Cutting Simple Carbs Lowers Cholesterol

Category: Diet and Nutrition

Simple (refined) carbohydrates, such as sugars, white flour products (white bread, white pasta, baked goods, junk foods) and white rice cause fat (lipid) levels to increase in the blood and deposit in the body. These harmful effects are linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Now research reports that reducing simple carbohydrates (carbs) improves blood fat levels and increases the breakdown of fats.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examined the effects of a low carbohydrate diet on blood fat levels. Researchers at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, California, administered a standard diet with 54% carbohydrate content to 178 overweight men for one week. The men were then administered either the same diet, a standard diet with 39% carbohydrate content or a standard diet with 26% carbohydrate content, for three weeks. Following this, the men were administered a weight loss diet with reduced caloric intake for five weeks. For another four weeks, their caloric intake was adjusted for weight stabilization.

The researchers found that the 26 percent carb diet group had significant reductions in blood fat and LDL "bad" cholesterol levels and increases in HDL "good" levels, compared to the 54 percent carb diet group. Furthermore, these beneficial changes occurred in the 26 percent carb group whether or not they lost weight or ate less saturated fat. The study findings suggest that reducing simple carbohydrates can be beneficial to blood fat levels even without weight loss.

"Moderate carbohydrate restriction and weight loss provide equivalent but nonadditive approaches to improving atherogenic dyslipidemia," the study authors conclude. "Moreover, beneficial lipid changes resulting from a reduced carbohydrate intake were not significant after weight loss."


REFERENCES:
1. Krauss RM et al. Separate effects of reduced carbohydrate intake and weight loss on atherogenic dyslipidemia. Am J Clin Nutr 2006 May;83(5):1025-31; quiz 1205.

Posted by Elaine Gavalas on January 9, 2014 10:00 AM