Macro partitioning
Low-carbohydrate diets (<40% carbs) significantly reduce triglyceride levels and body weight, and increase HDL-C, with effects being most pronounced in interventions lasting less than 11 months.
Adopting a diet where less than 40% of calories come from carbohydrates can help lower triglycerides, reduce body weight, and improve HDL cholesterol, particularly if you stick with it for under a year. While LDL cholesterol might rise slightly, the overall shift in lipid particles and triglyceride reduction suggests a net benefit for heart health compared to standard diets.
This meta-analysis confirms that low-carbohydrate diets have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk factors... The overall effect of low-carbohydrate diets on cardiovascular risk factors, compared with the effects of a control diet, on cardiovascular risk factors tended to be favorable at less than 6 months and 6–11 months, but after 2 years of a low-carbohydrate diet, there was little effect on cardiovascular risk factors.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of 12 RCTs with moderate heterogeneity; high quality studies but short duration limits long-term inference.
Source
The effects of low-carbohydrate diets on cardiovascular risk factors: A meta-analysis
Tingting Dong et al. · PLoS ONE · 2020
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