Low Carb Diets Dangerous

[dbr10]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30135-X/fulltext

 

[lindisfel]

What an utter rubbish study, do they want people to die of the effects of T2D and it's consequences?
This the start of of the fight back against low carb in its battle to fight metabolic disease.
I hope it doesn't have a big input from the don't eat meat and fat lobby?
D

 

[tim2000s]

That's a fairly "DAily Mail" version of the headline. I prefer "Low Carb Vegan diets reduce death"....

 

[zand]

'Long-term effects of a low carbohydrate diet with typically low plant and increased animal protein and fat consumption have been hypothesised to stimulate inflammatory pathways, biological ageing, and oxidative stress.'

'North American and European cohort studies have compared true low carbohydrate dietary patterns (in terms of absolute value of <40% of total energy intake) and consistently found a modest yet significantly increased relative risk of all-cause death '

Don't have the time to read it all and too tired to take it all in. Were statins mentioned? Cholesterol is the body's natural response to inflammation, if cholesterol was reduced artificially in people then the 'results' of the study are meaningless.

 

[britishpub]

This article in the Guardian has a headline saying both high and low carbohydrate consumption is bad for you

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...arly-death-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[zand]

So whatever we eat we will all die eventually huh?

 

[zand]

This article in the Guardian has a headline saying both high and low carbohydrate consumption is bad for you

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...arly-death-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

You should have put a 'chip butty' warning on your post. That pic on the link looks delicious.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30135-X/fulltext

"We studied 15 428 adults aged 45–64 years, in four US communities, who completed a dietary questionnaire . . . "

So obviously 100% accurate then. I know that when in the past I've discussed what I eat with doctors there has been a suggestion that the only way to accurately monitor what you eat is to weigh everything and I have done that for certain periods of time. Not something I wanted to do for ever, but a worthwhile exercise in showing just how wrong you can be when estimating food consumption.

And another thing:

". . . . who did not report extreme caloric intake (<600 kcal or >4200 kcal per day for men and <500 kcal or >3600 kcal per day for women)."

Even if I was exercising a lot more than I do, I would only be on about 2700 calories a day. How come they didn't consider caloric intake extreme until it went over 4200 cals per day for men.

 

[britishpub]

So whatever we eat we will all die eventually huh?

Basically

But it appears to be that if you get 50-55% of your calories from Carbohydrates you will live for a long time, any more or any less and you had better start making “arrangements”

 

[gettingamoveon]

Right, I'm going to have pasta for dinner and ask my doctor to start me on medication.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...arly-death-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

"Their health was followed up for 25 years, allowing for factors that might alter the results, such as smoking, income and diabetes."

So, does that mean you might live longer but will have type II diabetes because of all the carbs you eat. My problem is that they've gone to all that trouble to obtain data over a large number of years, yet it doesn't really mean much to me. I also note that were looking at people who had 50% + calories from carbs. I think it's fair to say that 1/3 calories from carbs is bad enough, look where that got me!

 

[dbr10]

So whatever we eat we will all die eventually huh?

I guess so.

 

[dbr10]

"We studied 15 428 adults aged 45–64 years, in four US communities, who completed a dietary questionnaire . . . "

So obviously 100% accurate then. I know that when in the past I've discussed what I eat with doctors there has been a suggestion that the only way to accurately monitor what you eat is to weigh everything and I have done that for certain periods of time. Not something I wanted to do for ever, but a worthwhile exercise in showing just how wrong you can be when estimating food consumption.

And another thing:

". . . . who did not report extreme caloric intake (<600 kcal or >4200 kcal per day for men and <500 kcal or >3600 kcal per day for women)."

Even if I was exercising a lot more than I do, I would only be on about 2700 calories a day. How come they didn't consider caloric intake extreme until it went over 4200 cals per day for men.

It's an observational study, apparently, so not sure it means anything. I think we'd have to look for any COI too

 

[britishpub]

Based on the article this forum will be very short of members by Christmas

Maybe @Tannith will have the last laugh after all

 

[PenguinMum]

If you have Diabetes it is known that carbs have an adverse effect so what choice do we have? I am not interested in trials on people trying to lose weight while I sympathise with all the money making diets out there it isnt as restrictive as itbis for us.
I am now following LCHF to the end but I do wonder how many diabetics on this forum have been on LCHF properly for 10 years or more.

 

[Brunneria]

Well, If I ate the amount of carb they are suggesting then it wouldn't matter how long I lived - because every day would be a living death of inflammation, high and low blood glucose swings, hypos, apathy and physical misery.
Oh, and drugs. Escalating and causing their own special cocktail of side effects for light entertainment.

I will be sticking with low carb because that is the only way I feel well.

Each to their own.

 

[NicoleC1971]

Looking forward to seeing further analysis of this. I am sure Zoe Harcombe, Gary Taubes and Ivor Cummins will be all over it.
They did seperate out diabetes as a variable. Looking at the hazard ratios for 'low carb' (defined here as less than 40%) they are not stunningly suggestive (under 2 and I think cigarette smoking has a 1:20 HR for example) so could just be noise. Personally my N of 1 low carbing will continue for now.
Also I am finding it hard ot imagine that these 4 US communities recruited at the height of the low fat era and pre the millenial Atkins re launch would be eating low carb!
I hate the way that these type of studies can be spun any which way by a media which wants to frame this way of eating as faddy and 'popular for rapid weight loss' . That said I am open to learning from the data when I can open the actual paper (link not working).

 

[sally and james]

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.
sally

 

[Krystyna23040]

The BBC report on this study added the following disclaimer - which I think says it all - the study was utter rubbish.

The BBC says
However, there are limitations to the study.

The findings show observational associations rather than cause-and-effect and what people ate was based on self-reported data, which might not be accurate.

And the authors acknowledge that since diets were measured only at the start of the trial and six years later, dietary patterns could have changed over the subsequent 19 years.

Prof Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, also pointed out that the use of a food questionnaire in the study led to people underestimating the calories and fat they had eaten.

"One explanation for the finding in this and the other US studies is that it may reflect the higher risk of death in the overweight/obese, who may fall into two popular diet camps - those favouring a high-meat/low-carbohydrate diet and those favouring a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet," he added.

 

[Begonia]

I've read the lancet article and am trying to understand the findings. Are they saying:

1. Low carb diet with plant based protein/fats is better than a medium carb diet
or
2. Low carb diet with plant based protein/fats is worse than medium carb diet but just not as bad as low carb with animal fat/protein ?

(I follow low carb meditteranean rather than LCHF. )