This blog reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, behavior, psychology, and politics - as well as random curious stuff. (Try the Dynamic Views at top of right column.)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Will there ever be a "healthy" diet?
Darn.... here I've been religiously avoiding potatoes, pasta, bread, etc in my diet, and now Rosenzweig and his Harvard colleagues find evidence that low carbohydrate diets are linked to atherosclerosis and impaired blood vessel growth. They find that mice placed on a 12-week low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet showed a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues deprived of blood flow, as might occur during a heart attack.
I'd caution a rush to judgment too quickly; there is some concern with this paper both with the model itself and with the chow used. I think the following posts (while a tad snarky) give a good summary of the issues:
ReplyDeleteLow carbohydrate, high protein and ApoE-/- mice
Low carbohydrate, high protein and ApoE-/- mice 2