Word: hdl
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...story begins in 1974, when doctors discovered that a man named Valerio Dagnoli, from the northern Italian town of Limone sul Garda, had vanishingly low levels of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, which keeps arteries from accumulating brittle plaque that can break off and choke blood flow. Surprisingly, though, Dagnoli had no heart disease. Neither did the 40 or so other townspeople researchers turned up who had minimal HDL...
Researchers have long known that cocoa beans contain a class of chemicals called flavonoids, which are also found in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. Previous studies suggest that flavonoids raise levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and act as potent antioxidants, protecting cells from free-radical damage, which can contribute to aging, heart disease and certain cancers...
That turned out to be a problem. Even small quantities of trans-fatty acids, we now know, raise bad cholesterol and other blood fats. They may also reduce levels of HDL--or good--cholesterol and increase the risk of diabetes. And because of antiquated labeling rules, products that were practically swimming in trans-fatty acids could be called "fat-free...
...whom were obese, was a modest 13 lbs. in the first NEJM study and 15 lbs. in the second. Forty percent of the subjects dropped out of the experiments before completing them. Both studies also showed that the Atkins-style diet boosted the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the so-called good cholesterol, in the blood and lowered the amount of potentially dangerous fats called triglycerides...
...benefit, the advantages gradually disappeared over the long term. After a year, folks on the low-carb diet had regained much more weight than those on low-fat diets. And as Dr. Dean Ornish--on the opposite side of many a debate with Atkins--points out, you would expect HDL levels to go up with a low-carb diet, since HDL acts as a kind of dump truck for scavenging fatty compounds. It will also take years to determine whether low-carb diets--which stint on carbohydrate-laden fruits and vegetables--increase the risk of kidney or bone damage, cancer...