Atkins diet study planned

Published on Monday 9 August 2004 01:51

AN INQUIRY into the health implications of the Atkins diet is to be launched by the government as new research showed that such low carbohydrate diets could help women fight breast cancer.

The diets will be considered as part of an investigation into obesity by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England and Wales.

The Scottish Executive said yesterday it would await the findings of the study "with great interest" since it had a key role to play in encouraging people to live healthier lives.

A panel of some 20 doctors, nutritionists and dieticians will be convened by NICE to investigate how obesity can be prevented and managed, which will include evaluating diets such as the Atkins.

The inquiry’s draft findings are expected to influence doctors’ treatment of overweight patients when they are published in a year’s time.

Meanwhile, American scientists have suggested that Atkins-style diets could help protect women from breast cancer, but said more work was needed for them to be sure.

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston have found a link between high carbohydrate consumption and an increased risk of such cancer.

A study of 2,000 women in Mexico, where high-carb diets are favoured, found that those who received at least 57 per cent of their calories from carbohydrates had more than twice the risk of breast cancer as women on more balanced diets. Sucrose and fructose had the strongest link with breast cancer risk.