Is a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet both effective and safe?

We recently reported that a low-carbohydrate diet (Atkins-type) works for weight loss, and on average the lipid profiles (one indication of cardiovascular risk) improved over a six-month period. Eighty percent of the subjects [of the study] stayed on the diet, which is remarkable. They lost an average of 10 percent of their original body weight, which is a good amount of weight loss. However, one out of the fifty subjects had an extreme elevation of LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) that warranted discontinuation of the diet.

We don't think that there is enough information to recommend this kind of diet yet--not enough is known to be sure that the benefit of weight loss outweighs the risks. A recent eight-week study suggested that kidney stones might develop as a result of this type of diet. They recommended lots of fluid intake to lessen this possibility.

This weight-loss diet, like the others, works because people consume fewer calories than they expend during daily activities. We instructed the subjects to eat fewer than 25 grams of carbohydrate daily. Because we never told these subjects to decrease their calorie intake--but they did anyway--we think that it works by appetite suppression.

As for the low-fat prescription, it is established that some low-fat dieters have a worsening of these same lipid profiles. Maybe there is benefit to both approaches.

--Eric C. Westman, associate professor in the department of medicine, director of the Durham VA and Duke's Smoking Research Lab, co-director of the Durham VA Stop Smoking Clinic, and an ambulatory-care physician at the Durham VA Medical Center

Reading List

While attempting to initiate an incoming class into the intellectual life of the campus, a UNC-Chapel Hill reading assignment generated a national debate. The contentious text, Michael Sells' Approaching the Qu'ran, critics say, is incomplete. In particular, Sells makes no mention of the Islamic notion of holy war--an overly favorable, forcefully proselytizing portrayal. So, we asked several professors what they would recommend as an informative and objective introduction to the faith.

"In some sense, all introductory books are similar since they treat Islamic history in a boilerplate fashion," says Ebrahim Moosa, a professor in the religion department at Duke. "I would recommend Islam: A Short Introduction by Abdulkader Tayob, and then a little lower on my list is Karen Armstrong's Islam: A Short History." Moosa says that "while most introductions deal with the history of the tradition, they do not give you the fine grain of what it is to live in a Muslim community." For that, he says, it's best to rely on works by anthropologists; one that relates most closely to our contemporary context, he says, is Mohammed Arkoun's Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers.

Eric Meyers, director of graduate studies in religion, says that it's long and tough going, but Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples is well worth the effort. "He describes how the new religion of Islam created a new world that stretched from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. It has the whole picture." One might consider reading this selectively, he adds.

Armstrong's Islam gets a second mention from Bruce Lawrence, professor and chair of the religion department, who likes it for its maps and figures, chronology, and glossary, since they aid in chronicling the rise of a "remarkable and resilient civilization that dominated the cosmopolitan world for 1,000 years--and still claims the allegiance of 1.2 billion believers." Other more insightful books on modern Islam are out there, he says, among them his own Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence, but "as an introductory level text, Armstrong commands the field."

According to Will Willimon, dean of the Chapel and professor of Christian ministry, if you want to know about Islam, "get a copy of the Koran in English and start reading." While it can be a challenge to read someone else's idea of scripture, he says, "I found my reading of the Koran to be enlightening. It's meant to be recited, in Arabic, but if you can't do that, reading it is the next best way to begin to understand Islam."

--compiled by Patrick Adams