Low carb destroys arteries........

[slapdash]

Or so we are led to believe by this gem doing the rounds in the British press today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208833/Low-carbohydrate-Atkins-style-diets-increase-risk-heart-disease-stroke.html

This is just one rag, all the others are reprinting the same article, even the BBC. Are we concerned at all about this? I suspect not but would like to hear other observations.

[maxlharris]

Here is the line that made me stop and start dismissing the work:
The study used mice specially bred to be vulnerable to the build up of fatty deposits in arteries.

Next.

[gitfiddle]

It's sad. I'm not a specially-bred mouse, but a human diabetic who does much better on a low carb diet.

[Frank Hagan]

Dr. Mike's blog had a great post yesterday about how articles are written for the popular press. His post highlighted the "dueling experts" type of articles you see most often in magazines, where the writing formula determines how the story reads, and not the science. My observation has been that the "news" reports of studies almost always overemphasize the findings, stating conclusions I think the researchers would be horrified to see in print.

My daughter had a Prof who won a Nobel prize for showing how spray can propellants could destroy the ozone layer and he told her he was frustrated that news reports said he "proved" the propellants were destroying the ozone layer. He had no evidence that it was happening. He just showed one method by which it could.

The thing about science is that it is always wrong until it is finally right. And then, it is usually still wrong, but in ways we don't understand.

[isisrose]

It's sad. I'm not a specially-bred mouse, but a human diabetic who does much better on a low carb diet.

Yup, I'm no mouse either but another human diabetic doing so much better low carb than anything else!

[Mitra]

Jimmy Moore has opinions from various LC proponents here (http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/?p=5756).

[Mitra]

And Hyperlipid (http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/08/low-carbohydrate-high-protein-and-apoe.html)has weighed in too.

[mcsblues]

and the Metabolism Society (http://www.metabolismsociety.org/) too (sorry if he covered this ... Jimmy Moore makes my ears bleed ;))

Researchers use mutant mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to heart disease to 'prove' carbohydrate restricted diets may harm arteries.

Defects in ApoE -/- result in defects in processing blood cholesterol.

As human studies continue to show the benefits of low carbohydrate diets and the general failure of low-fat diets, it is necessary for the nutritional establishment to find more and more obscure methods of attacking dietary carbohydrate restriction.

One method is to prepare mutant animal models, to use odd diet that humans would never consume, call them low carbohydrate diets and then show some deficit. Because mice are not generally susceptible to atherosclerosis, it was necessary for Foo and coworkers to use an ApoE-/- mutant and a ridiculously high protein diet to vilify low carbohydrate diets which have been a useful alternative for many people suffering from obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
In keeping with the traditions in scientific of research, the authors do not cite the numerous studies showing benefit of low carbohydrate diets compared to the low fat diet that has been in place during the obesity and diabetes epidemic. That the NIH and other government agencies continue to fund this kind of biased research is probably a minor political problem in health care but should still be of concern to people who are confused about what their diet should be.

According to Dr. Richard D. Feinman, Biochemistry Professor at Downstate Medical Center in NY, "It is a mistake to consider one experiment in a mouse mutant over riding the scientific literature where similar research trials on actual human beings clearly show benefit of carbohydrate restriction for all markers of metabolic syndrome. For some reason these studies are not the ones picked up by the media. I suppose actual advances in science aren't s hot topics for headline news stories when it concerns the proven benefits of carbohydrate restriction."

Volek JS, Ballard KD, Silvestre R, Judelson DA, Quann EE, Forsythe CE, Fernandez ML, Kraemer WJ: Effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction vs low-fat diet on flow-mediated dilation. Metabolism 2009.

Volek JS, Phinney SD, Forsythe CE, Quann EE, Wood RJ, Puglisi MJ, Kraemer WJ, Bibus DM, Fernandez ML, Feinman RD: Carbohydrate restriction has a more favorable impact on the metabolic syndrome than a low fat diet. Lipids 2009, 44(4):297-309.

[maxlharris]

@Malcolm, #Jimmy Moore: the bleeding ears are the least of my reactions.

[Roadstr]

Glad to understand that it's only harmful to mice and not to humans. Now, if we could only do something to help those mice. LOL!

[mcsblues]

Now, if we could only do something to help those mice. LOL!

Well. 'we' could stop genetically engineering them to be more susceptible to heart disease ... I guess!:rolleyes:

Mike has chimed in with his 2c here (http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cardiovascular-disease/do-statinators-dream-of-engineered-mice/#more-3445).

[johankrava]

Here is the line that made me stop and start dismissing the work:
Quote:
The study used mice specially bred to be vulnerable to the build up of fatty deposits in arteries.
Next.

I agree.

Now, if we could only do something to help those mice. LOL!

:)

mice specially bred to be vulnerable....
What a stupid test.

[Omlette]

Personally, I don't think mice of any kind should be used for this study since their normal diet in nature consists mainly of fruit and grain, not high protein anything.

[Gabriel Guzman]

The study kind of demonstrates that when you kill something it actually dies, therefore it died because it was killed... :rolleyes:

The journal is a very respected one, so you might think that the reviewers know what they're doing when reviewing something like these. Then again, the reviewers may don't know anything about nutrition. An appealing point of this paper, at least to that journal, is the development of a mouse model that can be used to study other things, rather than an artificial diet given to an artificial mouse...

Bottom line... not because it's publish in journals of high caliber means the study is a high caliber study. And, very sadly now... doesn't mean that the reviewers are of a very high caliber either... :(