We probably all know someone who swears by the keto diet, or who has at least given it a go… but new research warns it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
A Canadian study reveals those on a low-carb, high-fat diet have more than two times higher risk of several cardiovascular events including a heart attack or a stroke.
Lead study author and attending physician-scientist at the Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic, Iulia Iatan, told Tova O'Brien the research says it all.
"In these diets, usually they lead to a reduction in carbohydrates and a relative increase in the proportion of fat," Iatan said.
"When the study started in our cardiovascular prevention clinic, we would see patients coming to us with very, very high levels of cholesterol after following this diet.
"We took this big population from the UK Biobank and we defined our patients - the ones that were having less than 25 percent of carbs from their total daily intake, and the participants on a standardised diet.
"[The keto patients'] cholesterol was much, much higher, their consumption of total fat was much higher and unfortunately the risk of heart attacks was twice as high as the ones not on the diet."
While Iatan agreed the diet can have health benefits, she told O'Brien there are ways to replace carb intake that doesn't involve Kiwis consuming meat or saturated fats.
"There's definitely different variations of this diet that have emerged over the years… They have existed for many, many years, first for epilepsy to control seizures and in the recent ten years or so, they've been used for weight loss, obesity and sugar control, and diabetes," she said.
"And yes, they can definitely help with obesity management… but the important thing is just to replace the carbs with healthy fats and plant-based alternatives instead."
Listen to the full interview between Iulia Iatan and Tova above.
You can also download the full interview on the Tova podcast, and listen on the go.
