Atkins diet is more effective and healthier than rival regimes, say medical researchers

By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor

22 May 2003

Robert Atkins, the weight-loss guru whose diet books sold in their millions, has won posthumous backing for his controversial theory about how to lose weight.

The first randomised controlled trial comparing his high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with a conventional low-fat eating plan found people on the Atkins diet lost weight quicker and had improved levels of blood fats, with increased amounts of "good" cholesterol.

The finding will surprise the medical establishment which has long argued that the Atkins diet was potentially damaging to health and could affect kidney function and raise "bad" cholesterol levels.

Full story: independent.co.uk

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Why is 5.2 (200) a 'healthy' cholesterol level?

The enclosed three paragraphs, which I wrote last week for the Weston A Price Foundation website to add to the "Oiling of America" article tells how the 200 mg/dl cutoff for serum cholesterol was decided back in 1984.
Mary Enig, PhD

Full article: Second Opinions - Barry Groves, PhD

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The Cholesterol Myth

If the hypothesis that a fatty diet causes heart disease is true, why has over fifty years of trials and studies has failed to confirm it? It's certainly not for want of trying.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Dietary Fats and Heart Disease
Part 3: The Bran Wagon
Part 4: The Dangers of Low Blood Cholesterol
Part 5: Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
Part 6: Has Anyone Gained?
Part 7: So Where Does That Leave Heart Disease?
Part 8: A Question of Ethics
Part 9: The Dangers of a "Healthy" Diet

Read all of the above here: Second Opinions - Barry Groves, PhD

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Cholesterol Myths (Ravnskov)

The idea that too much animal fat and high cholesterol are dangerous to your heart and vessels is nothing but a myth. Here are some astonishing and frightening facts:

MORE: http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

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Why the cholesterol-heart disease theory is wrong (Kendrick)

"Cholesterol is a much maligned substance, the ‘cause’ of heart disease. If it is, it must have killed billions of people. Far more than the plague, every war ever fought, and all plane, train and car crashes ever - all added together, then multiplied by three.

But if it does cause heart disease, how does it do it? The simple ‘answer’ is that, if you eat too much cholesterol, the level in your blood rises, the cholesterol then travels through the artery wall causing cholesterol-laden plaques to develop which then rupture and kill you. That’s the initial cholesterol hypothesis. Dead simple, couldn’t be more simple.

First little problem - dietary intake of cholesterol has no impact on the level of cholesterol in your blood. If we look at two major long-term studies, Framingham and Tecumseh, it is clear that those who ate the most cholesterol had exactly the same level of cholesterol in their blood as those who ate the least cholesterol."

Full article: redflagsweekly.com

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