Positive Low-Carb Israeli Study Good Publicity, But Lacking In Substantive Diet Comparison Research

Filed under: Study — @ July 28, 2008

The New England Journal Of Medicine is highly prestigious

While I was away on vacation in Florida seeing my brother recently, a well-publicized weight loss study comparing a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, and low-fat diet was released and published in the July 17, 2008 issue of The New England Journal Of Medicine. All the headlines were screaming how the Atkins diet is best and livin’ la vida low-carb is champion of them all. It was in virtually every newspaper (including this Wall Street Journal story I was quoted in), local and national television news outlet, and all the health and weight loss blogs–A BIG STORY!

And because it put low-carb living in such a positive light as compared with the low-fat diet or the much-beloved Mediterranean diet, you would think I’d be a happy camper touting this study as the best thing to happen for low-carb in a long while. But as I stated after this other highly-publicized study out of Stanford published in Journal of the American Medical Association last March, I can’t get too thrilled about yet another study that shows such insignificant weight loss on a low-carb diet after two years and doesn’t really require the participants to adhere closely to anything resembling the Atkins weight loss diet. This puts me in the minority I’m sure, but I have to say this is one big reason why I was disappointed with the New England Journal study.

Click here to read more about this recent diet comparison study, why the results were less than spectacular because it didn’t include a real low-carb diet versus a genuine low-fat diet, my response to low-fat diet guru Dr. Dean Ornish’s criticisms of this study, and great quotes about this study from some of the leading low-carb experts.