Low-carb, low-fat, Mediterranean diet. Which works best for you?
Friday, July 18th, 2008
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
I must admit that I have a bias against the low-carb Atkins diet. It just doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t want to try it. I have written off past studies that conclude these diets do, in fact, lower cholesterol and weight by reasoning that the study is too short, or some other flaw. However, I am being worn down with facts.
Still, the devil is in the details.
The latest is a two-year study in the July 17 New England Journal of Medicine pitting the low-carbohydrate, non-restricted-calorie diet against the Mediterranean-style and low-fat diets, both restricted-calorie. Who won? It depends on how you look at it–and there are lots of numbers.
