--- title: Low-Carb Diet: description: Keeping up with the carb-bashing can be tough. One day they're in, the next day they're on the chopping block. Evidence continues to pile up... canonical: https://time.com/3652624/carb-carbohydrate-diet/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-05T16:52:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:07.454Z article:section: Health og:title: Low-Carb Diet: og:description: Keeping up with the carb-bashing can be tough. One day they're in, the next day they're on the chopping block. Evidence continues to pile up... og:url: https://time.com/3652624/carb-carbohydrate-diet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27fda617136689dd/698777f0428a9e7fd6cc65e0/carbs-wheat-toast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3559 og:image:height: 2002 og:image:alt: wheat toast og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Low-Carb Diet: twitter:description: Keeping up with the carb-bashing can be tough. One day they're in, the next day they're on the chopping block. Evidence continues to pile up... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27fda617136689dd/698777f0428a9e7fd6cc65e0/carbs-wheat-toast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Kind of Carb Protects Your Heart, Study Says > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jan 5, 2015 4:52 PM UTC  Whole wheat toast Whole wheat toast Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jan 5, 2015 4:52 PM UTC Keeping up with the carb-bashing can be tough. One day they’re in, the next day they’re on the chopping block. Evidence continues to pile up that a carb-heavy diet is hard not just on your waistline but also your heart—[regardless of where that carb may fall on the glycemic index](http://time.com/3636690/glycemic-index-heart-health-low-carb/), according to a recent study. But that’s not license to give up all grains quite yet. A diet that includes whole grains may help protect your heart, finds new [research](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.6283) published Monday in _JAMA Internal_ _Medicine_. Researchers looked at data gathered from two large studies of about 118,000 men and women. No one had cancer or cardiovascular disease when they began. Measuring diet habits and food intake by questionnaire every two to four years, researchers found that higher whole grain intake was linked with a lower cardiovascular mortality and total mortality. However, more whole grains weren’t associated with a drop in cancer mortality. **MORE**: [8 Awesome Whole Grains You’re Not Eating](http://time.com/3589861/awesome-whole-grains/) The study authors estimate that every 28 gram-per-day serving of whole grains was associated with a 9% lower rate of death from cardiovascular disease and a 5% lower rate of death from any cause. “These results are in line with recommendations that promote increased whole grain consumption to facilitate disease prevention,” the authors write. Though more evidence from both sides is sure to come about carbs and heart health, it’s best to remember the simple mantra: eat real food. We need every type of nutrient group, so it might be the _kind_ of carb you choose that counts the most. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment. With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. And thanks, we'll never forget what we've learned. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3652624/carb-carbohydrate-diet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3652624/carb-carbohydrate-diet/"},"headline":"This Kind of Carb Protects Your Heart, Study Says","datePublished":"2015-01-05T16:52:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:07.454Z","description":"Keeping up with the carb-bashing can be tough. One day they're in, the next day they're on the chopping block. 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