More Low Carb Research

These two studies are both dated in 2003, but they have only appeared in Pubmed over the weekend (unless my regular pubcrawler search is playing up). Anyway, both look interesting for those of us that are sympathetic towards a low carbohydrate diet.

The first looks at the treatment of childhood obesity and found that a low carb diet was more effective and easier to stick to.

Effect of low-carbohydrate, unlimited calorie diet on the treatment of childhood obesity: a prospective controlled study.

Conclusions: A high protein, low carbohydrate, unlimited calorie diet was superior to a restricted calorie protocol for weight loss in obese school age children; moreover, compliance was better.

I spotted that Barry Groves has recently posted another similar study: Unlimited calorie, low-carb diet better and healthier for obese children, which shows something very similar. He comments:

Although this a new study, and it calls for yet more studies of an unlimited calorie, low-carb diet in weight loss, such diets have been promoted and shown to work and be safe for nearly a century and a half. How much more evidence do we need that Government programmes supposedly aimed at the growing obesity problem in the West, are hopelessly wrong?

The other one that I came across looked at the treatment of the Metabolic Syndrome with a Low Carb diet:

Clinical use of a carbohydrate-restricted diet to treat the dyslipidemia of the metabolic syndrome.


Conclusions: A carbohydrate-restricted diet recommendation led to improvements in lipid profiles and lipoprotein subclass traits of the metabolic syndrome in a clinical outpatient setting, and should be considered as a treatment for the metabolic syndrome.