Atkins diet has acquired a zealous fan following with many people swearing by its weight loss results. The diet advocates a high-fat, high-protein and low-carbohydrate regimen, which researchers feel is detrimental to heart health if followed for a long time.

Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center recruited 18 healthy volunteers to test the effect of various diets on parameters for heart disease. For four weeks, the volunteers were randomly assigned to complete either Atkins diet, which has 50 percent fat, South Beach diet with 30 percent fat or Ornish diet with 10 percent fat.

The researchers found that participants who followed Atkins diet had a marked increase in  LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels. The rise was as much as 7 percent, according to lead author Dr. Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Atkins diet also increased blood markers for inflammation that eventually lead to heart disease.

On the other hand, participants following the South Beach or Ornish diets experienced a 7 to 10 percent drop in LDL levels.  Dr Miller said that other studies, which had tested the effects of Atkins diet were conducted when people were losing weight and not when they were in the maintenance stage.

"When you lose weight everything looks good but after a while you plateau and you hit a maintenance stage," said Miller. "I think the Atkins diet is potentially detrimental for cardiovascular health, if maintained for a long duration and without attempts to lose weight."

The Atkins diet was designed by Robert Atkins, who promoted it by asking people to “eat the hamburger and throw away the bun." His promotion of high-fat diet staggered experts who considered it to be dangerous to health. Nevertheless Atkins' book Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution has become a bestseller in the diet book category with millions of people swearing by it.

In the end it must be mentioned that high-fat diets advocated by the Atkins regimen are bound to have detrimental effects on the heart if followed for a long time. Following a heart-healthy diet including vegetables, fruits and whole grains makes much more sense than the intake of eggs, cheese and hamburgers.

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