Low fat diets increase the risk factors for heart disease

This study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology 2000 Jan 1;85(1):45-8.

Study title and authors:

High carbohydrate diets, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, and coronary heart disease risk.

Abbasi F, McLaughlin T, Lamendola C, Kim HS, Tanaka A, Wang T, Nakajima K, Reaven GM.

Stanford University School of Medicine, California, USA

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11078235

High triglyceride levels and low (HDL-C) high-density lipoprotein - cholesterol levels are associated with higher rates of heart disease.

The study compared the effects of variations in dietary fat and carbohydrate content on concentrations of triglycerides and high density lipoproteins in 8, healthy, nondiabetic volunteers. The diets contained, as a percentage of total calories, either:

(i) 60% CHO, 25% fat, and 15% protein (High carbohydrate diet)

(ii) 40% CHO, 45% fat, and 15% protein (High fat diet)

The study found:

(a) Those on the high carbohydrate diet had an increase of 82% in their (bad) triglyceride levels compared to those on the high fat diet.
(b) Those on the high carbohydrate diet had a decrease of 12% in their (good) high density lipoprotein - cholesterol levels compared to those on the high fat diet.


The results of the study indicate that low fat/high carbohydrate diets increase the risk factors for heart disease.