Paleo diets cut kilos but harm hearts
Health experts are warning that people on paleo diets may be risking heart problems, amid concerns about soaring cholesterol levels.
The WA Heart Foundation says while people can lose weight on any diet that limits kilojoules, people eating high-protein diets could be increasing their cholesterol or blood pressure to dangerous levels.
Paleo, dubbed the Caveman or Stone Age diet, advocates foods low in carbohydrate but high in protein such as meat, and mostly shuns grains.
A wave of celebrity endorsements, including that of My Kitchen Rules chef Pete Evans, has triggered a recent war of words between paleo followers and dietitians.
Cardiologist Michelle Ammerer, a director on the WA Heart Foundation board, said paleo diets were very fashionable, particularly with body-builders and people into fitness, but she had concerns about anyone with heart disease risk factors.
"If you're someone with normal cholesterol, it can be markedly elevated very quickly on a paleo diet," Dr Ammerer said.
"I've got a patient who had a cholesterol level of 5 that's now gone up to 8.9 and that was within a four-month period of religiously adhering to a paleo diet, and that was a very educated person who was into fitness and had a family history of heart disease.
"My concern is that we don't know the long-term aspects of this sort of diet, but we do know that hypertension and cholesterol increase your risk of heart disease, which is still the number one killer."
Heart Foundation chief executive Maurice Swanson said 92 per cent of people had at least one risk factor for heart disease such as obesity, physical inactivity or high cholesterol or blood pressure, while two-thirds had two or more.
A recent study by Harvard University in the US found that replacing saturated fatty acids found in foods such as red meat, coconut oil and butter with foods containing linoleic acid, the main polyunsaturated fat found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, significantly lowered the risk of heart disease and death.
