No Heart Risk for Women Who Favor Protein Over Carbs - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
BOSTON, Nov. 8 -- Women who say no to carbs, but yes to protein as recommended in the South Beach and Zone diets, do not increase their risk of coronary heart disease, according to researchers here.
And women who consume low-carbohydrate diets that emphasize vegetables rather than animals as the source of protein and fat may be rewarded with a moderate reduction in risk of heart disease.
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that this observational study found no increase in the risk of coronary heart disease for women who followed a low-carb, high-protein diet.
* Explain to interested patients that this report is based on an observational study, the findings of which are not considered as solid as findings from a randomized clinical study.
So it emerged from the Nurses' Health Study, a longitudinal study of 82,802 women who have been followed since 1976.
Women whose diets consisted mainly of vegetable protein and fat were are about 30% less likely to develop coronary heart disease than women who whose diets contained either more carbohydrates or more animal protein and fat (P for trend=0.002), Thomas L. Halton, Sc.D. of the Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues reported in the Nov. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine
Posted by gruwell at November 9, 2006 5:43 AM | TrackBack