The Role of the Atkins Diet in Alzheimer’s Disease
This October, an article published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration attracted headlines in several major newspapers. The authors of the study had found that mice fed a high-fat diet exhibited a 5-percent decrease brain weight and an increase in amyloid beta. People with Alzheimer’s disease have high levels of amyloid beta deposits in their brains. Read More
The Latest From NEJM
A recent New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) study titled “Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates” (Feb. 26, 2009), concluded that reduced-calorie diets result in clinically meaningful weight loss regardless of which macronutrients they emphasized. The NEJM study randomly assigned 811 overweight adults to one of four diets with Read More
Low carbs cause memory loss? Not so fast!
Recently the media had a field day reporting a Tufts University study (1) that supposedly showed low carb diets have a negative effect on memory. Once again, the media got it wrong, and in two critical ways. First, they reported conclusions that were not found by the study and two; they omitted findings that were Read More
Low Carb Flour: Baking with Coconut Flour & Almond Flour
Almond flour and almond meal are not the same thing. Almond meal is ground up almonds (with the skins), whereas almond flour is finely ground blanched almonds without the skins. Both work, but the almond flour will give you better results (the almond meal tends to be a little dense and oily). Almond flour can Read More
Low carb diet study in NEJM
It was headline news on July 17 when an important new study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine comparing weight loss on one of three diets- low-fat, low-carb and Mediterranean. And low-carb came out on top. The study gained a ton of media attention for three reasons: 1) it was one of Read More
Longer Is Better
In the last decade a multitude of studies on restricted carbohydrate intake has dramatically changed the research landscape. This newer research builds upon older information on carbohydrate-restricted diets, including the use of low-carbohydrate diets by a variety of Aboriginal hunting cultures that persisted for thousands of years. Let’s take a brief look at some of Read More
Is Your Nutrition Bar Right For You?
The 33 million households buying nutrition bars and shakes can benefit from knowing that nutrition bars are not created equal. While many nutrition bars are portable nutrition power houses, a few popular bars have as much or more sugar than a doughnut. However, most consumers do not know this fact, according to a recent survey Read More
Inflammation, Eggs and a Lower Carb Eating Program
Inflammation is a silent killer. While inflammation has flown under the radar as a risk factor for disease, it’s beginning to get a huge amount of attention. In 2002, the American Heart Association Journal “Circulation” published an article called “inflammation and atherosclerosis” (1) which detailed important links between the biology of inflammation and the mechanisms Read More
High Glycemic Diets Increase the Risk of Type II Diabetes
We’ve long advocated a healthy controlled carbohydrate diet as a way of preventing or treating diabetes, but the medical establishment has been slow to catch on. And while much research has been done on low-carbohydrate diets and weight loss, until now the long-term outcomes have not been determined, although this is also true of low-fat Read More
Fountain of youth found in red wine and grapes
Researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging report that a natural substance found in red wine known as resveratrol can significantly extend the life of mice. And it just may do the same thing for humans. Resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes (and in the red wine Read More