Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A low-carb, high-fat "keto-like" diet may be linked to higher levels of "bad" cholesterol and double the risk of cardiovascular events such as blocked arteries, heart attacks and strokes, according to new research.
"Our study found that regular consumption of a self-reported diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat was associated with increased levels of LDL cholesterol -- or "bad" cholesterol -- and a higher risk of heart disease," lead study author Dr. Iulia Iatan with the Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic, St. Paul's Hospital and University of British Columbia's Centre for Heart Lung Innovation in Vancouver said in a news release.
"This study provides an important contribution to the scientific literature, and suggests the harms outweigh the benefits," said Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center who has conducted clinical trials on the keto diet. Gardner was not involved in the study.
"Elevated LDL cholesterol should not be dismissed as simply a negligible side effect of a VLCD (very-low-carb diet) or ketogenic diet," Gardner said, pointing to the higher risk of cardiovascular events in individuals with higher ketone levels in the blood, when compared to those on a more standard diet.
In the study, researchers defined a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet as 45% of total daily calories coming from fat and 25% coming from carbohydrates. The study, which has not been peer reviewed, was presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology.
"Our study rationale came from the fact that we would see patients in our cardiovascular prevention clinic with severe hypercholesterolemia following this diet," Iatan said during a presentation at the session.
Hypercholesterolemia, or high cholesterol, increases a person's risk of heart attack or other adverse cardiovascular events.
"This led us to wonder about the relationship between these low-carb, high-fat diets, lipid levels and cardiovascular disease. And so, despite this, there's limited data on this relationship," she said.
The researchers compared the diets of 305 people eating a LCHF diet with about 1,200 people eating a standard diet, using health information from the United Kingdom database UK Biobank, which followed people for at least a decade.
The researchers found that people on the LCHF diet had higher levels of low-density lipoprotein, also known as LDL, cholesterol and apolipoprotein B. Apolipoprotein B is a protein that coats LDL cholesterol proteins and can predict heart disease better than elevated levels of LDL cholesterol can.
The researchers also noticed that the LCHF diet participants' total fat intake was higher in saturated fat and had double the consumption of animal sources (33%) compared to those in the control group (16%).
"After an average of 11.8 years of follow-up -- and after adjustment for other risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and smoking -- people on an LCHF diet had more than two-times higher risk of having several major cardiovascular events, such as blockages in the arteries that needed to be opened with stenting procedures, heart attack, stroke and peripheral arterial disease," researchers found, according to the news release.
The researchers said in the release that their study "can only show an association between the diet and an increased risk for major cardiac events, not a causal relationship," because it was an observational study, but their findings are worth further study, "especially when approximately 1 in 5 Americans report being on a low-carb, keto-like or full keto diet."
Iatan said the study's limitations included measurement errors that occur when dietary assessments are self-reported, the study's small sample size and that most of the participants were British and didn't include other ethnic groups.
The study also looked at the longitudinal effect of following the diet, whereas most people who follow a keto-like diet tend to follow it intermittently for shorter periods of time.
Most of the participants -- 73% -- were women, which Iatan said is "quite interesting to see, but it also supports the literature that's available that women in general tend to follow more dietary patterns, tend to be more interested in changing their lifestyles."
When asked if there were any groups that were not harmed by following a LCHF diet, Iatan said how long people are on the diet and whether or not they lose weight "can counterbalance any LDL elevation."
"What matters to remember is that each patient responds differently. And so, there's really an inter-individual variability between the response. What we found is that, you know, on average, patients tend to increase their LDL cholesterol levels," she said.
Dr. David Katz, a lifestyle medicine specialist who was not involved in the study, said that "there are various ways to put together a LCHF diet, and it is very unlikely they all have the same effects on serum lipids or cardiac events."
However, he added, "That a LCHF diet is associated with adverse effects in this study is reality check for those adopting such diets just because they are in vogue."
Most health experts say the trendy keto diet, which bans carbohydrates to make your body burn fat for fuel, cuts out healthy food such as fruit, beans and legumes, and whole grains. In the keto diet, you limit your intake of carbohydrates to only 20 to 50 a day -- the lower, the better. To put that into perspective, a medium banana or apple is around 27 carbohydrates -- the full day's allowance.
"Those food groups that have to be eliminated to achieve ketosis are major sources of fiber in the diet, as well as many important nutrients, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. This is of concern to many health professionals who consider the VLCD or ketogenic diet to be harmful for long-term health," Gardner said.
Keto is short for ketosis, a metabolic state that occurs when your liver begins to use stored fat to produce ketones for energy. The liver is programmed to do that when your body loses access to its preferred fuel -- carbohydrates -- and thinks it's starving.
The keto diet has been around since the 1920s, when a doctor stumbled on it as a way of controlling seizures in children with epilepsy who didn't respond to other treatment methods.
Low-carb diets like keto rely heavily on fats to fill you up. At least 70% of the keto diet will be made up of fat; some say it's more like 90%.
While you can get all that fat from healthy unsaturated fats such as avocados, tofu, nuts, seeds and olive oil, the diet also allows saturated fats like lard, butter and coconut oil, as well as whole-fat milk, cheese and mayonnaise. Eating lots of foods high in saturated fat increases the body's production of LDL cholesterol, which can build up inside the arteries and restrict blood flow to the heart and brain.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.