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Can including wheat in your diet create hell on earth? Was The Inferno nothing more than Danté's prediction for the state of the U.S. diet circa 2009? I'm kidding on The Inferno allusion, but the American diet nonetheless sure does create an inferno of unhealthy phenomena.

MedWire News: Eating two eggs a day, as part of an energy-restricted weight-loss diet, does not increase levels of 'bad' or total cholesterol, results of a UK study show.

This week sees the publication of yet another study showing the superiority of the low-carbohydrate diet as compared to the low-fat diet. This study, published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, demonstrates that subjects following the low-carb diet experience a decrease in triglyceride levels and an increase in HDL-cholesterol (HDL) levels; and that these changes are accompanied by a minor increase in LDL-cholesterol (LDL), which prompts the authors to issue a caveat. Yes, although just about all the parameters that lipophobes worry about improved with the low-carb diet, the small increase in LDL has caused great concern and has prompted the authors to gravely announce that this small increase is troublesome and should be monitored closely in anyone who may be at risk for heart disease. Since most people who go on low-carb diets do so to deal with obesity issues, and since obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, it would appear that this small increase in LDL often seen in those following a low-carb diet could put these dieters at risk. Does it? We'll see.

Long-term effects of a very-low-carbohydrate weight loss diet compared with an isocaloric low-fat diet after 12 mo. Brinkworth GD, Noakes M, Buckley JD, Keogh JB, Clifton PM. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May 13. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19439458 doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.27326

Egg breakfast enhances weight loss. Vander Wal JS, Gupta A, Khosla P, Dhurandhar NV. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Oct;32(10):1545-51. Epub 2008 Aug 5. PMID: 18679412 doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.130 Conclusions: The egg breakfast enhances weight loss, when combined with an energy-deficit diet, but does not induce weight loss in a free-living condition. The inclusion of eggs in a weight management program may offer a nutritious supplement to enhance weight loss.

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) - Overweight individuals who ate a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet high in plant-based proteins for four weeks lost weight and experienced improvements in blood cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A high-carbohydrate, low-fat vegetarian diet also resulted in weight loss but without the additional cardiovascular benefits.