Low carbohydrate diets have been around for decades and were epitomised and popularised by the Atkins Diet. So much evidence condemning these diets has been published that you would expect them to be of historical interest only. But strangely the fad continues with its latest reincarnation being the Paleo Diet and the Keto Diet. Let us make one thing clear: a low carbohydrate diet is a high fat, high protein, low fibre diet. This is explained on the Energy Pie page.

Related pages

• Energy pie
• Gut health
• Humans are herbivores
• Low fat diets for weight loss
• Weight management
• Why do we recommend a low-fat diet?
• What’s wrong with saturated fat?

Resources

• What’s Wrong With The Keto Diet? – Kim Williams, MD (video)
• Vegan cardiologist says a keto diet is ‘suitable for no one’ – (March 2019) includes a quote from Dr Kim Williams
• John McDougall, MD Criticizes Low-Carb Diets And Reveals Why a Low-Fat High-Carb Diet is Best – (1hr 3 min video)
• Selling Fat: The Recipe for a Low-Carb Diet Book – Thomas Campbell, MD looks into the claims made by low-carb advocates and then looks at what the science actually shows on the topic.
• Does the Ketogenic Diet Really Work for Weight Loss? – Robyn Chuter, ND (2019, updated 2023)
• The Skeleton in The Ketogenic Diet Closet: What Virta Health, Mark Sisson, Joseph Mercola and Others Leave Out – Joel Kahn, MD (February 2018) takes a close look at the science behind low-carb diets
• Plant-based vs. ketosis: diet wars with cardiologist Joel Kahn, MD – (2hr podcast) Rich Roll interviews Dr Joel Kahn.
• Ketosis and the Ketogenic Diet: Debunking 7 Misleading Statements – Cyrus Khambatta, PhD, Mastering Diabetes
• Nina Teicholz, Integrity and The Big Fat Disguise – Joel Kahn, MD
• The Paleo Diet Is Uncivilized (And Unhealthy and Untrue) – Dr John McDougall demolishes the credibility of the Paleo Diet. It includes many links for those wanting more information.
• High Protein & Other Fad Diets  – Dr John McDougall
• This One Graph Single Handedly Explains The Obesity Epidemic (And The Low-Carb Lies) – addresses the narrative propagated by low carb advocates that we actually ate less fat after being told to go low-fat a few decades ago
• Low-Carb Fraud (2014, book) – T Colin Campbell.
• Carbophobia: The Scary Truth about America’s Low-Carb Craze – Michael Greger, M.D.
• Low-Carb Diets & Coronary Blood Flow – (video) Michael Greger, M.D.
• Atkins Diet: Trouble Keeping It Up – (video) Michael Greger, M.D. linking erectile dysfunction to the Atkins diet
• Keto Diet (topic summary) – Michael Greger, MD, links to many videos featuring research into keto diets.

Peer reviewed articles

• Hall, K. D., Guo, J., Courville, A. B., Boring, J., Brychta, R., Chen, K. Y., . . . Chung, S. T. (2021). Effect of a plant-based, low-fat diet versus an animal-based, ketogenic diet on ad libitum energy intake. Nature Medicine, 27(2), 344-353.
• Noto, H., Goto, A., Tsujimoto, T., & Noda, M. (2013). Low-carbohydrate diets and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. PloS One, 8(1), e55030.
• Song, M., Fung, T. T., Hu, F. B., Willett, W. C., Longo, V. D., Chan, A. T., & Giovannucci, E. L. (2016). Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(10), 1453-1463.