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Do low fat and low carbohydrate diets show similar improvement in endothelial function?
Author(s) -
Phillips Shane A,
Jacquelyn Kulinski P.,
Syed Amjad Q.,
Syed Amina A.,
Pleuss Joan P.,
Jurva Jason W.,
Gutterman David D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1392-a
Obesity is associated with endothelial dysfunction, an early marker of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. It is unknown whether different dietary strategies to lose weight also improve endothelium‐ dependent flow mediated dilation (FMD). The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that weight loss from a low fat (LF) diet improves FMD compared to isocaloric weight loss from a low carbohydrate (LC) diet. Healthy subjects with a body mass index between 29 and 39 were randomly assigned to either a LF or LC diet for 6 weeks (4 weeks of a weight loss regimen followed by a 2‐week weight maintenance phase). Brachial artery FMD and arterial dilation to nitroglycerin (NTG) were measured by high resolution ultrasound at baseline, week 2, and week 6 of the diet program. Subjects demonstrated similar weight loss on the LF (98±5 to 93.9±5 kg) and LC (96.7±6 to 91.4±5 kg) diets. Systolic blood pressure decreased similarly in all subjects (125±6 to 115±4 mmHg; P=0.04) at 6 weeks. FMD improved in the LF (3.48±0.7%) group but not in the LC subjects (−1.14±0.7%; P=0.001 vs LF) after 6 weeks (compared to week 0). Similar differential improvement was observed between weeks 2 and 6. NTG‐induced dilation was similar in all subjects on both diets at baseline and after 6 weeks. The results of this study indicate that despite similar degrees of weight loss, LF dietary interventions may be better at conferring cardiovascular protection. ±