Low-carb and Mediterranean-style diets took off more pounds than a low-fat diet

The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.

A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two in several measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. Some critics had predicted the opposite because the diet allows more fat.

"It is a vindication," said Abby Bloch of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, a philanthropy group that honors the Atkins' diet's creator and was the study's main funder.

However, all three approaches -- the low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and a so-called Mediterranean diet -- achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol.

The study is remarkable not only because it lasted two years, much longer than most, but also because of the huge proportion of people who stuck with the diets -- 85 percent.

Researchers approached the Atkins Foundation with the idea for the study. But the foundation played no role in the study's design or reporting of the results, said the lead author, Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Other experts said the study -- published today in the New England Journal of Medicine -- was highly credible.

The research was done in a controlled environment -- an isolated nuclear research facility in Israel. The 322 participants got their main meal of the day, lunch, at a central cafeteria.

For breakfast and dinner, the dieters were counseled on how to stick to their eating plans and filled out questionnaires on what they ate, said Dr. Meir Stampfer, the study's senior author and a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The low-fat diet -- no more than 30 percent of calories from fat -- restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits. The Mediterranean diet had similar calorie, fat and cholesterol restrictions, emphasizing poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts.

The low-carb diet set limits for carbohydrates, but none for calories or fat. It urged dieters to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein.

Most of the participants were men; all men and women in the study got roughly equal amounts of exercise.

Average weight loss for those in the low-carb group was 10.3 pounds after two years. Those in the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds, and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5.

Tobacco companies have manipulated menthol levels to attract young cigarette smokers and keep older ones, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported Wednesday.

Their finding, with which industry spokesmen disagree, is based on a review of more than 500 internal tobacco-industry documents dated from 1985 through 2007.

The documents showed, according to the researchers, that tobacco companies studied how controlling levels of menthol could increase brand sales. They concluded that new and young smokers liked mild menthol that masked the harshness of tobacco smoke. Veteran smokers, the companies are said to have concluded, favored stronger doses of menthol because it cools their throats.

Menthol has proven appeal to young people. According to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 44 percent of smokers aged 12 to 17 reported they smoked mentholated cigarettes.

The findings come as Congress weighs whether to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products, including additives, at the national level.

AP, MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE