Atkins Blood Vessel Study: Bad Science, Even Worse Journalism

Filed under: Study — @ November 8, 2007

Dr. Michael Miller puts his personal low-carb bias ahead of science

Despite being called out by Gary Taubes in his book Good Calories, Bad Calories, the use of sensationalism by the active players in modern health research and journalism hasn’t changed a bit! Want an example of this? Just look at this ridiculous headline from Reuters this week to see what I mean:

“High-fat Atkins diet damages blood vessels: study”

Most people will simply read that headline and say to themselves, “Oh my God, why in the world would I ever go on the Atkins diet?” Then from there, people will infer that they shouldn’t go on ANY low-carb diet at all because we all KNOW how unhealthy it is, don’t we? This is the kind of sloppy science and reporting that has prevented the healthy low-carb lifestyle from ever gaining any favor in the public eye. And that’s such a crying shame.

Lead researcher Dr. Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the Baltimore, MD-based University of Maryland Medical Center, and his colleagues wanted to see what effect a maintenance diet has on blood fat levels, cholesterol, and other markers for inflammation. They observed 18 people over a ONE-MONTH period following one of three diets:

ATKINS–50 percent of calories from fat
SOUTH BEACH–30 percent of calories from fat
ORNISH–10 percent of calories from fat

The researchers made sure that NONE of the study participants lost weight so the results would not be skewed by weight improvements since it was about weight control and not weight loss. Each of them had their blood tested for all of the health markers checked out for the study.

What was the result and the ramifications of this so-called “study?” Read all about it and why this is the kind of irresponsible flim-flam research that needs to stop happening by clicking here.