'Eco-Atkins' Diet Sheds More Than Pounds – Yahoo! News

July 4, 2009

'Eco-Atkins' Diet Sheds More Than Pounds – Yahoo! News

MONDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) — A modified Atkins diet, one
that substitutes plant-based proteins for animal-based ones, helps people
lose weight and lowers their cholesterol, new research shows.

“In just two weeks on the so-called 'Eco-Atkins' diet, everything
starts to look much better metabolically … I think this becomes an
alternative for the heart disease reduction diet, which is obviously
appropriate for diabetes,” said Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, lead author of a
study on the new diet appearing in the June 8 issue of the Archives of
Internal Medicine.

“Dr. Atkins challenged nutritional wisdom by suggesting high-fat,
high-protein diets would be better than more frugal low-saturated-fat and
low-cholesterol diets on which we've normally based therapeutic models for
the treatment of cardiovascular disease,” explained Jenkins, who is Canada
research chair in nutrition and metabolism at the University of Toronto
and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. “This seemed like a terrible thing
to do, but he did it and showed that, providing they got the weight loss,
all seemed to be well. But one thing we didn't notice or didn't pay much
attention to was the fact that cholesterol levels didn't actually go down,
even though there was spectacular weight loss on the diet.”

Jenkins and his team sought to maintain the basic high-protein,
low-carb ratio of the Atkins diet, but in a way that might promote
lowering of cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease.

Forty-four men and women who were overweight and had high cholesterol
were assigned to a four-week regimen of either a low-fat, low-carb,
high-vegetable, plant-based protein diet including vegetable oil, gluten,
soy, nuts, fruits, vegetables and cereals, or a high-carb, lacto-ovo
(dairy and eggs only) vegetarian diet.

Couriers delivered all meals to the participants. “They basically had
room service, or its equivalent, in their homes,” Jenkins said.

Participants in both groups lost the same amount of weight — 8.8
pounds.

The real triumph, however, was seen in the 0.6 percent greater
reduction in LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels in the group eating more
plant-based proteins. Improvements in total cholesterol, ratios of
proteins that adhere to fats, and blood pressure were also seen.

Several questions remain, including whether reductions in risk factors
will translate into less disease, whether cholesterol-lowering will also
help with additional risk factors like insulin resistance, and, the big
question, how well people not participating in a strictly
controlled trial will actually be able to follow the diet.

“It seems like a limited study in the number of people, the time
frame… and what's advertised as low carb is still the minimum
recommendation of 130 grams per day,” said Marianne Grant, a registered
dietitian and health educator with the Texas A&M Health Science Center
Coastal Bend Health Education Center in Corpus Christi. “This diet is not
as low carb as some other diets are.”

Also, she added, “both diets were 60 percent reduced in calories, so
the weight loss may be coming from the deficient calories and probably the
cholesterol benefits are coming from high fiber. It's not a bad diet, but
it requires more research. It's much better than other low-carb diet
because it encourages eating nuts, fruits and vegetables and portion
control. I think that's the most important thing with weight loss.”

Another expert had a similar reaction to the findings.

“The study is very short-term and, in my opinion, pretty much anyone
can lose weight in four weeks with this approach or other approaches,”
said Renee Simon, nutritional consultant to Northern Westchester Hospital
in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. “However, I don't really see any downside to the
approach, although I might prefer a few other sources of protein because,
long-term, I don't think you could sustain this with the major sources of
protein being gluten and soy.”

On the other hand, Molly Kimball, a sports dietitian at Ochsner Health
Foundation in New Orleans, pointed out that many mainstream products can
fit the bill. “It wouldn't be hard to put in things like veggie burgers or
Special K protein that every store carries. A lot of low-carb breads have
higher protein,” she said. “Those are easy changes you can build into your
day.”

Kimball added that the regimen “has no real drawbacks” and has the
advantage of not having higher carbs. “With plant diets, people can still
turn to high carbs. You can have a vegan diet full of white stuff,” she
explained.

This study was supported by the Canadian government, Canadian food
distributor Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and the Solae Company of St. Louis, Mo.,
which manufactures soy foods.

More information

Visit the American Dietetic Association for more on healthy
eating.

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