Scientific References Related to a Low-Carbohydrate Eating Philosophy (such as the Atkins Diet):

ON CANCER:

"Saturated fat was not associated with the risk of breast cancer"…"we found no positive association between intake of total fat and risk of invasive breast cancer". *
*Reference: Wolk, A. et al, Archives of Internal Medicine 1998; 158:41-45

"We found no evidence of a positive association between total dietary fat intake and the risk of breast cancer. There was no reduction in risk even among women whose energy intake from fat was less than 20 percent of total energy intake. In the context of the Western lifestyle, lowering the total intake of fat in midlife is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast cancer substantially."*
*Reference: Hunter D. et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 1996; 334:356-61

"The risk of breast cancer decreased with increasing total fat intake (trend p0.01) whereas the risk increase with increasing intake of available carbohydrates (trend p=0.002)"…"The findings also suggest a possible risk, in southern European populations, of reliance on a diet largely based on starch."*
*Reference: Franceschi S. et al, Lancet 1996; 347: 1351-56

"Sugar consumption is positively associated with cancer in humans and test animals.* Tumors are know to be enormous sugar absorbers."
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 129.

"Johns Hopkins researchers have found evidence that some cancer cells are such incredible sugar junkies that they'll self-destruct when deprived of glucose, their biological sweet of choice"..."Scientists have long suspected that the cancer cell's heavy reliance on glucose, its main source of strength and vitality, also could be one of its great weaknesses, and Dang's new results are among the most direct proofs yet of the idea."*
—Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions' news release
*Reference: Shim H, Dang C, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 1998 Feb 17; 95(4): 1511-1516.

ON CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE:

"Hence, many observations indicating reductions in plasma lipid levels when people are on low-fat diets may be due to changes in the fatty acid composition of the diet, not the reduction of fat calories."*
*Reference: Nelson, GJ, et al, Lipids, "Low-Fat Diets do not Lower Plasma Cholesterol Levels in Healthy Men Compared to High-Fat Diets With Similar Fatty Acid Composition at Constant Caloric Intake" 1995 Nov; 30(11): 969-76.

"In Framingham, Mass, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol…we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."*
*Reference: Castelli, William, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1992 Jul; 152(7): 1371-1372

"Abnormalities in glucose and insulin metabolism are commonly found in patients with high blood pressure [1-9]"…"there is evidence suggesting that defects in glucose and insulin metabolism may play a role in both the origin and the natural history of high blood pressure."*
*Reference: Reaven G. et al, The American Journal of Medicine 1989; 87(supp 6A):6A-2S

"If, as we had been told, heart disease results from the consumption of saturated fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fat in the American diet. Actually the reverse is true. During the sixty year period from 1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet plummeted from 83% to 62%, the proportion of butter consumption from 18 pounds per person per year to 4. During the past eighty years dietary vegetable fat in the form of margarine, shortening and refined oils increase about 400% and the consumption of sugar and processed foods increase about 60%."*
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: US Department of Agriculture statistics quoted in Douglass, William Campbell, MD The Milk of Human Kindness is Not Pasteurized, 1985 Copple House Books, Lakemont, Georgia, 184; and in Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 144.

"In the United States, 315 of every 100,000 middle aged men die of heart attacks each year; in France the rate is 145 per 100,000. In the Gascony region, where goose and duck liver form a staple of the diet, this rate is a remarkably low 80 per 100,000." *
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: The New York Times, November 17, 1991

"More plagues than heart disease can be laid at sugar's door. A survey of medical journals in the 1970's produced findings implicating sugar as a causative factor in kidney disease, liver disease, shortened life-span, increased desire for coffee and tobacco, as well as atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease.*"
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Howell, Edward, MD Enzyme Nutrition 1985 Avery Publishing Group, Inc

"Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine."*
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Nutrition Week March 22, 1991 21:12:2-3

ON DIABETES:

"These results suggest that a high protein, low-carbohydrate diet, with nutritional supplementation can be useful to reduce several cardiovascular risk factors in obese adult onset diabetic patients including weight, blood sugar and lipid parameters. There is also no evidence that the nutritional regimen adversely affects kidney function."*
*Reference: Edman, JS et al. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, to be published in October 1998.

"it seems prudent to avoid the use of low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets containing moderate amounts of sucrose in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus." *
*Reference: Coulston, A.M. et al, American Journal of Medicine 1987 Feb; 82(2):213-220.

"As compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, the high-monounsaturated-fat diet resulted in lower mean plasma glucose levels and reduced insulin requirements, lower levels of plasma triglycerides and very low-density lipo-protein cholesterol , and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)(good) cholesterol. Levels of total cholesterol did not differ significantly in patients on the two diets." *
*Reference: Garg, A. et. al, New England Journal of Medicine 1988; 319 (13): 829-34).

"A very high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet has been shown to have astounding effects in helping type 2 diabetics lose weight and improve their blood lipid profiles. 'The thing many diabetics coming into the office don't realize is that other forms of carbohydrates will increase their sugar, too. Dieticians will point toward complex carbohydrates ... oatmeal and whole wheat bread, but we have to deliver the message that these are carbohydrates that increase blood sugars, too."*
*Referance: 81st Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society June 12-15, 1999 San Diego, California

ON STROKE:

"Intakes of fat, saturated fat, and monosaturated fat were associated with reduced risk of ischemic stroke in men."* (design and setting from the Framingham Heart Study)
*Reference: Gillman M. et al, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1997; 78(24): 2145-2150

ON THE LOW-FAT DIET:

"Low-fat diets low in polyunsaturated fatty acids induce essential fatty acid (EFA) insufficiency, and can increase the biochemical risk factors for heart disease: they may also increase appetite." *
*Reference: Siguel, E. BioMedicina, January 1998; 1(1): 9

"low-fat, high carbohydrate diets also reduce high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and raise fasting levels of triglycerides."*
*Reference: Mensink RP, et al, Arteriorscler Thromb 1992 Aug;12(8): 911-919

"Hence, many earlier observations indicating reductions in plasma lipid levels when people are on low-fat diets may be due to changes in the fatty acid composition of the diet, not the reduction in fat calories." *
*Reference: Nelson, G.J. et al., Lipids 1995; 30(11): 969-976.

"The relative good health of the Japanese, who have the longest life-span in the world, is generally attributed to a low-fat diet"…"Those who point to Japanese statistics to promote the low-fat diet fail to mention that the Swiss live almost as long on one of the fattiest diets in the world. Tied for third in the longevity are Austria and Greece—both with high fat diets."*
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Moore, Thomas J Lifespan: What Really Affects Human Longevity, 1990 Simon & Schuster, New York

"Mother's milk contains a higher portion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially development of the brain.* Yet, the American Heart Association is now recommending a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet for children!"
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference:Alfin-Slater, RB and L Aftergood, "Lipids", Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, RS Goodhart and ME Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p. 31

"…there is still the potential for low-fat intakes to adversely affect the nutritional adequacy of the diet of children…Given the assumption that there are some potential nutritional dangers associated with the unsupervised use of such diets, with no proven benefits, this diet should definitely not be advocated for infants and young children." *
*Reference: Zlotkin, SH Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1997;151:962-963

"In 1821 the average sugar intake in America was 10 pounds per person per year; today it is 170 pounds per person, over one fourth the average caloric intake. Another large fraction of all calories comes from refined flour and refined vegetable oils."*
—Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions 1995 Promotion Publishing
*Reference: Beasley, Joseph D, MD and Jerry J Swift, MA The Kellogg Report, 1989 The Institute of Health Policy and Practice, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 144-145.