Weight Maven

I learned about the low-carb NEJM editorial from a Dean Ornish tweet. The abstract reads:

Most fad diets are just that — a bright flash that quickly fades, only to be followed by another best-seller and a new face on the talk-show circuit. The high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate (HPLC) diet has outlived the rest of the pack. This diet clearly has its supporters. In many ways, it is attractive to believe that manipulation of macronutrient composition might control body weight and improve health. However, a recent study by Foo and colleagues1 shows that HPLC diets may accelerate atherosclerosis through mechanisms that are unrelated to the classic cardiovascular risk factors.

Sounds pretty grim. It’s a recent study and I don’t have NEJM access, so was waiting for my regular reads to start discussing it. Here’s the first salvo from Dr. Steve Parker in a comment over on Diabetes Update:

The December 3 issue of New England Journal of Medicine has an article - “A Look at the Low-Carb Diet” - that sounded interesting and educational.

Turns out it’s simply about research done in mice. Not just your average mouse either, but a strain deficient in apolipoprotein E, which are particularly susceptible to atherosclerosis when fed a high-fat Western diet.

The whole point seems to have been to cast aspersions on high-fat low-carb diets eaten by humans. To scare us into thinking that WE’LL develop atherosclerosis.

Read Jenny’s whole post for more about the challenges of rodent research and chronic disease. And check out Obesity Panacea for another discussion on the NEJM editorial.