A low-carb, high-fat “keto-like” diet may be linked to higher levels of “bad” cholesterol and double the risk of cardiovascular events such as blocked arteries, heart attacks and strokes, according to new research.

“Our study found that regular consumption of a self-reported diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat was associated with increased levels of LDL cholesterol — or “bad” cholesterol — and a higher risk of heart disease,” lead study author Dr. Iulia Iatan with the Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic, St. Paul’s Hospital and University of British Columbia’s Center for Heart Lung Innovation in Vancouver, Canada, said in a news release.

In the study, researchers defined a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet as 45% of total daily calories coming from fat and 25% coming from carbohydrates. The study was presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session together with the World Congress of Cardiology.

“Our study rationale came from the fact that we would see patients in our cardiovascular prevention clinic with severe hypercholesterolemia following this diet,” Iatan said during a presentation at the session.

Hypercholesterolemia, or high cholesterol, increases a person’s risk of heart attack or other adverse cardiovascular events.

“This led us to wonder about the relationship between these low-carb, high-fat diets, lipid levels and cardiovascular disease. Despite this, there’s limited data on this relationship,” she said.

The researchers compared the diets of 305 people eating a LCHF diet with about 1,200 people eating a standard diet, using health information from the United Kingdom database U.K. Biobank, which followed people for at least a decade.

The researchers noticed that the LCHF diet participants’ total fat intake was higher in saturated fat and had double the consumption of animal sources (33%) compared to those in the control group (16%).

“After an average of 11.8 years of follow-up — and after adjustment for other risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and smoking — people on an LCHF diet had more than two-times higher risk of having several major cardiovascular events, such as blockages in the arteries that needed to be opened with stenting procedures, heart attack, stroke and peripheral arterial disease,” researchers found, according to the news release.

Most health experts say the trendy keto diet, which bans carbohydrates to make your body burn fat for fuel, cuts out healthy food such as fruit, beans and legumes, and whole grains.

The keto diet has been around since the 1920s, when a doctor stumbled on it as a way of controlling seizures in children with epilepsy who didn’t respond to other treatment methods.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【豆荚】

dòujiá

legume

a plant that has its seeds in a pod, such as the bean or pea

【撞见】

zhuàngjiàn

stumble on

discover or meet by chance

据一项最新研究，低碳水化合物、高脂肪的“生酮”饮食可能会让“坏”胆固醇升高，让动脉阻塞、心脏病发作和中风等心血管问题的风险增加一倍。

“我们的研究发现，自我报告经常食用低碳水化合物和高脂肪饮食会让低密度脂蛋白胆固醇升高 —— 这种胆固醇被称为

“坏”胆固醇 —— 并增加心脏病风险，”主要研究作者尤利亚•伊坦博士在新闻发布会上说。她为加拿大温哥华不列颠哥伦比亚大学心肺创新中心和圣保罗医院心脏健康诊所工作。

在这项研究中，研究人员将低碳水化合物、高脂肪（LCHF）饮食定义为每日总卡路里的45%来自脂肪，25%来自碳水化合物。

该研究在周日的美国心脏病学会暨世界心脏病学大会的年度科学会议上发表。

“我们启动这项研究基于这个事实，即我们诊所接待了一些患有严重高胆固醇血症的患者，他们此前采用了这种饮食，” 伊坦在会议上说。

高胆固醇血症会增加心脏病或其他心血管问题发作的风险。

“这让我们想知道低碳水、高脂肪饮食、血脂水平和心血管疾病之间的联系。尽管如此，可用于研究这种关系的数据有限，”她说。

研究人员使用英国生物银行的健康信息，将305名采用“生酮”饮食的人与大约1200名标准饮食的人进行了比较，该数据库跟踪了受访对象至少十年。

研究人员注意到，“生酮”饮食者的总脂肪摄入中饱和脂肪占比更高，与对照组（16%）相比，动物性食物的消耗量（33%）

增加了一倍。

研究人员发现，经过平均11.8年的随访 —— 并考虑了心脏病的其他危险因素，如糖尿病、高血压、肥胖和吸烟 —— “生酮”饮食的人发作主要心血管问题的风险高出其他人两倍以上，例如需要通过支架置入手术解决的动脉堵塞、心脏病、中风和外周动脉疾病。

大多数健康专家说，时髦的生酮饮食通过控制碳水化合物摄入量让身体燃烧脂肪，因而减少了健康食品的摄入，如水果、豆类以及全谷物。

“生酮”饮食始自 1920 年代，当时一位医生偶然发现了这种饮食可以用来控制儿童癫痫发作，这些孩子对其他治疗方法没有应答。

(SD-Agencies)