This week, we summarize the top five news articles and studies in the low-carb realm, plus some success stories.
- VERY. Big. News. A calorie is not a calorie after all. A new, carefully-designed study, published last week in the journal BMJ, finds that participants eating a low-carb diet, compared to those eating a high-carb diet, need to eat roughly 250 more calories per day to maintain their weight. Study author Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School points out that this increase in metabolic rate among subjects in the low-carb group could translate to about a 20 pound difference (weight either lost or NOT regained) over three years. This study, funded by NuSI but designed and executed by independent researchers, was more rigorous, expensive and had a longer duration than other studies designed to test the question of whether weight control was just about energy balance or whether the composition of diet matters. It's a big win for low-carb that should get some mainstream attention.
- Doctors Ludwig, Willett, Volek, and Neuhouser pen a prominent consensus paper for the magazine Science special issue: Diet and health. The title? "Dietary fat: From foe to friend." Not much new here... We see a general acknowledgement that fat can be a healthy part of our diets, especially when replacing refined carbohydrate. But many longstanding controversies remain, including concerns about the healthfulness of saturated fat. A preference for highly processed polyunsaturated vegetable oils lingers.
- The American Diabetes Association issues new guidelines for managing type 2 diabetes in youth. (Remember, type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes because we never used to see cases in children.) Unfortunately, the new position statement is medication-heavy and focused on weight loss, via "eat less, exercise more" advice. It does not even mention carbohydrate restriction. Such a wasted opportunity to improve young lives.
- A new study, published in Frontiers in Neurology, looked at over three thousand elderly Chinese citizens and found that lower LDL-C levels are associated with higher rates of dementia. After adjusting for known factors that affect risk (matched propensity scores), the third of the group (tertile) with the highest LDL-C had half the rate of dementia than the tertile with the lowest LDL-C. This study was observational, so does not prove causation, but the strong association is interesting, especially when contemplating statin therapy for primary heart disease prevention, where improvements in absolute risk of cardiovascular mortality are likely tiny.
- Will the Dietary Guidelines for Americans see meaningful revisions in 2020? The Nutrition Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring that U.S. nutrition policy is based on rigorous scientific evidence, reports that it sees reason to be optimistic. A new charter for developing the dietary guidelines will mean more turnover of the advisory committee and hopefully more diversity of perspective among expert members.
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- Briana Culberson (for those wondering, yes, she is indeed the married daughter of a star of reality TV show Real Housewives of Orange County) loses 40 pounds and controls her lupus (a autoimmune condition) symptoms with keto. The improvements are like "night and day! We plan on continuing it for life because of how well she feels."
- Already slender TODAY co-host Savannah Guthrie is not losing weight with keto, but her enhanced mental sharpness is noticeable, even to those around her.
- A self-professed foodie who has struggled with her weight for most of her life documents her keto journey in local Indiana paper. It is early for Amy, but she is down 20 pounds and noticeably less hungry.
- A young woman uses Dr. Bernstein's ketogenic protocol for patients with type 1 diabetes and gets her blood sugar under control after years of poor health... and as a result, was able to become pregnant!
- Annabel is down ~55 pounds and has reversed her diabetes with low-carb diet! "The difference you see in your blood sugars means it becomes a bit addictive. The results were pretty much overnight. I was shocked, it is certainly motivating."
- Suzanne Ryan reaches out to others struggling with their weight through her recent appearance on the Dr. Oz show. The Keto Karma founder told her keto success story of more than 100 pounds lost with poise and authenticity, connecting with the studio audience with warmth and understanding.
Tune in next week!
About
This news gathering is from our collaborator Jennifer Calihan, who also blogs at Eat the Butter. Feel free to check out the keto meal-idea-generator on her site.
