Research
Macro partitioning
Low-carbohydrate diets are not significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality or incidence in the long term.
You do not need to worry that a low-carbohydrate diet will significantly increase your risk of heart disease or stroke based on current observational data. However, the source of your protein and fat (plant vs. animal) may influence these outcomes, so prioritize plant-based sources.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
The risks of CVD mortality and incidence were not statistically increased: the pooled RRs (95% CIs) were 1.10 (0.98–1.24) and 0.98 (0.78–1.24), respectively.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of observational studies; heterogeneity exists, but the point estimates are close to 1.0.
Source
Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies
Hiroshi Noto et al. · PLoS ONE · 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0055030
Meta-analysis · 17 studiesCited 229×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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