Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet vs Atkins Diet for Efficacy of Cholesterol Lowering

• Published in: Ethnicity & disease 2008-04, Vol.18, p.71-73
• Main Authors: Bamfo, Rose, Jamerson, Kenneth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1049-510X

Millions of Americans have high cholesterol and are at increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Patients and healthcare providers desire plans to help combat high cholesterol. Common diets include the Atkins and the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diets. We hypothesized that the TLC diet should be better in lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels than the Atkins diet. The TLC diet was designed for restricted fat and cholesterol whereas the Atkins diet contains high saturated fat that should place subjects at a greater risk for high cholesterol. The investigator conducted a literature search through PubMed MEDLINE using the search terms: hypercholesterolemia/dh (diet therapy), dietary carbohydrates, and dietary fats. Two of the twenty-seven eligible articles directly compared cholesterol levels of low-carbohydrate and low-fat dieters at six and twelve months. We found: 1) at both 6- and 12-month periods LDL levels were lowered slightly in both diet categories; 2) subjects on the Atkins diet had an 11% increase in highdensity lipoprotein (HDL) levels and a 49% drop in triglyceride levels whereas on the TLC diet, the HDL levels were unchanged and triglyceride levels only dropped 22%; and 3) After 12 months, users of the Atkins diet lost an average of 11.2 pounds while users of the TLC diet lost 6.8 pounds. The hypothesis of this research study was proven false. While these studies point to certain trends favoring the Atkins diet, further research is needed to understand the long-term benefits.