Carbohydrate Restriction Reduces Liver Triglycerides More Effectively Than Calorie Restriction - With Equal Weight Loss Outcomes.

A calorie is not a calorie, I hope you knew that even before Garry Taubes published his famous NY Times best-seller. Yet, in case you are still looking for respective studies to show to medially indoctrinated family members or friends, who still believe that - even if fat is not the enemy - half ratios would be the key to health & longevity, you might be interested in the results of a very recent investigation by Browning et al. (Browning. 2011).

The scientists put a group 18 non-alcoholic-fatty-liver patients on either a carbohydrate-restricted (<20g/day) or a calorie restricted (1200-1500kcal/day) diet - just to make sure you get this right: the carb-restricted group ate as much calories as they wanted! - and measured hepatic triglyceride levels before and after the 2 week dietary intervention. Probably to the surprise of many members of the medical orthodoxy, both groups lost about the same amount of weight (in fact the low-carb group lost -4.6kg, while the low-calorie group lost only -4.0kg!), yet the low-carb group had a much greater reduction in hepatic triglyceride levels:

Liver triglycerides decreased significantly with weight loss (P , 0.001) but decreased significantly more (P = 0.008) in carbohydrate-restricted subjects (-55.6%) than in calorie-restricted subjects (-28.6%).

So, even if you are not particularly interested in your liver health, the fact that by eating to satiety and just dropping your carb intake to <20g/day you can lose the same ~4.5kg you would lose if you starved yourself for 14 days should prick your ears.

Vitamin K for Healthy Bones & a Lean Physique: Rat Study Finds Phylloquinone (K1) & Menaquinone (K2) Ward off Fat Gain and Cut Triglycerides by Half

Until not too long ago, scientists thought vitamin D was all about bone. Every follower of this blog knows that this is a way too narrow perspective on what turned out to be more of a hormone than a vitamin. A recent study (Sogabe. 2011) on the effects of vitamin K supplementation in mice does now suggest that vitamin D's "cofactors" phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) and menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) have been similarly mistaken.

Figure 1: Weight of visceral fat pad in g after 85 days of  phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) or menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) supplementation (Sogabe. 2011)

Japanese scientists, who wanted to investigate the effect of 85 days of vitamin K supplementation (PK: 600 mg/kg; MK-4: 600 mg/kg) on bone development in mice, were surprised to find that vitamin K did not only improve bone mass and structure, but that...

the addition of PK or MK-4 significantly decreased the total fat accumulation (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively), and serum triglycerides were reduced by 48% in the PK group and 29% in the MK group compared with the control.

This is an interesting result, which is not related to increases in growth hormone release, as one might expect in view of the bone-building effects of vitamin K. The scientists speculate: "The effect of vitamin K on fat mass could be mediated through adiponectin regulation which itself has been found to be associated with fat mass." This, as well as the dose response relationship (the human equivalence dose for the amount of PK and MK-4 used in the study would be about 7.5g!) warrant further investigation - and, as always, the SuppVersity is the place to read about it, first!

Even Individuals on a "Healthy" Diet May Benefit from Supplemental Fiber

Fiber has been advertised for years as a universal health promoter. It curves appetite, reduces cholesterol and improves digestion - but is it really necessary to supplement with additional fiber, if your intake in fibrous veggies etc. is already high? A recent study by scientists from Australia (Pal. 2010) suggests that it may not be necessary, yet beneficial.

Figure 1: Changes in body weight (A); BMI (B); % body fat (C) and waist circumference (D).
From left to right: Control, FIB, HLT, HLT-FIB

Studying a cohort of 72 overweight and obese individuals with a BMI between 25 and 40 kg/m² and age between 18 and 65 years, the researchers found that over a time period of 12 weeks in which the subjects either practiced their "normal" eating habits or changed to a healthy food diet (HFT), supplemented with fiber (FIB) or switched to a healthy food diet that was supplemented with fiber (HFT-FIB)...

[...] weight, BMI and % total body fat were significantly reduced in FIB and HLT–FIB groups, with weight and BMI significantly reduced in the HLT group compared with control at 12 weeks. HLT–FIB and HLT groups had significant reductions in TAG and insulin compared with control at 6 and 12 weeks, and in insulin compared with the FIB group at 12 weeks. The HLT–FIB, HLT and FIB groups all had significant reductions in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol compared with control after 6 and 12 weeks.

As can be seen from figure 1 (above) the addition of fiber to an already healthy diet did in fact improve the overall beneficial results of the change in dietary habits. Bottom line: Firstly, eat healthy! Secondly, consider using a fiber supplement only if your diet is already in check.