Over the last several years, low-carbohydrate diets have experienced a substantial increase in popularity. However, along with the ever-increasing popularity of these diets, there has been an increase in the number, and virulence, of attacks on them by advocates of the high-carbohydrate, low-animal fat diet theory that came into vogue around 40 years ago. Nutrition “experts”, who should know better, repeat common myths about low-carbohydrate eating that are clearly disputed by ample scientific and empirical evidence. Let’s look at some common attacks made on low-carbohydrate diets…

Myth 1: ‘Low-corbohydrate diets cause heart-disease’

Proponents of the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet repeatedly contend that saturated fat and cholesterol are the major dietary contributors to coronary heart disease (CHD). They claim that replacing these nutrients with carbohydrates will lower one’s risk of cardiovascular disease. Research does not back this view - in fact it contradicts it.

The theory that saturated fat raises cholesterol levels, and that these elevated cholesterol levels lead to heart disease is known as the “lipid hypothesis”. The origins of this theory can be traced back to the early 1900’s, when Russian researcher M.A. Ignatovsky induced fatty deposit build-up in rabbit arteries by feeding them large amounts of animal foods. Protein was initially blamed, but a few years later the spotlight was cast on cholesterol (1). Animal experiments are frequently cited in support of the saturated fat/cholesterol CHD theory , but as most individuals wishing to avoid heart disease belong to the omnivorous human species, it should be pointed out that these artery clogging experiments are successful only in herbivorous animals.

Feeding large amounts of fat and cholesterol to carnivorous animals fails to induce such pathological changes, except in dogs that have had their thyroids surgically removed or suppressed by pharmaceutical means (2). The lipid deposits seen in animals also bear little resemblance to the atherosclerotic plaques seen in humans, which are comprised not just of cholesterol and fatty acids, but also white blood cells, calcium and fibrous scar tissue. The relevance of animal cholesterol-feeding studies to humans ranks somewhere between zero and zip…

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