Hi friends, I just came across this critique of low carb diets in JAMA. References in the published Viewpoint article are sparse, so I thought I would post here to get a sense your reactions.
Ostfeld 2019.pdf (48.7 KB)
Agaricus, that article looks to be about the keto diet, which it thinks is over-hyped. My own version of a low-carb diet means I avoid anything that says “added sugar” on the label, also white rice and bread, but I eat a lot of veggies and fruits which do have carbs. I’ve lost about 15% of my body weight over the past year, while exercising to make sure I wasn’t losing muscle, so that’s worked for me.
Yes, you are right. I’ve changed the title of the topic to reflect this. I found the critique while searching for criticism of the use of low carb diets to treat diabetes, something that I’ve followed for some time. I think the low carb diets that Dr. Richard K. Berstein recommends resemble Keto diets, though the emphasis is not on ketosis. The approach of Virta Health is very close to this; since the business case relies on treating diabetes, Virta has focused on producing clinical evidence. Nonetheless, the approach continues to be controversial despite decades of research. The continuation of debate and seeming inability of clinical research to resolve the controversy is interesting to me. Why is this still an open question?