbs even without weight loss improves a host of metabolic problems. Obviously, quality of diet matters because quantity is locked down in this experiment.” [4]
Now Nutrition and health authorities are starting to acknowledge the undeniable results of carbohydrate restriction for improving blood glucose management, diabetes and more.
Tempo Performance Thoughts:
We believe everybody is unique. As everything is dependent on your genetics, DNA markers in your blood and your environment. As we have people on a low-carb approach achieving astonishing results from 5.0 mmol/L to 2.0 mmol/L of triglycerides. Then some people on a low fat approach having the same great results because they don’t express PPARG gene (helping regulate fatty acid storage).
References:
[1] Bhanpuri, N. H., Hallberg, S. J., Williams, P. T., McKenzie, A. L., Ballard, K. D., Campbell, W. W., McCarter, J. P., Phinney, S. D., & Volek, J. S. (2018). Cardiovascular disease risk factor responses to a type 2 diabetes care model including nutritional ketosis induced by sustained carbohydrate restriction at 1 year: an open label, non-randomized, controlled study. Cardiovascular dialectology, 17(1), 56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-018-0698-8 [2] JCI Insight. 2019;4(12):e128308. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.128308. [3] Feinman, R. D., & Volek, J. S. (2006). Low carbohydrate diets improve atherogenic dyslipidemia even in the absence of weight loss. Nutrition & metabolism, 3, 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-7075-3-24 [4] https://news.osu.edu/low-carb-diet-may-reduce-diabetes-risk-independent-of-weight-loss/