Why do low carb diets best increase HDL?....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 8-3-2010

Today, both AP & Reuters online health news had a report of Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education’s recently published study comparing the heart health indicator improvement for low fat and low carb diets.

They both lowered triglycerides and LDL as people lost weight; but the low carb people increased their HDL 23 % while the lowfat people only increased theirs by 12%.

Why is this? What might explain it?

Here’s what I think are the 3 reasons for this.

1. Here’s what I think the most important cause might be.

The low carb dieters ate nonstarchy vegetables from the beginning.

They did gradually add some milk (which has lactose a kind of sugar which is buffered by the protein and fat content of milk); some fruits which have some fructose which is buffered by their fiber and by not having a lot of fructose per unit of weight, and some whole grain foods but not much because those have the most carbs per unit of weight. So, they did have SOME carbohydrates.

Except for the whole grains, these foods are low or moderately low glycemic foods.

They also did not have large amounts of these foods due to their carbohydrate content.

What carbohydrate foods did they virtually never include? What carbohydrate foods did they only have once or twice a week or less and in small amounts if they did eat them?

Foods made with refined grains; foods made with high fructose corn syrup; regular soft drinks; and foods made with large amounts of regular sugar. All these foods are high to very high glycemic foods.

It’s becoming better known that these kinds of carbohydrates cause blood sugar surges AND increase LDL and triglycerides. They also lower your HDL! This study suggests that this reduction of HDL may be their strongest effect of these three effects.

Since the low carb dieters had NO restriction on the quantity of protein or fat foods and still lost weight, this study also suggests these high glycemic and high carbohydrate foods and drinks are the most fattening.

(Since the lowfat group also lost weight, I suspect they cut back on those kinds of carbs somewhat, just much less and much less consistently than the low carb group.)

2. The second reason is that HDL is a lipid which your body makes from the fats and oils you eat. So, this result also suggests that sharply reducing your intake of fat and oils gives your body less of the raw materials it needs to make HDL.

Since omega 6 oils tend to lower HDL, this result also suggests that the low carb group ate more meat, butter, and cheese than soy oil or corn oil for the fats they ate.

(And, we now know that getting these foods from animals that eat their natural diets without being penned up instead of being overfed grain and kept in small pens results in lower amounts of total fat, saturated fat, and much lower amounts of omega 6 oils in these foods. This is true for grass fed cattle and pasture fed poultry and wild caught fish.

Similarly, olive oil and extra virgin olive oil have very little saturated fat OR omega 6 oils. So, they increase your HDL a little and also do NOT lower it. Nuts and avocados also have similar profiles of these kinds of oils and fats.

So eating these kinds of protein foods and fatty foods and oils can enhance this positive effect on HDL cholesterol even more.)

3. Meat is expensive and cheese and butter are not cheap. So guess which protein food the low carb group likely ate often?

I suspect it was eggs since they are less expensive. They are also easy to cook and have ZERO carbohydrates.

But egg yolks have a megadose of choline in each one. And, choline turns out to increase HDL.

So, this also suggests two ways to enhance this effect.

Include whole eggs in the food you eat each week.

And, consider taking lecithin supplements. Looking it up online, I found this quote: “ Lecithin is a lipid that consists mostly of choline.” You can also find direct choline supplements; but lecithin is more available and costs less.

Other note on this study: I also notice that some people in the low carb group became constipated.

Since beans and lentils are low glycemic, high fiber foods. And, they are a very low cost source of protein, they are a good addition in moderation to a low carb diet. They also have abundant soluble fiber that tends to lower LDL cholesterol

This result also suggests that this low carb group did NOT eat enough daily servings of nonstarchy vegetables. Such vegetables have very few carbohydrates or calories and they are very, very low glycemic foods.

The weight and LDL and triglyceride levels might have dropped even more for the low carb dieters in this study had they eaten more of those two kinds of foods. And, they likely would NOT have been constipated.

So those are my reactions to this study.

Its results also suggests that the best combination of foods to keep you healthy AND free of excess fat has several focus points.:

a) It has no or very, very little of the most high glycemic carbs that the low carb dieters in this study stopped eating and drinking.

In fact, it gets much of its calorie reduction by very carefully and systematically taking in NO food or drink that has fattening ingredients or ingredients that harm your health. Or, it does so at least 98 to 100 % of the time depending on the ingredient.

b) It contains an abundance of several kinds of nonstarchy vegetables and smaller but frequent amounts of beans and lentils.

c) It has moderate amounts of the most health supporting and least harmful protein foods and oils or food that contain them.

d) It has regular but moderate amounts of whole fruit and may contain some smaller amounts of whole grain foods but never foods made with refined grains.

Lastly, it also works by far the best for keeping off or removing excess fat and protecting your health if you do regular vigorous exercise several times a week and some extra walking in addition to that. (Note that this also increases your HDL and lowers your triglycerides and LDL.)