Paleo and keto diets may harm heart health

(CMR) While ketogenic and paleo diets may help you to lose weight, they may be detrimental to your heart, the American Heart Association has said.

This was the finding of research that analyzed many of the most popular diets and ranked them based on which approaches to eating are best and worst for your heart. The diets were rated based on how well they adhered to the AHA’s guidelines for a healthy heart.

The Heart Association said one of the purposes of their report was to counter widespread misinformation promoted by diet books, blogs, and people on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, where posts promoting keto and paleo eating plans have surged in recent years.

The list, published Thursday in Circulation, gave the lowest scores to the paleo and ketogenic, or keto, diets for their reliance on fats from animal sources, such as butter and full-fat dairy, while severely restricting carbohydrates.

“Although a balanced VLCD/ketogenic or paleo diet can have healthy attributes, patients should be counseled that overconsuming fatty meats and sodium may be detrimental to health. In addition, VCLD/ketogenic diets are high in fat without limiting saturated fat, leading to increases in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,” the report stated.

Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which focuses on whole grains, vegetables, and low-fat dairy, were given top marks. Pescetarian — eating fish but not red meat —and vegetarian diets also scored highly for their heart benefits.

“These four dietary patterns are flexible, providing a broad array of healthy foods from which to choose. Moreover, with few restricted foods and food groups, it is relatively easy to adhere to this guidance wherever food is prepared or consumed,” the AHA said.

Vegan and low-fat diets were ranked in the second tier. Both encourage consuming legumes and nuts while limiting alcohol and foods and beverages with added sugars. However, heart experts said following a strict vegan diet could contribute to vitamin B-12 deficiency. Low-fat diets lost points for treating all fats the same and because people tended to replace fats with carbohydrates or added sugars.