Public release date: 26-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmjgroup.com 44-207-383-6529 BMJ-British Medical Journal
Women who regularly eat a low carbohydrate, high protein diet are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease and stroke) than those who do not, a study published on bmj.com today suggests.
Although the actual numbers are small (an extra 4-5 cases of cardiovascular disease per 10,000 women per year) the authors say that this is a 28% increase in the number of cases and that these results are worrying in a population of young women who may be exposed to these dietary patterns and face the excess risk for many years.
Low carbohydrate-high protein diets are frequently used for body weight control. Although they may be nutritionally acceptable if the protein is mainly of plant origin (e.g. nuts) and the reduction of carbohydrates applies mainly to simple and refined ones (i.e. unhealthy sweeteners, drinks and snacks), the general public do not always recognise and act on this guidance.
Studies on the long term consequences of these diets on cardiovascular health have generated inconsistent results. So a team of international authors carried out a study on just under 44,000 Swedish women aged between 30 and 49 years from 1991-92 (with an average follow-up of 15 years).
Women completed an extensive dietary and lifestyle questionnaire and diet was measured on the low carbohydrate-high protein (LCHP) score where a score of two would equal very high carbohydrate and low protein consumption through to 20 which would equal very low carbohydrate and high protein consumption.
Factors likely to influence the results were taken into account including smoking, alcohol use, diagnosis of hypertension, overall level of activity and saturated / unsaturated fat intake.
After these variables were included, results showed that 1270 cardiovascular events took place in the 43,396 women (55% ischaemic heart disease, 23% ischaemic stroke, 6% haemorrhagic stroke, 10% subarachnoid haemorrhage and 6% peripheral arterial disease) over 15 years.
The incidence of cardiovascular outcomes increased with an increasing LCHP score.
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