7 Mar 2023 • According to new research, a low-carb, high-fat "keto-like" diet may increase "bad" cholesterol levels and double the risk of cardiovascular events such blocked arteries, heart attacks, and strokes. Lead study author Dr. Iulia Iatan from the Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic, St. Paul's Hospital, and University of British Columbia's Centre for Heart Lung Innovation said, "Our study found that regular consumption of a self-reported diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat was associated with increased levels of LDL cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, and a higher risk of heart disease." "This study is a valuable contribution to the scientific literature and implies the harms outweigh the benefits," said Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and an expert in the field of clinical keto diet studies. A low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet was described in the study as having 25% of daily calories from carbohydrates and 45% of calories from fat. The researchers tracked people for at least ten years, to compare the diets of 305 people following an LCHF diet with nearly 1,200 people following a conventional diet. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol and Apolipoprotein B levels were found to be elevated in those following an LCHF diet, according to the study's findings. After an average of 11.8 years of follow-up and after adjusting for other risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking, researchers found that people on an LCHF diet had a more than two-fold higher risk of several major cardiovascular events, such as blockages in the arteries that needed to be opened with stenting procedures, heart attack, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.

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