Yet another : you eat a weird diet, you may take risks - article :
yalealumnimagazine.com
findings
May/June 2004
Atkins and risk
by Cathy Shufro
New findings by Yale epidemiologist Tongzhang Zheng might give pause to Atkins Diet devotees: for women, a diet high in fat or protein -- Atkins staples -- significantly increases the chances of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A high-fiber diet reduces the risk.
"If you have a higher intake of fat, particularly saturated fat, your risk almost doubles," says Zheng, who studied the diets of and disease incidence among 1,300 Connecticut women from 1995 to 2001. "For the most prevalent and deadly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, your risk almost triples." High protein consumption also resulted in increased risk, while eating fruits and vegetables cut the risk by 40 to 60 percent, Zheng wrote in a paper published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Zheng himself steers clear of the debate about the benefits and drawbacks of the Atkins plan. "My suggestion is a balanced diet," he says. But Zheng has personal experience with its popularity. Visiting family in central China, he found two of his three sisters following Atkins.
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