Timing is everything.
This morning, I read a press release announcing a national public health program called the Meatless Monday Campaign, designed to follow the recommendations of the American Heart Association (AHA) to reduce the consumption of saturated fat and calories in the American diet.
In this press release, Robert Lawrence, M.D. – the director of The Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health – is quoted as saying: “The link between meat, saturated fat, and heart disease is clear.”
I can only imagine then that Dr. Lawrence may have felt like he’d been sandbagged earlier this week when the American Heart Association annual meeting in Chicago released the results of a Duke University study on the Atkins diet. And by now you’ve probably heard the news: In all the heart health categories, Atkins scored equal or higher marks than the AHA’s “Step 1” low-fat diet.
If you saw the TV coverage on this story then you already know some of the surprising details, but if you had the TV up loud enough, you may not have heard the awful cries of angst that went up among the low-fat nutritionists across the country.
After many years of abuse by mainstream nutritionists, things started looking bright for Dr. Atkins and the Atkins diet last summer. In an e-Alert I sent you in July (“Taking a Brody” 7/10/02) I told you about a cover story in the Sunday New York Times Magazine that showed how a steadily growing minority of establishment researchers were beginning to take seriously the low-carbohydrate diet made famous by Robert C. Atkins, M.D., the author of “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution.”
Over the course of 30 years, Dr. Atkins has not wavered from his controversial dietary ideas. In a nutshell, Dr. Atkins advises us to eat as much meat and other high protein and high fat foods as we care to, while avoiding starches and refined carbohydrates such as breads, pasta, rice and sugars. This plan has won many millions of readers, but has drawn numerous, often passionate attacks from the nutrition and diet establishment.
The American Heart Association has long condemned the Atkins diet as an unhealthy regimen for the cardiovascular system. So it must have been thoroughly galling to many in the AHA “low-fat” camp when the Duke University study results were announced last Monday, as part of the 75th annual AHA meeting.
In the Duke study 120 overweight subjects were put on two diets: one half of the group followed the AHA’s Step 1, low-fat diet, and the other half followed the Atkins diet, in which 60 percent of their daily calories came from fat, while carbohydrates were reduced to less than 20 grams per day. The Atkins subjects lost, on average 31 pounds each over 6 weeks, while the AHA group lost an average of 20 pounds each. That alone would be news. But the real news comes from three sets of data that are touted to measure heart health.
The levels of LDL cholesterol (commonly called “bad cholesterol”) for the two groups showed almost no statistical change. And while the numbers break even, I would guarantee that more than a few pro-low-fat nutritionists fully expected the Atkins diet to boost the LDL. Meanwhile, the Atkins group showed an 11 percent increase in HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol). The AHA group recorded no rise in their HDL levels.
Finally, and more importantly, the AHA group had a 22 percent drop in triglycerides, while the Atkins group experienced a triglycerides drop of almost 50 percent – more than double the AHA dieters.
Think they might have been uncorking the champagne up at the Atkins Center?
As I mentioned above, those nutritionists who have long derided the Atkins plan are up in arms – but certainly not backing down. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Gail Woodward-Lopez, the associate director of the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley, compared the Atkins diet to a disease, saying, “Hepatitis C is effective at helping people lose weight too.” And Judith Levine, an AHA registered dietitian curtly dismissed the results, claiming, simply, “It’s such a scam.”
I can’t help but think that their comments would have skewed much kinder and gentler if the results had shown the AHA diet to be superior. After all, that’s how it was SUPPOSED to turn out, right?
The critics are emphasizing that the Duke study was funded by the Robert C. Atkins Foundation – as if that automatically makes the results corrupt. What they don’t mention is that three other studies presented at medical conferences this year have all shown results similar to the Duke statistics. And their call for further studies has already been answered. Currently underway is a one-year study at the University of Pennsylvania, following 360 subjects.
In light of how things have been going for Atkins in the last few months, if you had to place a bet on the U. Penn study, which side would you lay your money on?
Obviously this issue is far from settled – at least for the AHA. This is no longer just a weight-loss question, but also a possible breakthrough on how certain foods may enhance our cardiovascular health. So don’t be too quick to sign up for the “Meatless Monday” until the AHA is able to prove it’s better for your heart.
As always – I’ll keep an eye on my sources and let you know about the Pennsylvania study results as soon as I hear.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
