What’s the old expression? …“It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”? Well, the fat lady has sung and now she’s dead because she attempted to lose that weight with a low carb diet!
A couple of decades ago a physician wrote a book about how you could eat all of the meat, cheese, eggs, etc., reduce and/or eliminate carbohydrates (carbs) and you could lose weight! That book stayed more than 300 weeks on the NY Times best-sellers list! And it is completely wrong and in violation of the science that demonstrates otherwise!
A recent and very large study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress shows this once again. In this two part study, nearly 25,000 people were followed for six and one half years. Then in a second part of the study, a large grouping of data following people for more than fifteen years and greater than 450,000 people was also examined. The results are nothing short of astounding.
The first and most significant finding is the increased risk of death. The people with the lowest carb consumption were 32% more likely to die from ANY cause than the people eating the most carbs!!! Further, in looking at specific diseases there was even greater concern. When it came to heart disease….the same two groups showed that those in the lowest carb consumption group were 50% more likely to die; same thing with stroke which showed a 51% elevation in the death rate and, lest we forget cancer, it showed an increased death rate of 35%!! Amazing!
Yes, it is true that people lose weight with this mode of eating. Further, many note early reductions in their blood pressure and even greater stabilization of blood sugar levels. That’s all true…..IN THE SHORT TERM. But long term studies simply do not support the major risks associated with low carb eating.
It may be the elevation in the animal based protein, increased cholesterol and saturated fat or a combination of these. It most likely includes the risk associated with the reduced fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals low card eating causes.
Whatever the exact cause….it’s not really significant because the end result is painfully clear: Low Carb diets are simply dangerous and should be avoided.
