Make sure you have eggs in your low carb diet!

Those eggs look delicious!

Here is a study that came out today which, while confirming the health benefits of a low carbohydrate diet also indicates that such diets benefit from the inclusion of eggs.

Eggs modulate the inflammatory response to carbohydrate restricted diets in overweight men

The full article is available for free download, or you can just look at the abstract.

Here is the background:

Carbohydrate restricted diets (CRD) consistently lower glucose and insulin levels and improve atherogenic dyslipidemia [decreasing triglycerides and increasing HDL cholesterol (HDL-C)]. We have previously shown that male subjects following a CRD experienced significant increases in HDL-C only if they were consuming a higher intake of cholesterol provided by eggs compared to those individuals who were taking lower concentrations of dietary cholesterol. Here, as a follow up of our previous study, we examined the effects of eggs (a source of both dietary cholesterol and lutein) on adiponectin, a marker of insulin sensitivity, and on inflammatory markers in the context of a CRD.

.....and the conclusions:

A CRD with daily intake of eggs decreased plasma CRP and increased plasma adiponectin compared to a CRD without eggs. These findings indicate that eggs make a significant contribution to the anti-inflammatory effects of CRD, possibly due to the presence of cholesterol, which increases HDL-C and to the antioxidant lutein which modulates certain inflammatory responses.

One of the researchers - Dr Volek - has done a lot of work on low carb diets, as you can read here.

I am not going to offer much commentary on this - the paper explains things well. It is definitely worth downloading and reading the article if you are interested in some more benefits alow carb diet and particularly from consuming cholesterol.


Incidentally, low carb is not the only dietary weapon against inflammation. I've noted before that intermittent fasting - as in fast 5 or Eat Stop Eat - can reduce inflammation. (also a relevant post here)