Eating low-carbohydrate diets may raise the risk of early death, claimed a study while noting that food products low in fat can prolong life. Short-term clinical trials have shown the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets for weight loss and cardiovascular benefits. Low-fat diets include whole grain food, lean meat, reduced-fat dairy, vegetables, lentils, and fruits. Low-carbohydrate diets, on the other hand, restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low-carbohydrate foods. The study, led by an international team of researchers from the universities of Peking in China, Harvard, and Tulane in the US, included 371,159 participants aged 50-71 years.


The participants were followed for 23.5 years, and 165,698 deaths were recorded. The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, showed that adopting a low-fat diet could slash the risk of death each year by up to 34 percent.


Also read: Eco-Anxiety: Is Climate Change Affecting Your Mental Health, Here's How To Cope


Meanwhile, low-carb diets increased mortality risk by up to 38 percent. People on keto-like diets were 28 percent more likely to die from any cause when compared to their high-carb peers.


"Higher mortality was observed for overall low-carbohydrate diet and unhealthy low-carbohydrate diet, but slightly lower risks for healthy low-carbohydrate diet," the researchers wrote in the study.


"Our results support the importance of maintaining a healthy low-fat diet with less saturated fat in preventing all-cause and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged and older people," they added.


Moreover, following a healthy low-fat diet was associated with significantly lower total mortality by 18 percent, cardiovascular mortality by 16 percent, and cancer mortality by 18 percent, respectively, versus the lowest.