It seems the controversy continues. Those that advocate for low-fat diets for heart health tell us a low-carb, high fat food plan is detrimental to heart health. On the surface, it is sensible that this is able to be true. But is it?
A recently published clinical trial conducted by a health care provider and researcher well versed in heart and metabolic health got here to some extremely interesting and surprising conclusions. The way in which this trial was conducted was that the participants were split into one in all 3 groups. They followed the diets assigned to them for 20 weeks. Each of the three diets contained 20% protein but differing amounts of carbs and fat.
Study participants received fully prepared, customized meals that they may either eat within the cafeteria or take to go. So there was no guessing as as to if they really consumed the assigned amounts of macronutrients.
Here is how the diets broke down:
Low-carb: 20% carbohydrate, 21% fat
Moderate-carb: 40% carbohydrate, 14% fat
High-carb: 60% carbohydrate, 7% fat
At the tip of the 20 weeks, the stunning results revealed:
“A low-carbohydrate food plan, high in saturated fat, improved insulin-resistant dyslipoproteinemia and lipoprotein(a), without opposed effect on LDL cholesterol. Carbohydrate restriction might lower CVD (heart problems) risk independently of body weight, a possibility that warrants study in major multi-centered trials powered on hard outcomes.”
So, in plain English, what the researchers found was that the people eating the low-carb, high fat food plan had higher improvements in triglycerides, adiponectin (a fat-derived hormone that appears to play a vital role in protecting against insulin resistance/diabetes and atherosclerosis), blood pressure and lipoprotein(a) than those on the moderate or high carb diets. Lipoprotein(a) is a form of protein that transports cholesterol within the blood and could cause LDL cholesterol to form plaques on blood vessel partitions, resulting in the narrowing or blocking of blood vessels and hardening of arteries. The high saturated fat didn’t have any negative impact on cholesterol or cardiovascular markers.
That goes against what now we have been told for years. In my view, it all the time comes right down to the standard of the food and where that fat comes from. Saturated fat shouldn’t be the damaging substance we have long been told it’s. My personal feeling is that it relies on the source of that fat and the way your unique metabolic makeup responds to saturated fat.
How do you are feeling about considering a low-carb, high saturated fat food plan?