An Isoenergetic Very Low Carbohydrate Diet Improves Serum HDL Cholesterol and Triacylglycerol Concentrations, the Total Cholesterol to HDL Cholesterol Ratio and Postprandial Lipemic Responses Compared with a Low Fat Diet in Normal Weight, Normolipide

Document Type

Journal Article

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Science / Centre for Alzheimer's Disease

RAS ID

8271

Comments

Volek, J. S., Sharman, M. J., Gomez, A. L., Scheett, T. P., & Kraemer, W. J. (2003). An isoenergetic very low carbohydrate diet improves serum HDL cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations, the total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio and postprandial lipemic responses compared with a low fat diet in normal weight, normolipidemic women. The Journal of nutrition, 133(9), 2756-2761.

Abstract

Very low carbohydrate diets are popular, yet little is known about their effects on blood lipids and other cardiovascular disease risk factors. We reported previously that a very low carbohydrate diet favorably affected fasting and postprandial triacylglycerols, LDL subclasses and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) in men but the effects in women are unclear. We compared the effects of a very low carbohydrate and a low fat diet on fasting lipids, postprandial lipemia and markers of inflammation in women. We conducted a balanced, randomized, two-period, crossover study in 10 healthy normolipidemic women who consumed both a low fat (<30% fat) and a very low carbohydrate (<10% carbohydrate) diet for 4 wk each. Two blood draws were performed on separate days at 0, 2 and 4 wk and an oral fat tolerance test was performed at baseline and after each diet period. Compared with the low fat diet, the very low carbohydrate diet increased (P ≤ 0.05) fasting serum total cholesterol (16%), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) (15%) and HDL-C (33%) and decreased serum triacylglycerols (−30%), the total cholesterol to HDL ratio (−13%) and the area under the 8-h postprandial triacylglycerol curve (−31%). There were no significant changes in LDL size or markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α) after the very low carbohydrate diet. In normal weight, normolipidemic women, a short-term very low carbohydrate diet modestly increased LDL-C, yet there were favorable effects on cardiovascular disease risk status by virtue of a relatively larger increase in HDL-C and a decrease in fasting and postprandial triaclyglycerols.

DOI

10.1093/jn/133.9.2756

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1093/jn/133.9.2756