I f youre tempted to try an Atkins-style diet, go easy on the steak and bacon. A new analysis of data on nearly 130,000 men and women over more than two decades reports that low-carb diets relying more on meat for fat and protein were associated with a 23% increased risk of death. On the other hand, low-carb diets with higher intakes of vegetables and fruit were associated with a lower risk of dying.Teresa Fung, ScD, of Simmons College, and colleagues noted in Annals of Internal Medicine, These results suggest that the health effects of a low-carbohydrate diet may depend on the type of protein and fat, and a diet that includes mostly vegetable sources of protein and fat is preferable to a diet with mostly animal sources of protein and fat.The scientists looked at data on 85,168 women, ages 34-59, and 44,548 men, ages 40-75, from two long-running studies. Over an average 26 years of follow-up in women and 20 years in men, 12,555 of the women and 8,678 of the men died. Low-carb diets high in meat were linked to higher mortality from all causes and from cardiovascular causes. Bu low-carb diets with higher vegetable intake were associated with a 20% lower risk of death from all causes and a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality.Previous studies of the health effects of low-carb diets have shown mixed results on cholesterol, which Fung and col- leagues pointed out might be due to the varying proportions of animal versus vegetable fats in such plans.In an accompanying editorial, William S. Yancy, Jr., MD, of Duke University and colleagues urged caution in interpret- ing the results: No one can legitimately claim that a low- carbohydrate diet is either harmful or safe with any degree of certainty until a large-scale, randomized study with meaning- ful clinical endpoints is done. Annals of Internal Medicine, Sept. 7, 2010; abstract at<www.annals. org/content/153/5/289.abstract>
