Atkins Diet..Good or Bad...!!

Experts from the University of Athens followed 43,396 Swedish women between the ages of 30 and 49 years for 15 years & found that those on Atkins diet were 28 percent more likely to have had a stroke or a heart attack.

What is Known..!!

• Overweight and obesity have become endemic in most economically developed countries and are a major risk factors for several common chronic diseases. 

• Exercise is one way of counteracting weight , but reducing caloric intake is also important. 

Latest Trends :

• Many dietary regimens have been proposed to decrease the satiety. 

• The Atkins Diet: On of the most popular among these diets emphasize reduction of carbohydrate intake, thereby encouraging high protein intake.

Where is the Discrepancy: 

• Although low carbohydrate-high protein diets may be nutritionally acceptable if the protein is mainly of plant origin and the reduction of carbohydrates applies mainly to simple and refined ones, the general public do not always recognize and act on these qualifications.

What's going on this Area..!!

• During the past few years, several cohort studies have evaluated the long term health effects of low carbohydrate-high protein diets, with emphasis on cardiovascular diseases. 

• In the Nurses’ Health Study in the United States, diets lower in carbohydrate and higher in protein were not associated with increased incidence of ischemic heart disease. 

• Studies in Europe, however, indicated statistically significant increases in cardiovascular mortality in relation to low carbohydrate-high protein diets. 

Why the Current study..??

• Given the importance of the topic and the widespread use of low carbohydrate diets for weight control, particularly among women, researchers followed up the women in the Swedish Women’s Lifestyle and Health Cohort, focusing on incidence of cardiovascular diseases and using the valuable registry resources available in Sweden.

• What Significant Result they found..!!

• They found that women on such diets for longer time are 28 percent more likely to develop heart disease, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.

• 1,270 of all the women had adverse cardiovascular events and out of which..
• 55 percent had ischaemic heart disease, 
• 23 percent had ischaemic stroke, 
• 6 percent had haemorrhagic stroke, 
• 10 percent had subarachnoid haemorrhage and 
• 6 percent had peripheral arterial disease over the 15-year study period.

• Also the incidence of adverse cardiovascular outcomes increased with an increasing low carbohydrate-high protein score.

• More specifically, with every 20-gram (equates to a small bread roll)  decrease in carbohydrate intake and 5-gram (one boiled egg)  increase in protein intake elevated women's risk for future cardiovascular disease by 5 percent.

What Experts are Suggesting Now..!! 

• Short term benefits of weight loss appear to be outweighed by longer term cardiovascular harms. 

• Women on the Atkins diet are putting themselves in danger of heart attacks and strokes, experts warn.

• Researchers are urging women to follow a balanced diet and to not cut out potatoes, bread, rice and pasta from their diet.

Future Prospects..!!

• The debate between the benefits and harms of the Atkins diet in research "need to be resolved before low carbohydrate-high protein diets can be safely recommended to patients."

So.... in the light of above studies any benefits gained from these fad diets in the short-term seem irrelevant in the face of increasing evidence of higher morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases in the long term...!!