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American Morning

High Fat, Low Carb Diet May Finally Be Getting Its Due

Aired November 19, 2002 - 08:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Atkins diet, for years some doctors have dismissed it because they didn't write it, but a high fat/low carb diet may finally be getting its due. A new study partly funded by the Atkins Foundation suggests the diet can improve cholesterol while lowering weight.
Joining us now is medical Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Nice to see you in person. Are you so happy to be in the Big Apple?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm really happy to be here.

ZAHN: You're lying. All he does is complain whenever we drag him to New York.

So let's talk about this study. Don't you immediately have to be suspicious when you hear that the study was in part funded by the guy who wrote the diet? What else would the study tell you? It's not going to tell you it's a terrible diet?

GUPTA: No, there's no question, you have to be skeptical of something like that. Robert Atkins Foundation actually funding part of this study, as you point out. There are other studies under way, including one by the National Institute of health, which will be probably the bigger study, the more important study, to actually determine whether or not this diet actually is not only beneficial in terms of losing weight, but also not as detrimental to your cholesterol or to your heart, and that's been the big question.

All these critics have been saying, listen, this particular diet, sure you may lose weight, 30 pounds even over a few weeks, few months, but what is it doing to your heart, what is it doing to your cholesterol? Look at some of the numbers here, Paula, very interesting, from this early, very small study I'll point out -- 31 pounds versus 20 pounds. That's one of the numbers that people really pay attention to, in terms of weight loss. HDL, that's the good cholesterol, up 6 with the Atkins, the good cholesterol. Down two with the AHA diet, the American Heart Association diet. LDL up one. That's the bad cholesterol. Down five. So that's sort of a wash almost there with the bad cholesterol. Triglycerides...

ZAHN: How can that be a wash. That's a big number differential.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, but the overall percentagewise, it's sort of a wash, because LDL numbers are, the number corresponding to the actual LDL is pretty small. The triglycerides, you can see a big difference, actually down 80 with the Atkins, up 40 with the AHA.

These numbers are not the numbers that people expected. They're sort of astonished that the cholesterol profile is actually that good with an Atkins Diet. There are a Lot of people smiling about this right now. There a lot of people who said, see, I told you Atkins wasn't going to be that bad for you. And at least with this small, as you point out, partially funded study by this Atkins Foundation, they appear to be right. More studies need to be done.

ZAHN: I feel vindicated.

I do the burger at breakfast routine.

But let me ask you this, what does that mean to the average dieter out there then? Should that encourage them to try this style of dieting?

GUPTA: One really important about the Atkins I need to point out is besides just the high fat, and we're talking 60 percent of your diet coming from fat, less than 20 grams of carbohydrates, there are also recommendations of the Atkins that a lot don't abide by. One of the big ones, you have to take a fish oil supplement with the diet. We know fish oil is good. We know fish oil lowers cholesterol. People on this Atkins Diet were given the fish oil. People on the AHA diet were not. So that's one important thing about it.

I'm not sure what the message is for dieters right now. I'm not sure people should leap to bounds and say, absolutely, everyone start doing Atkins. But you and I have talked about so many times the food pyramid isn't practical for people. We need studies on diets that people can actually live by, and this may be one of them. And if the further studies show it's not that bad for your heart, it's not that bad for you cholesterol if you take the fish oil and everything, it may be a good option for people.

ZAHN: On to some menopause news this morning, you brought all kinds of supplements with you this morning -- what's up?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, ever since July, people have been trying to find different ways besides hormone replacement therapy to combat heart disease, to combat osteoporosis, to combat all these mood swings associated with menopause, ever since we found out hormone replacement therapy wasn't as good.

You asked me a few months ago to every time we learn something new about alternative medicines to show it to you. There's been some new data out here. Let's look at the chart as well of some supplements, and you can see here, they've actually looked at several different supplements to try and figure out which are good, which are bad. You can take a look at the list there yourself.

Black cohosh, I'll just cut right to the chase here, is really the only effective herbal treatment for hot flashes, associated with menopause, out of all these supplements. You'll see the entire list swing by and all the supplements sitting here on the desk. Black cohosh, a Native American supplement, appears to be the only one that uniformly actually seems to give some benefit with hot flashes.

ZAHN: Would it give the woman the same degree of relief they might have gotten from hormone replacement therapy, which is the main reason why a lot of women in America are on that?

GUPTA: That's right, and that's an excellent question, and they weren't able to study those two right next to each other. What they did is studied all these herbal supplements next to each other, but they didn't actually use hormone replacement therapy as a standard. They asked the women, are your hot flashes going away, are they getting better? What they found with most of these, they didn't change at all. With black cohosh, it did.

ZAHN: How many a day do you recommend women take, if their doctors are comfortable with it?

GUPTA: Right, and it depends on the formulation. There are directions on there. Usually, it's just one to two pills a day. But you have to look at the milligrams in the particular pills. That's a really important point, because a lot of these things aren't regulated yet. So you have to make sure you look at how many milligrams are in each pill you're buying. It could be 90 in one, 120 in another.

ZAHN: I'm glad you are paying attention to this issue. You have no idea how many E-mails we get whenever you touch on this issue, because there's so much confusion and so much conflict.

GUPTA: This affects all women, no question about it. It affects men. It affects entire families. And breast cancer, heart disease stroke, osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy, everything is linked into this one issue. It's absolutely important that we talk about it, and we're going to continue to keep you updated.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 19, 2002 - 08:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Atkins diet, for years some doctors have dismissed it because they didn't write it, but a high fat/low carb diet may finally be getting its due. A new study partly funded by the Atkins Foundation suggests the diet can improve cholesterol while lowering weight.
Joining us now is medical Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Nice to see you in person. Are you so happy to be in the Big Apple?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm really happy to be here.

ZAHN: You're lying. All he does is complain whenever we drag him to New York.

So let's talk about this study. Don't you immediately have to be suspicious when you hear that the study was in part funded by the guy who wrote the diet? What else would the study tell you? It's not going to tell you it's a terrible diet?

GUPTA: No, there's no question, you have to be skeptical of something like that. Robert Atkins Foundation actually funding part of this study, as you point out. There are other studies under way, including one by the National Institute of health, which will be probably the bigger study, the more important study, to actually determine whether or not this diet actually is not only beneficial in terms of losing weight, but also not as detrimental to your cholesterol or to your heart, and that's been the big question.

All these critics have been saying, listen, this particular diet, sure you may lose weight, 30 pounds even over a few weeks, few months, but what is it doing to your heart, what is it doing to your cholesterol? Look at some of the numbers here, Paula, very interesting, from this early, very small study I'll point out -- 31 pounds versus 20 pounds. That's one of the numbers that people really pay attention to, in terms of weight loss. HDL, that's the good cholesterol, up 6 with the Atkins, the good cholesterol. Down two with the AHA diet, the American Heart Association diet. LDL up one. That's the bad cholesterol. Down five. So that's sort of a wash almost there with the bad cholesterol. Triglycerides...

ZAHN: How can that be a wash. That's a big number differential.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, but the overall percentagewise, it's sort of a wash, because LDL numbers are, the number corresponding to the actual LDL is pretty small. The triglycerides, you can see a big difference, actually down 80 with the Atkins, up 40 with the AHA.

These numbers are not the numbers that people expected. They're sort of astonished that the cholesterol profile is actually that good with an Atkins Diet. There are a Lot of people smiling about this right now. There a lot of people who said, see, I told you Atkins wasn't going to be that bad for you. And at least with this small, as you point out, partially funded study by this Atkins Foundation, they appear to be right. More studies need to be done.

ZAHN: I feel vindicated.

I do the burger at breakfast routine.

But let me ask you this, what does that mean to the average dieter out there then? Should that encourage them to try this style of dieting?

GUPTA: One really important about the Atkins I need to point out is besides just the high fat, and we're talking 60 percent of your diet coming from fat, less than 20 grams of carbohydrates, there are also recommendations of the Atkins that a lot don't abide by. One of the big ones, you have to take a fish oil supplement with the diet. We know fish oil is good. We know fish oil lowers cholesterol. People on this Atkins Diet were given the fish oil. People on the AHA diet were not. So that's one important thing about it.

I'm not sure what the message is for dieters right now. I'm not sure people should leap to bounds and say, absolutely, everyone start doing Atkins. But you and I have talked about so many times the food pyramid isn't practical for people. We need studies on diets that people can actually live by, and this may be one of them. And if the further studies show it's not that bad for your heart, it's not that bad for you cholesterol if you take the fish oil and everything, it may be a good option for people.

ZAHN: On to some menopause news this morning, you brought all kinds of supplements with you this morning -- what's up?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, ever since July, people have been trying to find different ways besides hormone replacement therapy to combat heart disease, to combat osteoporosis, to combat all these mood swings associated with menopause, ever since we found out hormone replacement therapy wasn't as good.

You asked me a few months ago to every time we learn something new about alternative medicines to show it to you. There's been some new data out here. Let's look at the chart as well of some supplements, and you can see here, they've actually looked at several different supplements to try and figure out which are good, which are bad. You can take a look at the list there yourself.

Black cohosh, I'll just cut right to the chase here, is really the only effective herbal treatment for hot flashes, associated with menopause, out of all these supplements. You'll see the entire list swing by and all the supplements sitting here on the desk. Black cohosh, a Native American supplement, appears to be the only one that uniformly actually seems to give some benefit with hot flashes.

ZAHN: Would it give the woman the same degree of relief they might have gotten from hormone replacement therapy, which is the main reason why a lot of women in America are on that?

GUPTA: That's right, and that's an excellent question, and they weren't able to study those two right next to each other. What they did is studied all these herbal supplements next to each other, but they didn't actually use hormone replacement therapy as a standard. They asked the women, are your hot flashes going away, are they getting better? What they found with most of these, they didn't change at all. With black cohosh, it did.

ZAHN: How many a day do you recommend women take, if their doctors are comfortable with it?

GUPTA: Right, and it depends on the formulation. There are directions on there. Usually, it's just one to two pills a day. But you have to look at the milligrams in the particular pills. That's a really important point, because a lot of these things aren't regulated yet. So you have to make sure you look at how many milligrams are in each pill you're buying. It could be 90 in one, 120 in another.

ZAHN: I'm glad you are paying attention to this issue. You have no idea how many E-mails we get whenever you touch on this issue, because there's so much confusion and so much conflict.

GUPTA: This affects all women, no question about it. It affects men. It affects entire families. And breast cancer, heart disease stroke, osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy, everything is linked into this one issue. It's absolutely important that we talk about it, and we're going to continue to keep you updated.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com