Atkins Diet bad for heart, finds study

16 November, 2007

The latest in a series of studies done on the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet has found that the regimen is capable of causing long-term damage to blood vessels.

The Atkins Diet comprising eggs, meat, and cheese – and thus high in fat – could put one at risk of heart disease by increasing cholesterol and damaging blood vessels, according to a new study by researchers in the United States.

To conduct the study, researchers at the University of Maryland, the United States, put 26 people on three diets – the high-fat Atkins Diet as well as the low-fat South Beach Diet and Ornish Diet.

The Ornish Diet encourages users to eat a vegetarian diet, with just 10% of calories from fat, whereas the South Beach Diet allows a wider variety of foods and keeps fat to about 30% of calories.

In all, 18 people finished the study, in which each of them had to follow one of the diets for a month. Doctors checked their cholesterol and the condition of their arteries for the whole month.

In those who took the Atkins Diet, the so-called “bad cholesterol” increased by an average of 16 points. Besides, they showed symptoms of hardening of the arteries, a precursor to stroke or heart attack.

Those put on the South Beach Diet and Ornish Diet came out better in laboratory tests. While the Ornish Diet lowered “bad cholesterol” by 25 points, the South Beach Diet reduced it by 10 points. Also, the conditions of their arteries improved on both South Beach and Ornish diets.

Dr Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, told a meeting of the American Heart Association at Orlando, Florida, “It really is the Atkins Diet that is the worst.” He added that he was surprised to see how quickly the Atkins Diet showed signs of inflamed arteries, a heart-disease factor.

Some markers of inflammation were increased by as much as 30% to 40% by the Atkins Diet, Dr Miller said. By contrast, the South Beach Diet and the Ornish Diet either left the markers of inflamed arteries unchanged, or cut them by 15% to 20%.

Atkins Nutritionals, a company based in Long Island, that markets the Atkins Diet reacted to Dr Miller’s study saying that it was “too small to draw any conclusions.” Said a spokesman of the company, “More than 30 years of industry research on low-carbohydrates diets and four years of studies specifically on the Atkins protocol have demonstrated its safety and efficacy.”

The Atkins Diet is designed to work like this: Atkins dieters eat as much fat-laden meat, eggs and cheese as they like, but reduce their consumption of fruits, vegetables and grains. Because of their limited choice of foods, Atkins dieters lose weight since they eat fewer calories, according to researchers.

But Dr Miller argues that most people find the low-carbohydrates Atkins Diet so hard to continue that they soon regain their weight.