Is LCHF associated with CVD?

Introduction

I’ve had the latest keto bashing study on my desktop since it was published at the end of March 2024. I have tens of possible articles for Monday notes at any one time and the ones that get put on the desktop are the forerunners. What held me back from doing it straight away was the thought that I would be saying the same old stuff (association, not causation; relative not absolute risk; healthy person confounder etc) but this one turned out to be more than that. Plus, if the keto bashers continue keto bashing, I need to continue the rebuttals. I receive feedback from readers to say that articles against low-carb diets are regularly used to attack their way of eating. “Hey! Look at this – you’ll die of heart disease”, kind of thing. People want a rebuttal, so here it is…

The study was called “Association of a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet with plasma lipid levels and cardiovascular risk” (Ref 1). I thought that the lead author, Iulia Iatan, looked familiar. I searched my site and came up with this post from 2023 (Ref 2). Lo and behold, that post reviewed a March 2023 conference presentation about a "keto-like diet and heart disease." The presenter was Iulia Iatan. I said in that note that it was unusual for me to cover a conference presentation, as I normally wait for the published paper. This recent publication is that published paper.