Low Carb Takes the Cake

A study published in the March 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association compared the results 311 overweight women achieved when they were randomized to one of four popular diets (Atkins, Zone, Ornish or Traditional) for one year. Overall, women on the Atkins diet lost more weight than those on the other three. Furthermore, the lipid profiles of women on Atkins actually improved (with reduced triglycerides and increased HDL cholesterol levels). BUT weight loss was relatively modest with all four diets, and the difference favoring Atkins, while statistically significant, was not that impressive. The main thing this study seems to show is that a restrictive carbohydrate diet like Atkins does not seem to cause the horrible lipid abnormalities that traditionalists have always predicted. Read about the pros and cons of low-carb vs. low-fat diets here.