Comments on: Will A Low Carb Diet Raise Or Lower Cholesterol?

By: Andrics

Andrics — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:43:28 +0000

Hi Mark , good to see you keeping up the hard work. Still following your site. You may remember last year I gave the the whole MANS diet and training a go for around three months and unfortunately had an unexpected and horrifying result with a cholesterol test at the end of my trial.(9.3)! Just as an update I stuck to the advised NHS recommendations in a hardcore way and after three months its back down to my old not so bad level of 6.2. I post this comment as I feel people should know and at least test themselves before starting the MANS diet and sometime after etc. Will post via the forum for a wider audience and opinion. Thanks

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:46:56 +0000

@ Yavor. That’s a good summary. Basically, the Eades’ and Taubes’ etc. of this world are saying that the fundamental assumption (from the 1950’s) is completely wrong. It’s carbs, especially refined carbs, and in turn chronically high insulin that is central to modern diseases – heart disease, obesity, diabetes…and I agree!

@ Daan, do your own research to put your mind at ease. Look for studies and such to back up claims though. By the way, if you find a comparative study that shows adverse changes in lipid profile from a low carb, high fat diet in relation to a high carb, low fat one – let me know 😉 . Point 3 – the are small and large particles of LDL. It is stating that it may be the case that only the small ones may cause problems and that total LDL count may therefore be misleading.

@ G. (1) You shouldn’t be having a big carb-up in this case.
(2) Those carbs should be unrefined
(3) You include a good dose of fish oil (you already eat salmon), cold pressed olive oil, almonds… in addition to your natural saturated fat.
Assuming the above 3, you won’t get into fat storage or elevated ‘bad’ cholesterol. Do be aware of total calorie intake at this level of carbs, though you don’t need to get anal about getting it down to the last 10 calories.

P.S. Almonds can lower LDL cholesterol, here’s a study
https://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/106/11/1327

Cheers guys,
Mark

By: g

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:22:12 +0000

Great stuff as always Mark.

But I have a question: if I do not strictly follow MANS and get 90-100 grams of carbs per day(some days being lower), will eating a lot of almonds – eggs and salmon get me storing fat or raising bad cholesterol levels?
This is even more important to me, since I wont be able to train for a month. Should I change something?

By: Daan

Daan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:46:32 +0000

Just figured out that I’m really only relying on your posts for information about the health of all this… I do hope you’re right 🙂
There’s a little typo in the very last paragraph: the first LDL in conclusion (3) should be HDL (or the others should be, in which case I’m still confused about the LDL/HDL thing).

By: Yavor

Yavor — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:29:29 +0000

Thanks for that Mark. Hadn’t really read info of the role of insulin in the production of cholesterol by the cells before.

This explains a lot! Let me see if I got it:

1. Too much sugar promotes too much insulin, which makes you store that excess sugar and you get fat.

2. It also makes the cells produce cholesterol and you get too much of it in your blood (cause the cells don’t absorb it) thus causing clogging.

Yavor

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:37:34 +0000

Thanks guys. Glad I could help.
Mark

By: Flest

Flest — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:31:27 +0000

Wow! Great post Mark. This totally makes sense for me now as I was usually worried about my cholesterol, but not anymore!

By: Valy66

Valy66 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:08:08 +0000

An excelent article.
Keep it up.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:59:00 +0000

Great article, Mark!
I had no idea about the insulin connection, keep them coming. B