Low-carb diets get some vindication

(Los Angeles Times) - Obesity rates are rising, but science has barely weighed in on the best way for people to shed fat. That state of affairs is starting to change, and doctors are getting a surprise or two.

Last month, the popular carb-slashing Atkins diet received a dollop of endorsement from two studies after years of being pooh-poohed by health specialists. The studies, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that the meat- and fat-rich regimen caused faster weight loss in the short term than a conventional low-fat diet.

More important - because many had feared that the diet, even if slimming, might unfavorably affect cholesterol levels and be bad for the heart - the low-carb regimen also seemed to improve the dieters' blood fat profiles.

But Atkins, like every other diet, is no miraculous fat-melter. The longer of the two studies suggested that a low-carb regimen might be harder to maintain beyond six months compared with a low-fat approach: By the end of the year, the low-fat dieters had caught up and lost the same - very modest - amount of heft.

In addition, even though on average people on low-carb diets didn't experience rises in their so-called "bad" (or LDL) cholesterol levels, about 30 percent of individuals did.

Even with these caveats, "We can no longer dismiss very-low-carbohydrate diets," said Dr. Walter Willett, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, in a written editorial accompanying the papers. To maximize the diets' healthfulness, he added, people should avoid going hog-wild on fatty bacon and red meat - opting instead to eat healthy oils (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) and get protein from fish, beans, nuts and chicken.

The weight-loss regimen popularized by the late Dr. Robert Atkins - rich in meat, eggs and cheese but almost bereft of grains, potatoes and fruit - is highly popular but had not been tested in a scientifically rigorous way until last year, when two studies reported that very obese and moderately obese people lost more weight initially on the Atkins diet than on a conventional diet.

The studies published last month bolster and extend these findings.

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