Is Atkins Diet Bad For Your Heart?

I’ll have two of those lovely fat pork sausages (deep fried), three rashes of bacon with the crispy rind (fried), a generous portion of scrambled eggs cooked with full fat cream and butter, but hold the toast, I’m doing the Atkins diet. And you asked, “is Atkins diet bad for your heart?”

I must confess I did try the Atkins diet a few years ago, I was inspired by a friend who lost a lot of weight doing it. Unfortunately I can’t say I experience the same results, I actually put on ½ stone L anyway I don’t know how long I would have been able to carry on without potatoes on my Sunday roast.

There was something else that concern me about the diet too, my health, common sense was telling me that if I continue to eat all that saturated fat and almost no carbs at all, something inside of me was going to break, stop working, clog up, I don’t know I’m no doctor, but this diet was going against the grain.

Now I know a lot of people stand by the Atkins diet and will defend its corner with all their might. Now like I said, “I’m no doctor” this is how I feel about the diet and my personal experience with it. You need to do your own research and make up your own mind. To help you here’s the results of a recent study, taken from The Daily Mail.

Study: Is Atkins Diet Bad For Your Heart?

The popular Atkins diet could be putting people at increased risk of heart disease, according to a 25-year study.

Researchers from Sweden found the introduction of the low-carbohydrate regime led to a surge in saturated fat intake in 2004, with a spike in cholesterol levels three years later.

Study leader Professor Ingegerd Johansson, from the University of Umea, said: ‘While low carbohydrate/high fat diets may help short-term weight loss, these results of this Swedish study demonstrate that long-term weight loss is not maintained and that this diet increases blood cholesterol, which has a major impact on risk of cardiovascular disease.’

In 2004 there was an explosion in the popularity of low carbohydrate/high fat (LCHF) diets like Atkins in Sweden. The diets focus on cutting out sugar and starch while upping intake of fats, including saturated fat.

Its proponents, such as Dr Annika Dahlqvist, who is credited with starting the Swedish craze, argue that it helps maintain normal weight and blood sugar while freeing people to eat their favourite foods.

A poll last year suggested that a quarter of Swedes had at least partly adopted an LCHF diet. Around five per cent had taken it up seriously, leading the DietDoctor website to hail a “Swedish low carb revolution”. There were even reports of stores running out of butter due to increasing demand. Report of the full study posted here.

So the question was “is Atkins diet bad for your heart?” well according to this study it is, and I am not at all surprise. Can you lose weight doing this diet? I guess you can, or it wouldn’t be the chosen diet for so many, but what’s the point of losing weight and looking good on the outside when your health and your insides are not looking so good.

Have you or anyone you know had experience with the Atkins diet? What do you think of this diet? Good or Bad? Share your views below… And as always a click on the Facebook like button would be appreciated, if you found the article interesting.