Lowering Cholestrol & the Atkins Diet

While traditional medical dogma suggests abstention from saturated fats for lowering cholesterol, research conducted on the Atkins Diet seems to turn many of those conclusions on their heads. Although it seems counter-intuitive and certainly runs contrary to what you might have been led to believe, strict adherence to the Atkins Diet can actually lower your cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol used to be thought of as one blanket category, but now there are two generally accepted "types" of cholesterol. The first type is low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol, generally accepted as "bad" cholesterol. If blood levels of this substance are left unchecked, it can form a plaque on the walls of arteries, leading to the possibility of heart disease. The other type of cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein, or HDL. This is the "good" cholesterol, as higher levels are correlated with a decreased risk of heart attack.

Diet and Cholesterol Levels

Much as science once thought that the key to avoiding obesity involved abstention from consumption of fat, science also believed that to lower your cholesterol you should avoid foods that are high in cholesterol, with most cholesterol being found in fat-laden foods. This is no longer considered to be an absolute truth. Two long-term studies were conducted at Harvard University (with the results published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal), concluding that dietary fat intake has no bearing on overall health or likelihood of developing heart disease.

Atkins and Cholesterol

A study published in the May 2003 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the Atkins diet has positive effects on blood lipid profile and cholesterol levels. After one year on the diet, study participants showed an 18 percent increase in HDL and a 28 percent decrease in triglycerides. This was contrasted by a three percent increase and a one percent increase among individuals in the control group, respectively.

Additional Studies

Another study conducted by Dr. Eric Westman at Duke University reached nearly identical results. After six months on the Atkins Diet, individuals participating in the study saw an 11 percent increase in HDL and a 49 percent decrease in triglycerides. Individuals in the control group (using a low-fat approach) saw a zero percent increase in HDL and a 22 percent decrease in triglycerides.

Considerations

Both studies kept to a fairly restrictive version of the Atkins Diet, permitting participants no more than 20 grams of carbs per day. Thus, if you hope to replicate these results yourself, note that you will have to use a similarly low ceiling for carbohydrates. However, if you are able to kick the "carb habit," the results seem incredibly promising for causing rapid changes in blood lipid profiles.