AHA Not On Board With Atkins Diet 30030

AHA Not On Board With Atkins Diet

CHICAGO--The American Heart Association (AHA) was quick to sayit does not recommend the dietary regimen that makes up the high-protein,high-fat, low-carb Atkins diet. This statement was in response to a tidal waveof media stories reporting on an Atkins study presented at AHA's Chicago meetingheld Nov. 17 to 20.

The study, which was one of more than 3,600 abstracts presented at AHA'sannual Scientific Sessions, is the continuation of a trial that had preliminaryresults published in the July edition of The American Journal of Medicine(113, 30-6, 2002) (www.amjmed.org). In thatstudy, 51 overweight or obese volunteers were put on a low-carb (less than 25g/d) diet for six months. It was found that not only did body fat decrease, butso did serum total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels.

The study presented on Nov. 19 is currently unavailable, as it is now underreview to be published by a peer-edited journal. In a Reuters report, it wassaid that the presentation at AHA's sessions showcased results of a study thatwas six months long and used 120 volunteers who were obese and had highcholesterol. At the study's conclusion, patients on the low-carb, high-proteindiet lost an average of 31 pounds compared to 20 pounds in the high-carb,low-fat group. The high-protein diet was also found to change the composition ofcholesterol into larger particles, in addition to lowering LDL and raising HDL("good") cholesterol. In fact, those on the low-fat, high-carb diethad a 1-percent decrease in HDL, while the low-carb, high-protein group had an8-percent increase.

The lead author for both studies, Eric C. Westman, M.D., from DukeUniversity, Durham, N.C., told Reuters further research is needed beforerecommending the diet to lower cholesterol levels.

In its Nov. 19 statement, AHA expressed concerns over the study, such as itwas very small, short-term, proves to have no long-term benefits and the weightloss was not shown to be maintainable. AHA also stated, "A high intake ofsaturated fats over time raises great concern about increased cardiovascularrisk--the study did not follow participants long enough to evaluate this."

According to Collette Heimowitz, M.Sc., director of nutrition at the AtkinsCenter, "What happened is that the media gave the impression that AHA wasendorsing [a high-protein, low-carb] diet when AHA only invited Dr. Westman topresent his research in the face of emerging science. AHA has their own dietaryguidelines and they don't want people to think it's changing the guidelinesbased on a six-month study."

Robert O. Bonow, M.D., AHA president, concurred with Heimowitz. "Peopleshould not change their eating patterns based on one very small, short-termstudy," he said.