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In a pilot study of 14 older adults with mild cognitive problems suggestive of early Alzheimer's disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may improve brain function and memory. "Our early findings suggest that perhaps we don't need to cut carbs as strictly as we initially tried. We may eventually see the same beneficial effects by adding a ketone supplement that would make the diet easier to follow," says Jason Brandt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It's something that 400-plus experimental drugs haven't been...

There are more than half a million vegans in Britain, and that number is rising everyday — making a plant-based diet one of the nation’s fastest growing lifestyle choices. It’s why this month several of the country’s biggest chain restaurants have launched or expanded vegan menus, so that those who eschew all animal products have more choice when they dine out. Many assume that a vegan lifestyle is much healthier than being a meat eater or even than being simply vegetarian — but some of the new menu items prove that vegan dishes are not always good for you. Some...

The paleo diet could lead to rapid weight gain and increased susceptibility to diabetes, a new study has found, but the findings were attacked as "comic" by devotees of the caveman-style diet. Warning the public to avoid "putting faith in so-called fad diets", researchers at Melbourne University said the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet had been tested on mice for just eight weeks and found to cause weight gains of 15 percent and health complications. [...] The study was published in the journal Nutrition and Diabetes. But the findings were disregarded by fans of the diet, including celebrity chef Pete Evans, who...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Kidney failure is a main complication of diabetes, but a lab study on mice showed that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet could reverse that in eight weeks, US researchers said Wednesday. The extreme food plan is known as a ketogenic diet and is often used to treat children with drug-resistant epilepsy. It starves the body of carbs and sugars, thereby tricking the body into burning fat for fuel instead of glucose. The diet is so restrictive it must be devised with an expert's help. Meal options may include scrambled eggs with cream, a bacon and butter omelet, or...

If you're counting carbs -- and you know who you are -- there's a product for you. About a dozen new ones a week, in fact. From muffins to margaritas, food and beverage companies are rolling out a buffet of reduced-carbohydrate products to keep up with America's latest diet obsession. "This is a breakout year. We've definitely reached the craze point," said Tom Vierhile, executive editor of Productscan Online, a newsletter that tracks new products. More than 600 reduced-carbohydrate items have cropped up this year, double the number launched in recent years, Vierhile said. Supermarket experts say it's just the...

<p>WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Nutritionists are urging the top 10 U.S. hospitals to ban the Atkins diet, reports said Friday.</p> <p>The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine announced Friday in Washington it hopes the hospitals will emulate England's Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which is eliminating the controversial diet from its menus, fearing a link to kidney damage.</p>

Nov. 18 — Multitudes swear by the high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, and now a carefully controlled study backs them up: Low-carb may actually take off more weight than low-fat and may be surprisingly better for cholesterol, too. ... Westman studied 120 overweight volunteers, who were randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or the heart association’s Step 1 diet, a widely used low-fat approach. On the Atkins diet, people limited their carbs to less than 20 grams a day, and 60 percent of their calories came from fat. “It was high fat, off the scale,” he said. After six months, the...