Low-carbohydrate-diet and no correlation to risk of coronary heart disease

[josh]

Low-carbohydrate-diet score and the risk of coronary heart disease in women.

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Low-carbohydrate diets have been advocated for weight loss and to prevent obesity, but the long-term safety of these diets has not been determined.

METHODS: We evaluated data on 82,802 women in the Nurses' Health Study who had completed a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Data from the questionnaire were used to calculate a low-carbohydrate-diet score, which was based on the percentage of energy as carbohydrate, fat, and protein (a higher score reflects a higher intake of fat and protein and a lower intake of carbohydrate). The association between the low-carbohydrate-diet score and the risk of coronary heart disease was examined.

RESULTS: During 20 years of follow-up, we documented 1994 new cases of coronary heart disease. After multivariate adjustment, the relative risk of coronary heart disease comparing highest and lowest deciles of the low-carbohydrate-diet score was 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 1.18; P for trend=0.19). The relative risk comparing highest and lowest deciles of a low-carbohydrate-diet score on the basis of the percentage of energy from carbohydrate, animal protein, and animal fat was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.74 to 1.19; P for trend=0.52), whereas the relative risk on the basis of the percentage of energy from intake of carbohydrates, vegetable protein, and vegetable fat was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.56 to 0.88; P for trend=0.002). A higher glycemic load was strongly associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (relative risk comparing highest and lowest deciles, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.15 to 3.15; P for trend=0.003).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that diets lower in carbohydrate and higher in protein and fat are not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease in women. When vegetable sources of fat and protein are chosen, these diets may moderately reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Copyright 2006 Massachusetts Medical Society.
PMID 17093250

FT (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa055317#t=articleTop)

[josh]

The researchers followed 98,462 women, splitting them into ten equal sized groups based on the fraction of calories they obtained from carbohydrates. Examining the top and bottom deciles we see:

• The high-carb decile obtained 58.8 percent of calories from carbohydrates and 26.9 percent from fat.
• The low-carb decile obtained 36.8 percent of calories from carbohydrates and 39.9 percent from fat.

Also worth mentioning is that the low carb decile took very poor care of their health. The low carb decile were more likely to smoke (26 percent smoked vs. 17 percent of the high-carb decile) and to avoid exercise ( 20 percent less exercise than the high-carb decile) BUT the rate of coronary heart disease cases was 0.131 percent in the high-carb decile and 0.092 percent in the low-carb decile.

So the high-carb group smoked less and exercised more, but their chance of a heart attack was 42 percent higher than the low carb counter who smoked more and excercised less.

hmmm....

[BBG]

Changed title for clarity :)

[josh]

Although 36.8% is hardly "low Carb" I still found the results interesting

[markam]

Although 3.8 is hardly "low Carb" I still found the results interesting

Agreed, it would be more interesting if the low carb group had been doing 100g or less and a comparison to a Keto diet