My good pals at the New York Times reported yesterday about a study from the University of Toronto touting the benefits a vegan version of everyone's favorite low-carb diet.
Ya see, fat and protein-heavy diets such as Atkins are great for weight loss, but all that animal fat does nothing to lower your cholesterol. The study tested an eating plan dubbed the "eco-Atkins," a vegan diet providing protein from "soy, gluten or seitan, nuts and cereals as well as fruits, vegetables and vegetable oil."
A small, four-week randomized controlled clinical trial that tested the new regimen found that overweight adults who consumed a high-protein, entirely vegan diet were able to lose about the same amount of weight as a comparison group of dieters on a high-carbohydrate, low-fat vegetarian dairy diet. But while those on the high-carbohydrate dairy diet experienced drops of 12 percent in their LDL cholesterol, those on the high protein vegan diet saw cholesterol reductions of 20 percent.
But before you get the party started, I gotta say, I once designed a low-carb, vegan diet. That set of perimeters does not allow for much variety, so when someone publishes the actual plan, it's probably just going to be a lot of almonds and celery. Maybe they'll throw some paprika in there to spice things up, but seriously, boring! However, even hippies need their own illogical, trendy diets, so there you go.
If it truly keeps the same macro-nutrient profile of Atkins' meat diets it would be a very strange diet--and almost impossible without supplements since most plants sources have either too much fiber or too much fat to keep to the traditional first phase of Atkins format.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what, it would have to be healthier than Atkins over the long haul because plant fats are mostly healthy whereas animal fats are mostly unhealthy.