Or so this new study says.....
It is interesting to look at the background:
you don't hear that very often in the mainstream!
The whole article is currently available as a pdf
Here is the abstract:
Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet: a healthy cardiovascular diet for weight loss
Background
Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain the fish is an important component of such diet. The objective of this study was to determine the dietary effects of a protein ketogenic diet rich in olive oil, salad, fish and red wine.
Methods
A prospective study was carried out in 31 obese subjects (22 male and 19 female) with the inclusion criteria whose body mass index and age was 36.46 +/- 2.22 and 38.48+/-2.27, respectively. This Ketogenic diet was called "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet" (SKMD) due to the incorporation of virgin olive oil as the principal source of fat ([greater than or equal to]30ml/day), moderate red wine intake (200-400ml/day), green vegetables and salads as the main source of carbohydrates and fish as the main source of proteins. It was an unlimited calorie diet. Statistical differences between the parameters studied before and after the administration of the "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet" (week 0 and 12) were analyzed by paired Student's t test.
Results
There was an extremely significant (p<0.0001)> 94.48 kg), body mass index (36.46 kg/m2->31.76 kg/m2), systolic blood pressure (125.71 mmHg->109.05 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (84.52 mmHg-> 75.24 mmHg), total cholesterol (208.24 mg/dl->186.62 mg/dl), triacylglicerols (218.67 mg/dl->113.90 mg/dl) and glucose (109.81 mg/dl-> 93.33 mg/dl). There was a significant (p=0.0167) reduction in LDLc (114.52 mg/dl->105.95 mg/dl) and an extremely significant increase in HDLc (50.10 mg/dl->54.57 mg/dl). The most affected parameter was the triacylglicerols (47.91% of reduction).
Conclusions
The SKMD is safe, an effective way of losing weight, promoting non-atherogenic lipid profiles, lowering blood pressure and improving fasting blood glucose levels. Future research should include a larger sample size, a longer term use and a comparison with other ketogenic diets.
It is interesting to look at the background:
Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin.
you don't hear that very often in the mainstream!
The whole article is currently available as a pdf
Here is the abstract:
Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet: a healthy cardiovascular diet for weight loss
Background
Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain the fish is an important component of such diet. The objective of this study was to determine the dietary effects of a protein ketogenic diet rich in olive oil, salad, fish and red wine.
Methods
A prospective study was carried out in 31 obese subjects (22 male and 19 female) with the inclusion criteria whose body mass index and age was 36.46 +/- 2.22 and 38.48+/-2.27, respectively. This Ketogenic diet was called "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet" (SKMD) due to the incorporation of virgin olive oil as the principal source of fat ([greater than or equal to]30ml/day), moderate red wine intake (200-400ml/day), green vegetables and salads as the main source of carbohydrates and fish as the main source of proteins. It was an unlimited calorie diet. Statistical differences between the parameters studied before and after the administration of the "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet" (week 0 and 12) were analyzed by paired Student's t test.
Results
There was an extremely significant (p<0.0001)> 94.48 kg), body mass index (36.46 kg/m2->31.76 kg/m2), systolic blood pressure (125.71 mmHg->109.05 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (84.52 mmHg-> 75.24 mmHg), total cholesterol (208.24 mg/dl->186.62 mg/dl), triacylglicerols (218.67 mg/dl->113.90 mg/dl) and glucose (109.81 mg/dl-> 93.33 mg/dl). There was a significant (p=0.0167) reduction in LDLc (114.52 mg/dl->105.95 mg/dl) and an extremely significant increase in HDLc (50.10 mg/dl->54.57 mg/dl). The most affected parameter was the triacylglicerols (47.91% of reduction).
Conclusions
The SKMD is safe, an effective way of losing weight, promoting non-atherogenic lipid profiles, lowering blood pressure and improving fasting blood glucose levels. Future research should include a larger sample size, a longer term use and a comparison with other ketogenic diets.
Comments
31 or 41? The full text says:
3.1. Subject attrition
Of the 40 persons who started the study, data collected from 31 subjects were used in the final
analysis. Data were not used from 9 subjects: 3 subjects were withdrawn for failure to maintain
adequate compliance with the clinical trial protocol; 4 subjects were lost to follow-up; 1 subject
withdrew because he said the diet was too expensive; 1 subject was withdrawn due to suffer a
polytraumatism (!) car accident.
I'm assuming that fat-loss is the desired outcome rather than just weight loss so it would be interesting to know what the weight loss consisted of. I.e. how much was fat, water, glycogen, lean tissue.
For every gram of stored glycogen depleted from the muscles and liver there are 3 grams of water which go with it. This comes back as soon as carbs are re-introduced.
If the pre-diet was full of salt and the new diet was less - which I suspect it would be - then there would be a corresponding decrease of water retention in the body too.
Although it's thought the protein should help spare lean tissue loss, nothing is said about exercise and there's no indication of how much lean tissue was lost.
Nevertheless I'm a fan of low carb, high protein, good fat diets and welcome the information in this report.
BTW I'm following Lyle McDonalds Ultimate Diet 2.0 which is a 7 day cyclical diet with a 4 day glycogen depletion fat loss phase followed by a 3 day carb load to repair any metabolic damage and rebalance the system. Good results for me but I'm not particularly overweight and I'm using it to get below 10% bodyfat.
All the best, Jason