Experts are to determine what diet is best to reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

A four-year study will look at the impact of changes in dietary fat and carbohydrates on known risk factors for these diseases.

The Medical Research Council, which is carrying out the research, hopes the results can be used to inform public health policy.

The Food Standards Agency has given £2.7m to fund the research.

Metabolic Syndrome

People with Metabolic Syndrome have difficulties metabolising sugar in the normal way and can go on to develop diabetes and heart disease.

Up to a quarter of adults in the UK have one or more of the risk factors for developing Metabolic Syndrome.

These include obesity, high blood pressure and abnormal blood fat levels.

People who eat high fat diets and do little exercise tend to be at greater risk of developing the Metabolic Syndrome.

But less is known about foods that may help to reduce the risk.

A balanced, healthy diet low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables, along with regular exercise, has long been advocated for a healthy life.

But the MRC researchers go a step further and suggest the amount and quality of fat and carbohydrate in the diet might modify some of the features of the Metabolic Syndrome.

Lead researcher, Dr Susan Jebb, head of Nutrition and Health Research at MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, said: "Current dietary guidelines aim to reduce the levels of saturated fat in the diet, but many questions remain unanswered."

Fats and carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have an immediate effect on blood sugar when they are eaten and can be ranked as the glycaemic index.

The glycaemic index compares foods gram for gram for carbohydrate. Carbohydrates that breakdown quickly during digestion have the highest glycaemic indexes and blood glucose response is fast and high.

Carbohydrates that breakdown slowly release glucose gradually into the blood stream and have low glycaemic indexes.

The MRC researchers will look at two types of diets that vary in their fat and carbohydrate content.

Test diets

One type will be a low fat, high carbohydrate diet and the other will be a moderate fat diet where the saturated fats are replaced by monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA).

A spokesman for the MRC explained: "Constructing test diets that take into account normal British eating habits can be difficult in practice.

"This project focuses on comparing the existing UK diet with diets either high in MUFA or low fat, with the carbohydrate content of the diet comprising either high or low glycaemic index, which will provide realistic and useful data to inform public health policy."

The scientists will recruit 650 volunteers from their research centre in Cambridge and four other centres - the University of Surrey, the University of Reading, London's King's College and Imperial College London.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3715539.stm

Again the 'experts' are allowing their biases to determine what they will be studying. I doubt they have any data that proves that the saturated fats cause any problems related to metabolic syndrome. I'm sure that the results will look better on the lower carb diet and that the 'experts' will then announce that monosaturated fats are therefore better that saturated fats.

It is much harder to eat naturally when saturated fats are replaced with monosaturated fats in a diet. This greatly reduces food choices.

Yeah, it's a stacked deck.

And notice, 'lead researcher' Susan Jebb has been a vocal, anti-Atkins lowfatter, who gets funded by the flour industry in Britain.

A no-win, non-study that will show absolutely zilch.

~It looks like she's following this lead in diabetic research:


Dietary cis-monounsaturated fatty acids and metabolic control in type 2 diabetes.

Ros E.

Lipid Clinic, Nutrition & Dietetics Service, Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Hospital Clinico, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. eros~medicina.ub.es

Whether low-fat, high-carbohydrate (CHO) diets or moderately high-fat, high-monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) diets are preferable for the treatment and prevention of diabetes has been a matter of debate. High-fat diets based on MUFA-rich oils or whole foods have been compared with high-CHO diets for effects on several cardiovascular risk outcomes in diabetic subjects. Early studies using metabolic diets with wide differences in total fat content (15-25% of energy) generally found a beneficial effect of MUFA diets on glycemic control and serum lipids. Recent studies using prescribed diets with a difference of </= 15% of energy in total fat between low-fat and high-MUFA diets show similar effects on glycemic profiles but still favor MUFA diets for effects on triacylglycerols and HDL cholesterol. It is unclear whether postprandial fat clearance is impaired by CHO diets and improved by MUFA diets, independent of effects on fasting triacylglycerol concentrations. Unless one diet contains abundant antioxidants, the 2 dietary approaches appear to have similar effects on LDL oxidation.

Low-fat diets, however, are associated with atherogenic, dense LDL particles, while normal, buoyant LDL predominate with high-fat diets irrespective of fatty acid composition. Limited experimental evidence suggests that MUFA diets favorably influence blood pressure, coagulation, endothelial activation, inflammation, and thermogenic capacity. Energy-controlled high-MUFA diets do not promote weight gain and are more acceptable than low-fat diets for weight loss in obese subjects. Thus, there is good scientific support for MUFA diets as an alternative to low-fat diets for medical nutrition therapy in diabetes.
Publication Types:
* Review
* Review, Tutorial

PMID: 12936956 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]



I'm sure this has been done for weight loss as well as diabetes. A pity she couldn't include a moderately high-fat high-saturated fatty acid group (SFA) as a third diet group. A lost opportunity. The British tax payer partly funds this and will miss an interesting and balanced study because of SFA phobia!