Unrestricted Low-Carb Diet Wins Hands Down
The New England Journal of Medicine has just come out with perhaps the most definitive comparison of low-fat, Mediterranean and low-carb diets ever, and the findings dovetail very nicely with what we’ve been discussing here recently about the merits of the Primal Blueprint. I think it also addresses some of the concerns shared about the so-called “restrictiveness” of my PB plan.
This study looked at over 300 people who followed their assigned diets strictly for two years, making this one of the longest diet studies in recent history. The bottom line was that the low-carb diet was hands-down the most impressive at improving health in all areas. Those on the low-carb plan lost more weight, experienced a greater reduction in the dangerous C-reactive protein, lowered their triglycerides, raised their HDL cholesterol and dropped their A1C more than those on either the Mediterranean or the low-fat diets, although the Mediterranean was a close second most of the time. Of course, for those who read MDA religiously, you’ll be interested to hear that the low-fat diet was “restricted” to only 1500 calories per day for women and 1800 for men, as was the Mediterranean diet, but the low-carb diet was “unrestricted”, meaning those participants could eat all they wanted of non-carb foods (fat and protein, people). They started out at only 20 grams carbs a day for two months, then eased up to 120 grams a day maintenance at the end. Compliance was fairly high, too: of the 109 people assigned to the low-carb plan, 85 finished the entire two years.
For those of you asking for more “evidence” that the way Grok ate was healthful, I can now add this study to the ever-increasing body of work. Of course, we here at MDA can speculate (and do we ever) on why carbs are not-so-great from purely a gene-expression POV, on why fats are our “healthy friends” from an evolutionary biology perspective and why proteins should form the basis of a fat-burning, muscle-building Primal eating program. But it sure helps that a study like this – with zero attachment to any evolutionary rationale – comes up with a parallel conclusion. This quote is taken from the paper:
The similar caloric deficit achieved in all diet groups suggests that a low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie diet may be optimal for those who will not follow a restricted-calorie dietary regimen.
When will guys like Dean Ornish and John MacDougal realize they have gone way too far down the wrong low-fat path?
joshbousel Flickr Photo (CC)
Further Reading:
Definitive Guide: The Primal Blueprint
Mark Sisson is Not Afraid of Fat
The Best Low-Carb Fruits (and Worst)
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Considering the study was partially funded by the Atkins foundation, I’d take the results with a grain of salt. Junkfood science does a good job ripping this so-called science apart, here.
Don’t get fat, and live physically active and you don’t have to mess with diets such as this one, or any diets which change your eating habits because your unhappy with your gut or cellulite.
Mark – First, love the blog. But I’ve noticed that you haven’t responded to the comments regarding the misleading headline about low carb winning hands down, and your post that followed. I think that this is an important mistake to acknowledge and a lesson to learn. One can, and should, only be taken seriously as a health writer and reporter if one refrains from over the top and unsupported statements in an attempt to prove a point, such as the above. The women, few as they may have been, did indeed do better on the Med. diet. And the men had only slightly better results on the low carb over the Med.
Not to speak for your audience, but as a whole I believe that we trust what you report, and I myself would like to continue believing that you will give science precedence over personal opinion (meaning obviously taking every study with a grain of salt, but at least reporting on it correctly).
But where do you find out what you should and should not eat? There are tons of diet books out there but are they telling you the correct way?
Well, this is all very confusing I think. The Med diet is very good but is probably a temptation to far for people who consider themselves ‘carb addicts’. Mediteraneans do not fill up on the same types of carb junk as some of us do either. And they eat a lot of low carb stuff such as olives, artichokes, cheese, fish, small amounts of meat, and veg/fruit, and olive oil etc. So although not specifically low carb, the diet is probably in the acceptable range if followed properly. The Mediteraneans that I’ve seen do not stuff their faces with pizza, fries, burgers (in a bun), and so on – not routinely anyway. Plus their diet is not specifically low fat – they do like their oil.
I’m trying to stick to this Primal low carb as best I can, averaging around 100 to 120g carbs a day but sometimes less and sometimes more (being veggie it’s hard to reduce much more without real hunger)but I feel better with cutting down significantly on the carbs as they tend to bloat me.
I must be doing the Primal Med diet
as it seems to be a mix of the two, and it seems to be working as I feel a bit lighter and less bloated.
I think that, unless you live outside of society, it is very difficult to stick with any strict regime for any length of time and I suspect a lot of the people in the diet trial just lacked discipline in the end which may explain why they stabilised in year 2, and why they didn’t lose much in year 1 it seems. A trial is probably better conducted by observing people who have changed their diet because they wanted to and adopt an ‘eating plan for life’. So ignore the Weight Watchers, Slimming Worlds, Atkins etc, as most of these people could be adopting a fad diet attitude. That’s why more than 95% of ‘successful’ dieters end up piling it back on again, because they haven’t really changed their attitude to food (stats often quoted).
Sorry for rambling on so much.
A los carb unrestricted diet is the only thing that has given me lasting results – ideal body weight, maximum energy and after the initial discomfort – absolutely no cravings. Great study, thanks for highlighting this in your post
Guys
i have been on a a low carb diet for close on 2 years , most of that time on less than 20 grams a day. the weight loss has been great…but, i notice that after prolonged periods at below 20 grams i start to battle with conversation , not being able to find the right words in the middle of a sentance etc.when this occurs i increase my carb intake and a few days later i can feel the differance. i have searched on line , and cant find anyone that has similar symptons. am i alone on this?