Why we love low-carb ketogenic diet (reduces risk of heart disease)

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A common misconception is that because ketogenic diets are high in fat, they must increase cholesterol in your body and clog your arteries. However, much of the recent research shines light on how low-carb diets can optimize your cholesterol levels and in fact improve your heart health.


In a study from 2009 by Brinkworth et al., researchers recruited 118 obese men and women and separated them into two groups for a year-long intervention study. The first group consumed a very-low-carbohydrate, high-saturated diet with 4%, 35%, and 61% energy from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats respectively.

This equates to about 20 grams of carbohydrates on a 2000 kcal diet per day – a more stringent application of carbohydrate restriction use than the meta-analysis above. The second group consumed primarily a low-fat diet with 46%, 24%, and 30% energy from respectively from carbohydrate, protein, and fat per day. Both diets contained an equal number of calories.

About 59% of participants completed the 12-month trial: 33 in the low-carb group and 36 in the low-fat group. Both groups lost similar amount of body weight and body fat. The subjects who participated in the low-fat intervention experienced an average increase in HDL cholesterol of 0.07 mmol/L from 1.36 mmol/L to 1.43 mmol/L. [12] This represents a 4.9% increase.

In contrast, the subjects who participated in the high-fat intervention experienced an average increase in HDL cholesterol of 0.30 mmol/L from 1.45 mmol/L to 1.75 mmol/L. [12] This represents a 20.6% increase – almost four times as much as that found in the low-fat diet.


Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is often referred to as the “bad” cholesterol (again, it is actually a protein).

It is known that people who have high LDL are much more likely to have heart attacks.

However… what scientists have now learned is that the type of LDL matters. Not all of them are equal.

In this regard, the size of the particles is important. People who have mostly small particles have a high risk of heart disease, while people who have mostly large particles have a low risk.

It turns out that low-carb diets actually turn the LDL particles from small to large, while reducing the number of LDL particles floating around in the bloodstream.


Bottom Line: When you eat a low-carb diet, your LDL particles change from small (bad) LDL to large LDL – which is benign. Cutting carbs can also reduce the number of LDL particles floating around in the bloodstream.