By Pam Brown, Editor – Diabetes & Primary Care
Further confirmation that low-carbohydrate diets favouring plant-derived proteins from foods such as vegetables, nuts and peanut butter are associated with reduced mortality comes from a National Institutes of Health prospective cohort study and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Public Health journal. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (Seidelmann et al, 2018) looked at all-cause mortality in 15,428 people aged 45–64 years in the US followed for 25 years, and was designed to identify if there is any risk associated with eating a low-carbohydrate diet, here defined as <40% energy from carbohydrate. As with previous studies, increased mortality was associated with exchanging carbs for animal-derived fat or protein (HR 1.18 [1.08–1.29]) and decreased mortality associated with plant-based substitutions (0.82 [0.78–0.87]), further highlighting that the source of food replacement modifies the association between carbohydrate intake and mortality. An accompanying editorial reminds readers that there is now a body of evidence that challenges the thinking that dietary fats are harmful or that carbohydrates are technically essential (unlike proteins and fats).
As expected, this study achieved a lot of media coverage but was largely inaccurately reported, stating that low-carbohydrate diets are associated with increased mortality and reduce life expectancy by 4 years. This sends the wrong messages to the public.
Seidelmann SB, Claggett B, Cheng S et al (2018) Dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality: a propsective cohort study and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30135-X
