Health

Body fat loss similar, review of diets shows

LONDON - Dieters on the popular high-fat, low-carb Atkins approach lose just as much body fat as those on low-fat diets, but the annoying low-carb side effects could mean problems down the road, according to a scientist who reviewed five dozen diet studies.

Dr. Arne Astrup, a Danish obesity expert whose survey is published this week in the Lancet medical journal, concludes that headaches, muscle weakness and diarrhea or constipation are reported more often by Atkins dieters than people on conventional diets. Those side effects might be signs that the eating plan isn't healthy in the long run, he says.

However, other experts said the diet remains a viable option for some because the side effects aren't bad enough to throw them off the eating plan famous for its shunning of bread, pasta and many fruits.

"More people stayed in the low-carb group than in the low-fat group, so you've got to wonder how severe those side effects were if more people kept to the low-carb diet," said William Yancy, a Duke University researcher who conducted one of the major studies that Astrup reviewed.

The Atkins diet, which allows unlimited consumption of protein and fat but drastically limits carbohydrates and does not restrict calories, has had a following for decades but only recently has come under serious scientific scrutiny. It has been embraced by an estimated 20-million people.

In his review, Astrup, director of research in the department of human nutrition at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Frederiksberg, Denmark, examined the evidence from about 60 studies on the Atkins and other low-carb diets.

Several small studies in the past year or two have surprised the experts by showing that people lose more weight on the Atkins diet than on the standard low-calorie, low-fat diet, at least in the short term, with even better cholesterol improvements.

Longer studies have since shown that when dieters are followed for a year, the total weight loss ends up almost the same with the two approaches. The long-term effect on cholesterol has not been studied.

Experts have suspected that the weight loss on a low-carb diet might be largely because of water loss, because lots of fluid is bound up in the body's carbohydrate stores that are depleted. However, Astrup said body composition studies indicated the weight loss is a real fat loss, not just water.

The most frequent complaints with low-carb diets are constipation and headache, which are readily explained by the lack of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, Astrup said.

Also, bad breath, muscle cramps, diarrhea, general weakness and rashes are more often reported on low-carb diets than on low-fat diets, Astrup found.

"The majority had some of these side effects in the Atkins group. In the control group, almost nothing," he said.

ATLANTA - Cats, which don't get most kinds of flu, can get deathly ill from bird flu and pass the disease to other cats, researchers said Thursday, raising the possibility that the mammals could help spread the illness to people.

The discovery that cats can be infected with and spread avian influenza H5N1 to other cats could prove to be another step in stamping out the disease.

Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, who reported their findings Thursday in the journal Science, injected the virus into three European shorthair cats. One died after six days, and the others became ill. Two healthy cats placed with the infected ones caught the virus and got sick. Three cats that ate day-old chicks containing the virus also got bird flu.

Virus levels in secretions from the cats were low, so it's unclear how much cats could spread the virus to other animals or people, the researchers said.

HOSPITALS COMPLYING: More than 98 percent of the nation's hospitals are voluntarily providing information about the quality of care they deliver, the government said Thursday. Hospitals face forfeiting a small portion of Medicare payments if they don't submit the data covering treatment for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. The information will be available next year, said Dr. Mark McClellan, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

MICE STEM CELLS REPRODUCE: Scientists have found stem cells taken from under the skin of mice are able to reproduce indefinitely in the lab, offering promise for regenerating skin and hair for people. According to research published today in the journal Cell, the stem cells that were reproduced also formed stretches of skin, tufts of hair and sebaceous glands, which secrete oils that lubricate the skin and hair, when they were grafted onto the backs of hairless mice.

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